By Jose Pagliery, CNNMoney. An immigration system overhaul might finally address a growing problem: America's brain drain.
Smart foreigners who study at U.S. universities - often at taxpayer expense through scholarships - face a tough fight after graduation if they want to stay in the country.
Many share the experience of Shailesh Deshpande, who lost his fight to stay after graduating from Virginia Tech. He returned home to India and is now launching a company there.
"Don't hate me when I take jobs away from U.S. shores," he said. "Blame your government for it."
There's fear U.S. immigration laws could cripple the nation's economic growth. That's why a group of senators this week suggested creating a fast track to award green cards to foreign students in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math). Read more...

By Simona Chiose. Promise of green cards could lure science students to U.S., compete with Canada
Graduates of U.S. universities born outside America will be able to stay in the country if they earn a postgraduate degree in math, science or engineering. Although the New Yorker is surprisingly skeptical, a similar program is already in place in Canada, and is not even restricted to science fields. The Canada Experience Class allows foreign students to apply as permanent residents after working for 1 year on a post-graduation work permit. Read more...

By John Morgan. A fifth Parliamentary committee has urged the government to remove international students from its net migration target, warning that failure to do so will damage UK universities.
The House of Lords EU Committee today joins peers on the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee and MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, the Home Affairs Committee and Public Accounts Committee in calling for action from the government. Universities UK is now likely to highlight the fact that although five Parliamentary committees back its cause, the government is yet to make the policy shift.
The coalition is implementing a Conservative manifesto pledge to reduce net migration to the "tens of thousands" by 2015 - with non-EU students forming a key target for reductions. But UUK has mounted a lobbying campaign to urge the government to withdraw university-sponsored students from its net migrant targets, which would remove the government's incentive to target those students for reductions. Read more...

By Fabiola Carletti and Janet Davison. Government trying to crack down on 'ghost consultants'
Vipul Patel thought that coming from India to study in Canada would be a good way to gain a foothold in a country he hopes will become his permanent home.
But nearly a year after making the move, the 23-year-old is frustrated, confused and not sure who to believe in the sometimes murky — and costly — world where ghost consultants mingle with legitimate agents wanting to help foreign students come to Canada.
"It's very hard for me to trust anyone," says Patel.
Patel's suspicions developed after he turned to Edu Edge, a Toronto-based consulting firm that, with the help of a sub-agent, was promoting "study and immigrate" packages to students in India.
Edu Edge isn't licensed to provide immigration consulting services, but its president, Naveen Kolan, says the firm hires such services as needed by seeking out Quebec lawyers who can offer them.
The company also hires subagents and in this case, the agent may have overstated what it was able to deliver, Kolan says. Edu Edge has told the subagent to take down the online ads in question. Read more...

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA.Thousands of illegal immigrants living in Massachusetts can qualify for state resident tuition rates at state colleges, under a policy laid out on Monday by Gov. Deval Patrick — another shift in the fast-changing mosaic of states’ policies toward that population.
 The shift builds on the Obama administration policy, adopted in June, that the federal government will not seek to deport most young immigrants who, as children, were either brought to the United States illegally or kept here illegally. The Massachusetts policy applies to that same group.
Officials say there are very few illegal immigrants currently enrolled who might benefit from the in-state tuition discount; the much larger effect will be in encouraging others to enroll. They estimate that Massachusetts has 15,000 to 17,000 residents in the age group affected by the change in the deportation policy; they would not guess how many might take advantage of new state and federal rules. Read more...

By Aisha Labi. Immigration moved to the forefront of the political discussion in more than one country over the past year, increasing public attention on international students in destinations that include Britain, Canada, and Australia.
Britain, which attracts more overseas students than any country but the United States, set a largely negative tone. Its coalition government has pledged to reduce the number of immigrants, and, despite intense lobbying by universities, has chosen to include students in those figures.
The British government's recent elimination of the so-called work entitlement for foreign students at private institutions, in a bid to eliminate abuses by universities that primarily enrolled students whose main goal was to work illegally, has had an impact on legitimate institutions as well. More...

Residents clash over plans to let the children of migrants sit exams in the capital
OF THE many reforms that China’s new leaders will be expected to tackle when they take over in mid-November, one of the most urgent yet potentially divisive is giving migrants and their families the same opportunities in the cities as any other citizens. Recently in Beijing mere talk of allowing the children of migrants from the countryside or other cities to sit university exams in the capital has triggered fierce debate and a heated exchange in public between rival groups.
The heart of the problem is China’s system of household registration, or hukou. It forms the basis by which local governments define the privileges to which residents are entitled. Beijing has a large migrant population and is also home to many of the country’s best government-funded schools and universities. The city is not keen to make it easier for holders of non-Beijing hukou to grab a share of these spoils. Even private schools set up specifically for the children of rural migrants are routinely razed by city officials. In effect, a kind of apartheid is at work.
Even if they were born in the capital, children must take the hukou of one or other of their parents. Bad luck if neither of them has the coveted Beijing document. It is hard enough for “different-place people”, as those without Beijing hukou are known, even to get on the capital city’s educational ladder. For those with university aspirations it becomes nearly impossible to stay on. This is because students must sit the gaokao, or university entrance exam, in their place of household registration. Never mind that this may be somewhere in the sticks that children have rarely if ever visited, and where they may have no close relatives. To make things worse, the gaokao syllabus varies from place to place. So children usually have to leave home and spend their senior high-school years in the place where they will eventually sit the exam. Those who leave Beijing to sit the gaokao have little chance of qualifying for higher education in the capital, since the city’s universities allocate a disproportionate number of places to holders of Beijing hukou.
Officials have hinted at change. In August the government asked local administrations to produce “concrete plans” by the end of the year for allowing students to sit the gaokao where they actually live. Parents are sceptical. Ominously, the directive calls on local governments to come up with ways to prevent gaokao “migration”: moving to a city in order to a have a better chance of getting into its universities. The directive implies that cities can still set high hurdles for students wishing to sit the exam, such as proof of their parents’ employment and of their tax payments and contributions to local social-security funds. Many migrants lack such documents. “It shouldn’t be based on what parents can prove”, says one angry mother, who along with several dozen like-minded parents has been visiting the city’s education commission to petition for less stringent requirements.
On October 18th the group encountered a group of Beijing hukou holders, equally large and upset, outside the commission’s office. During a four-hour standoff, the migrant parents were sworn at. “They keep blaming outsiders for everything that’s wrong in the city”, including traffic jams and crime, says one migrant. In recent months, activists say, they have collected tens of thousands of signatures in Beijing in support of the migrants’ campaign, but have received little love in return. The capital’s police have warned them to stop their petitioning. One was detained and roughed up. But migrants remain defiant. “Now is the time to test their sense of historic responsibility,” says one father, of the country’s incoming leaders.

The government’s policy on students and skilled migrants threatens to do long-term damage to the economy
IN JULY Hussam Elamin, a Sudanese graduate of Leeds University, was told to make plans to leave Britain. A two-year post-study work visa had expired; his application for a residency visa had been denied; his marriage to a European citizen was declared a sham. These were the latest in a series of setbacks. In 2010 Mr Elamin had to leave two jobs because his employers balked at the cost and hassle of sponsoring him for a work visa...
Restrictions applied to foreign students may do the most damage. Britain’s higher-education sector is a big exporter, second only to America’s. It generated £3 billion from non-EU students in fees alone in 2010-11, much of it from emerging markets such as China, India and Nigeria.
Four-fifths of students return home within five years of arriving, having made a connection that reinforces Britain’s position in global networks. Those who stick around for longer are a valuable source of high-skilled labour. Non-EU students are more likely to be postgraduates and to study science and engineering than indigenous ones. The tech start-ups around Old Street draw on this source. “Only half our staff are British but most of the rest came here to study,” says Mr Crow. The recent changes make it imperative to find a sponsor soon after graduation. But potential employers are often unclear about the rules and are wary.
The world’s brightest talents have plenty of options. Other countries are courting them. Australia has relaxed its rules on student visas. Canada gives three-year work visas to its graduates with master’s degrees. America’s appeal rarely dims. Its politicians may yet agree to allow more foreign-born science graduates to stay and work. Meanwhile Britain is at risk of scaring them off. More...