Foreign-Born Faculty: A Hidden Population

Abstract

In a recent plea for immigration reform, President Obama called for lawmakers to endorse policy that would encourage highly skilled workers to stay in the United States (Yellin 2013). Yet, favorable legal policy is no guarantee that these skilled and highly mobile international professionals would choose to stay. Skilled workers are generally able to move in and out of the broad current of immigration flows, without causing the disruptive ripples that generate nation-state/media attention. In fact, it is often assumed that they integrate seamlessly (Favell, Feldblum, and Smith 2007; Freidenberg 2011). More research is needed to identify this population and to understand their motivations, needs, and experiences. Through an in-depth examination of life courses, the study reported on here seeks to acquire better knowledge of this population in order to determine whether their stays might be permanent or transitory and to inform appropriate policymaking.