UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title International Students and the Race for Foreign Talent in the United States and Canada Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0d36r8rq Author Ho, Calvin Nhi Publication Date 2018 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles International Students and the Race for Foreign Talent in the United States and Canada A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Calvin Nhi Ho 2018 © Copyright by Calvin Nhi Ho 2018 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION International Students and the Race for Foreign Talent in the United States and Canada by Calvin Nhi Ho Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Los Angeles, 2018 Professor Roger Waldinger, Chair Since the end of the Cold War, developed countries have tried to increase their intake of highly educated immigrants. Simultaneously, there has been exponential growth in the number of foreign students who come to developed countries for university degrees. Many countries have linked these two phenomena through “talent retention strategies,” which are policies that allow international students to apply for permanent immigration status. Though employers and universities in the United States have actively lobbied for such policies in the last two decades, they have consistently failed to come to fruition. Canada, on the other hand, is often regarded as a world leader in talent retention and a model for other countries to follow. Why did talent retention strategies succeed in Canada but fail in the United States? Using comparative- historical methods, I examine the development of immigration preferences for international students in the two countries. I find that they treated immigrants similarly in the 1800s and early 1900s. In the 1960s, they faced international and domestic pressures to remove racial ii discrimination from the immigration system, but came up with very different reforms in response. Canada prioritized highly educated migrants, used guestworker programs to address demand for low-skilled labor, and gave the federal executive branch and provincial governments leeway to experiment with immigrant selection. The United States prioritized family migrants, left low- skilled migration unaddressed, and centralized all immigration rule-making in the fractious federal legislature. These differences shaped the political opportunity structure in later decades. While conditions in Canada facilitated the introduction of talent retention strategies there in the 2000s, circumstances in the United States stymied similar proposals. This study contributes to the immigration policymaking literature by showing how historically-specific constellations of interests and institutions can obstruct the passage of immigration provisions that are broadly popular among key constituencies. This dissertation also challenges the reader to consider how immigrant selection policies may impact other policy areas, including higher education, science and innovation, and foreign relations. iii The dissertation of Calvin Nhi Ho is approved. Rubén Hernández-León Lauren M. Duquette Hiroshi Motomura Roger Waldinger, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2018 iv To my parents. v Contents List of tables and figures ................................................................................................................ vii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... viii Vita ...................................................................................................................................................x Chapter 1 – Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 - Literature review ........................................................................................................ 19 Chapter 3 - Inclusion and exclusion: immigration policy exceptions for wealthy non-whites, 1865-1939 ..................................................................................................................................... 47 Chapter 4 - Science, economics, and the immigration reforms of the 1960s .............................. 79 Chapter 5 - Putting talent retention on the agenda, 1965-2002 ................................................ 113 Chapter 6 - Making talent retention happen, 2001 to 2017 ....................................................... 149 Chapter 7 - Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 185 Appendix 1 - Tables .................................................................................................................... 203 Appendix 2 - Figures ................................................................................................................... 241 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 245 vi List of tables and figures Appendix 1: Tables Table 1. Talent retention legislation in the United States in the 106th Congress (1999-2000) to the 114th Congress (2015-2016)................................................................................................ 203 Table 2. Visa allocation order in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act) ..................................................................................................................................................... 239 Table 3. Lobbying clients with the most mentions of “immigration” in lobbying records held by the US Senate Office of Public Records, 2016 to October 21, 2017 ......................................... 240 Appendix 2: Figures Figure 1. Party of primary sponsor of talent retention legislation in the United States from the 106th Congress (1999-2000) to the 114th Congress (2015-2016)............................................ 241 Figure 2. Percentage of internationally mobile higher education students in 2017 .................. 242 Figure 3. Top source countries of international higher education students in 2017 ................. 243 Figure 4. Flowchart of typical pathway from student visa to permanent residency and citizenship in the United States and Canada................................................................................................ 244 vii Acknowledgments This material is based upon work supported by two grants from the National Science Foundation: the Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1144087, and the Science of Science and Innovation Policy Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant under Grant No. 1632908. Additional support was received from the Norwegian Research Council (Project No. 239682/F11), the UCLA Canadian Studies Graduate Student Award, and the UCLA Graduate Division (Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, Chancellor’s Prize, and Research Travel Grant). I am especially grateful for the financial and programmatic support provided by the Social Science Research Council’s Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program. Their grants (Graduate Studies Enhancement Grant and Predoctoral Research Development Grant) and programming (Graduate Student Summer Conference, Proposal Writing and Dissertation Development Seminar, and Dissertation Writing Retreat) have supported me through my entire time in graduate school. This dissertation would not have been possible without the intellectual and institutional support of my committee members. I have known Roger Waldinger since I was a college junior, cold emailing all of UCLA’s sociologists of migration to see if any of them would take me under their wing for a summer research program. He has been supportive throughout my time in academia, including when I decided that I needed to step away from the field. The topic of this dissertation was inspired by both his earlier work on immigrants in the workforce and his current research on how and why migrants’ maintain ties across borders. Rubén Hernández-León’s incredibly sharp questions and constructive feedback helped shape the study design. Lauren Duquette-Rury guided me through the literature review with her deep knowledge of the political sociology literature. Hiroshi Motomura’s grounded perspective on how the law shapes lived experiences reminded me that the subject matter of this dissertation is not an academic abstraction. viii I am deeply indebted to my friends and family, whose supported me in ways large and small throughout my journey in graduate school. The academic life was all Greek to my parents, but they were always there to ensure that I had everything that I needed and that I never forgot where I came from. Tyler Stoff ensured that I did not burn out while juggling writing with a full- time job, and accommodated my odd writing habits with the patience of a saint. I looked forward to my weekly check-ins with Phi Hong Su, who always reminded me that my ideas were worth putting out there. Cally Waite, Deborah Cheng, and Rafael Zapata assured me that I would always have a home in the academy, even if I left. My colleagues at the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance made the organization a fantastic place to work, giving me the energy to finish this dissertation. Emily Yen, Jeffrey Yamashita, Cecilia Caballero,