Speech #880009375

Enactment of our reform bill would correct this situation and bring the specialskills provision of our law into a creative relationship with the needs of the sixties. A recent report of the National Science Foundation is entitled "Scientific Manpower From Abroad." A stated purpose of this report was to investigate the contribution made to Americas professional scientific manpower pool by foreignborn scientists and engineers. The report is directly related to the subject of immigration. the assimilation of immigrants into our society. and the continued need for specialized personnel. The conclusions of the report state in part: The United States is historically an immigrant country in contradistinction to the emigrant countries of Europe. Migrations to the United States have generally brought valuable numbers of scientists and persons capable of being trained as scientists. * * * The intellectual crossfertilization which has resulted from the influx of foreign scientists to the United States has. in general. had a broadening influence on the outlook of both immigrant and nativeborn scientists alike. It is particularly interesting that the percentage of immigrant scientists in the United States has tended to increase in proportion to the level of scientific eminence. * * * The majority of immigrant scientists in the United States probably settle down quickly in their new environment and make valuable contributions both to the cause of American science and to the general good of the Republic. Social and cultural maladjustment among immigrant scientists appear to be quite slight. Scientists from nonEnglishspeaking countries suffer initially from the change of language. but after a period of about a year the language problem in most cases largely disappears. Despite the fairly large influx of foreign scientists during the 1950s there is no evidence that native American scientists have been placed at any great disadvantage by their presence.