Do you agree that immigration is a positive phenomenon for the health of American science? Is science a good measure of economic health in general? How does this compare to the situation in Slovakia? (Don’t forget to click on “continue reading” to get the full article.)
Until recently, I was quite unsure what to think of immigration; whether it was positive for society or not. After reading this article, I was persuaded of the former. High number of statistics that was presented in the text convinced me of beneficial contributions of immigration for American science. In particular, I would like to highlight the fact that worries that immigrants grab jobs that might otherwise have gone to Americans were proven to be out of place. Paradoxically, immigrants increase competition amongst workers and cause higher productivity.
ReplyDeleteI believe there is a never-ending circle describing the relationship between economic heath of a country and science. This circle is based on financial support of science. Financial sustainability of science automatically results in better schooling system. Increased level of education promotes development of more skillful and educated students. In the end, economy is more likely to grow constantly. Additionally, rise in economy provides more opportunities to invest into science again, and to keep up the pace. At all points of the circle skillful immigrants are attracted, thus prompting even higher improvement. Therefore, it makes very much sense to support scientists and their activities, even though investments into science are often underrated.
Slovaks in particular underestimate the importance of science. It is clear by looking at the situation in the schooling system. The universities constantly rank at alarming positions, while almost every high school student dreams about studying abroad. It goes hand in hand with the immigration rate in Slovakia, which is one of the lowest in European Union. The immigrants are simply not attracted, because important elements “in the circle” are missing, thus causing a failure of the whole system. It is never going to get better if slovak government does not change its attitude and gets serious about science.