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Comment by ktamura | Hacker News Reader

Wow. To be fair though, USA has been a top contender at IMO for decades, including the legendary 1994 team (all Americans, including a future Googler and the creator of "Did you mean...?" search suggestion Noam Shazeer) that got perfect scores [1]

That said, it's true that many of USAMO/IMO top contenders are fairly recent immigrants, born overseas and moved to the US at a young age, but that just embodies the spirit of the United States: it's founded on a constant influx of immigrants and their desire to prove themselves.

[1] https://www.imo-official.org/country_individual_r.aspx?code=...

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That's an excellent rejoinder. Indeed, one could say that by allowing recent arrivals to participate, the U.S. is in fact showcasing one of the better sides of its character - and one of its greatest strengths. And though this will inevitably be disappointing to some "native"† students - ultimately it can be seen in a positive light, in that it demonstrates what they can also achieve, given the right degree of determination.

† Being as nearly everyone born in the U.S. is a actually an "immigrant" or a descendent thereof to one degree or another, this term needs to be understood as at best a loose, colloquial designation.

Looking at legal immigration woes of H1B from India and China - USA policy makers should really think hard about the their stupid policies where H1Bs are tied to their employer to stay legally in the country even after being on H1B for several years. Waiting in GC line for 10+ years is a joke and cruel. USA succeeds despite this. There is no political will to provide any job portability. Obama's executive directive has been watered down by special interests who don't want EAD to be provided to immigrants H1B + I140 (second stage of GC).

These regressive legal immigration policies don't make USA great and show the spirit of America in good light. It feels as if, corporations and special interests like high skilled indentured workers hurting both americans and immigrants alike.

Agree. Here is a White House petition urging for better job portability for people on H-1B stuck in decade-long long GC backlog: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/no-respite-highly-... . Please consider signing if you feel strongly about this.

That's such a myopic view of immigration. Countries are delighted that the US isn't causing a massive brain drain in the 3rd world. It's why US immigration is so difficult for skilled workers, and for the less skilled it's often based on green card lotteries and things that don't just skim the top talent from less fortunate countries.

At the same time the US tries to make it very easy for people to come for the short term - so that they can experience our way of life and maybe build some cultural bridges and mutual understanding.

The US isn't anti immgration for xenophobic reasons. Even very talented students are sent back to their countries, not because they couldn't contribute to the US and be great future citizens, but because it would be unethical for the government to do that on a large scale

I've never heard this argument, but it honestly sounds extreme. We are going to force people to leave because other countries need good citizens? And you think that is the US government's rationale?

Do you have a source?

I absolutely think that lots of these people would only be able to achieve their goals in America, and their home countries could not come close to what America can offer them. On top of that, the brain drain issue in other countries is not going to be solved, or even close to that, with the small number of people that get rejected h1b's each year. It honestly sounds out of place that we don't let people themselves decide what would give them the greatest happiness.

As a small side comment: What about people who are legitimately scared about going back to their country, because of conflict or their sexuality being unaccepted or the like? All of these people are in the same bucket currently, from what I understand. Is it greedy of America to offer them an opportunity here, or is it more important that we are giving them shelter away from their country?

People that are scared seek asylum I think?

I think the smartest people in a country can be very formative of that country's future. Doesn't take a lot of people to form whole industries.

I don't have a source for you, but that's how I'm understood the policy. How else can you explain that there are green card lotteries for random people in other countries while PhD students are sent home after they get their diplomas? (and I'm talking engineering students, not Art History PhDs... people that will clearly "pay off")

I understand your arguments, but they're individualistic and end up leaving the world a worse place. If there was some kind of global free movement of people the 3rd world would never develop. I mean in a sense even in the US you have a problem that a lot of places probably are loosing their top talent constantly - even if they have good schools and good local governance.. the ambitious ones probably don't stay in Alabama - they likely go to NYC or SF or Washington. The only equalizing force is that people want to stay close to family and close to their culture.

Avoiding sucking in the smart people from other countries, so we don't brain drain them is not the reason for US immigration policies. We have policies that work the other way, to encourage people with advanced training to come here - for example, higher education puts you in different groups for green cards.

Relevant HN comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4584656

I noticed another Googler on there too. I wonder what market share Google gets of Math Olympiadians. :-)

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