Title : Immigrants Are 23 Percent of U.S. Residents With S&E Doctorates Type : 1995 Data Briefs NSF Org: SBE / SRS Date : November 14, 1995 File : sdb95339 Note: The companion binary file to this text file is an Adobe Acrobat.PDF (Portable Document Format) file. In order to view and print this file, you must use the Adobe Acrobat Reader. The Acrobat reader is available from Adobe via Ftp. Ftp to ftp.adobe.com anonymous <------User email name <------Password Change the directory to: pub/adpbe/applications/acrobat/Windows <----Windows reader or pub/adobe/applications/acrobat/mcintosh <----MacIntosh reader or pub/adobe/applications/acrobat/unix <----Unix reader Download the relevent Acrobat Reader file, entitled ACROREAD.EXE. You may freely distribute the reader program. by Mark C. Regets --------------------------------------- Immigrants with science and engineering doctorates are more likely to be engaged in research and development than are native- born U.S. citizens with doctorates. --------------------------------------- Immigrants make up a significant proportion of U.S. personnel trained in science and engineering-9.8 percent of bachelor's degree holders and 23.0 percent of those with doctorates in science or engineering.1 Immigrants are even more important to research and development-representing 28.0 percent of doctoral scientists and engineers engaged in R&D. This Data Brief presents these and other selected statistics on immigrant scientists and engineers from data just released from the 1993 National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG). The NSCG is a National Science Foundation followup survey of the education and labor market experiences of 215,000 individuals under age 76 who had any college degree at the time of the 1990 census. A particular strength of this survey in studying immigrants is its ability to identify individuals with science or engineering degrees from foreign institutions. Tables and micro records from the NSCG will be available soon on the Division of Science Resources Studies' World Wide Web site (http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/stats.htm) or on a public-use computer file on tape from NSF. The highest proportion of foreign-born scientists and engineers at each educational level is in engineering, ranging from 13.9 percent of engineers with bachelor's degrees to 40.3 percent of those with doctoral degrees, as shown in table 1. The lowest proportion of the foreign-born in science and engineering (S&E) occurs in the social sciences (13.1 percent of doctorates), with the exception of economics (23.6 percent of doctorates), which has a slightly greater proportion of foreign-born than does S&E as a whole. Table 1. Foreign-born share of individuals trained in science and engineering, by highest degree, as of April 1993 [In percent] __________________________________________________________________________ Field of degree Bachelor's Master's/ Doctorates professional degree __________________________________________________________________________ Engineering.................... 13.9 28.4 40.3 Chemical.................. 17.0 32.5 38.6 Civil..................... 17.3 36.4 50.6 Electrical/electronic..... 14.8 28.6 39.1 Mechanical................ 12.8 30.3 38.1 Life sciences.................. 8.0 15.0 21.3 Agricultural.............. 5.6 16.0 20.7 Biological................ 9.4 15.5 21.5 Mathematical/comp. sci......... 11.3 21.9 33.6 Computer.................. 13.6 29.0 39.4 Mathematical.............. 9.2 13.2 31.1 Physical sciences.............. 11.3 17.1 25.9 Chemistry................. 14.8 23.6 25.7 Geosciences............... 5.2 9.7 16.8 Physics/astronomy......... 11.2 20.0 30.6 Social sciences................ 6.7 10.1 13.1 Economics................. 11.1 25.5 23.6 Political science......... 6.9 12.4 14.9 Psychology................ 5.9 6.1 9.0 Sociology/ anthropology.......... 4.4 13.1 14.4 All S&E........................ 9.8 18.0 23.0 Non-science and 6.8 7.7 12.4 engineering............. ___________________________________________________________________________ SOURCE: NSF/SRS, National Survey of College Graduates, 1993 Although U.S. graduate schools are the most important source of doctoral degrees for immigrant scientists and engineers, many bring foreign graduate training to the U.S. labor market and research community. Chart 1 shows the proportion of foreign-born doctorates by field and source of most recent doctorate. Of all immigrants with S&E doctorates, 34.1 percent received their most recent doctorates from foreign schools. Foreign-school doctorates are particularly important in the life sciences and physical sciences and are of less importance in the social sciences and among non-S&E doctoral fields. [Graphic Chart 1 is omitted in this ASCI version.] Immigrant scientists and engineers are more likely to engage in research and development activities than are their native-born counterparts. As shown in chart 2, this pattern holds true for each major S&E field, and it is particularly the case for foreign-born graduates of U.S. doctoral programs. For all S&E fields, 58.4 percent of the foreign-born doctorates are engaged in R&D, as compared with 44.8 percent of the native-born doctorates. This difference is driven by foreign-born doctorates from U.S. schools, 62.4 percent of whom are engaged in R&D. Foreign-born doctorates from foreign schools have a smaller R&D differential to the native born, with 50.6 percent being engaged in R&D. By field, the foreign-born/native-born differential in R&D activities is greatest in the physical sciences-73.6 percent for foreign-born doctorates and 62.1 percent for native-born doctorates. The importance of foreign-born scientists and engineers to the United States is not a new phenomenon and is not limited to the youngest scientists and engineers. Although the percentage foreign-born is greatest for doctorates at the youngest age groups (28.4 percent of 31- to 35-year-olds), it remains above 20 percent of doctorates for all age groups up to age 65. [Graphic Chart 2 is omitted in this ASCI version.] This Data Brief was prepared by Mark C. Regets, Division of Science Resources Studies, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965, Arlington, VA 22230. For free printed copies of SRS Data Briefs, write to the above address, call 703-306-1773, or send e-mail to databrief@nsf.gov.