1082 



A second effect of the shifting immigration criteria was to generate 

 competition among the advanced countries for professional and skilled 

 manpower. Expansion of industry, particularly in the developed coun- 

 tries, created a particular need for professional manpower. Accord- 

 ingly, the professional has become a new commodity sought competi- 

 tively in the world market. With the demand inci-easing considerably 

 and the supply often lagging behind, especially in the medical, engi- 

 neering, and scientific professions, there was created, in the words of 

 •the U.N. brain drain study, "keen international competition" in 

 these fields.^"^ Secretary of State Dean Rusk expressed the American 

 view this way : "We are in the international market of brains" ; while 

 Canada's Jean Marchand, Minister of Manpower and Immigration, 

 explained his country's view : "The high cost of training professional 

 and skilled people — engineers, doctors, skilled technicians, etc. — is a 

 measure of the benefit derived upon [their] arrival in Canada. . . . 

 Other countries are ift competition with us for immigrants." ^^° 



Finally, the change in criteria has had the effect of inducing mobil- 

 ity among tlie professionals and immobility among the unskilled of the 

 world. No longer an open invitation to any wishful immigrant, immi- 

 gration today, having become an important and selective part of state 

 policies to build and sustain economies, favors the talented and rejects 

 the unskilled. Now the immigrant must be an immediate, tangible 

 asset, not a burden. American immigration statistics bear out this 

 tendency. Between 1900 nnd World War I, about 1 percent of immi- 

 grants were professionals; this percentage gradually increased to 

 about 3 percent in the last 5 years before 1930. Before 1900 an even 

 smaller proportion were professionals, usually well imder 1 percent. 

 (During the 5-year period 1891-1895, only 0.59 percent of the 2,123,879 

 immigrants, or 12,545, were professionals.) The proportion of immi- 

 grant professionals increased sharply from 3.12 percent in 1926-30 to 

 5.53 percent in 1931-35 and 8.47 percent in 1936-40. This was the 

 period of great inflows of prominent scientists and scholars, men like 

 Einstein and Fermi, fleeing the tyranny then engulfing Europe. Im- 

 mediately after World AVar II the proportion of immigrant profes- 

 sionals decreased from a wartime level of 10.5 percent in 1941-45 to 

 7.4 percent in 1946-50. This percentage declined further to 6.66 percent 

 in 1951-55 but began a sharp upward swing in 1956-60 that still con- 

 tinues. In 1956-60, 7.79 percent or 111,193 of the total 1,427,841 immi- 

 grants were professionals. In 1961-65, the percentage jumped to 9.01 

 percent or 130,641 of the total of 1.450,312. During 1966-70 the per- 

 centage increased to 11.06 percent or 207,022 of the total of 1,871,365 

 incoming immigrants. This period reflects the changes made in the 

 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. The immediate effects were to 

 increase the inflow of pi'ofessionals from 9.7 percent in the fiscal year 

 1965 to 11.5 percent in the fiscal year 1967, the first year when the law 

 came into effect. The second effect was the increase in Asian profes- 

 sionals from 7.2 percent in 1965 to 29.7 percent in 1967 and on to 52.9 

 percent in 1970. Concluding an analysis of these trends in immigrant 

 professionals, Judith Fortney, a researcher with the Center for the 



inn Rpnnrt of U.N Secret.iry General, Outflow of Trained Personnel from LDCs, Nov. 5, 

 19fi8. n. n. 



1=0 Quoted In, Ibid., p. 10. 



