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The US immigration system for skilled labor is fundamentally broken.

We give out student visas openly, incentivizing universities to bring on large numbers of international students at full rate vs. discounted local students. We then do not provide immigration visas to these same students, leading to them being deported some years into the professional workforce.

This is a recipe to create a skilled labor shortage.

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In fairness, that system wasn't designed to increase the # of skilled workers in the US, it was designed to propagate and spread "American values" overseas.

A half century ago, the idea was that you bring a lot of the best and brightest of poorer foreign nations to the US for a university education. Then they return to their home nation and eventually work their way up to positions of power. Hopefully, their positive view of the USA will influence their decision making. In addition, many will have maintained contacts they made during their school years.

It's not a crazy tactic given that the cost was mostly borne by the foreigners.

Do you have any sources for your assertions?

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