1155 



States three-fourths of them earned over $400 a month, and 40 per- 

 cent earned over $800 a month.^"" 



Even among advanced countries, American salaries attract the less 

 advantaged professional. Starting salaries of most professional cate- 

 gories in the United States are three times higher than in Britain. 

 Estimates for other countries confirm the wide salary differential."" 

 And as in the case of Britain, Netherlands, and Sweden, low salaries 

 paid to scientists and engineers are correlated with the greatest 

 "drain" of professional manpower.^" This differential in salaries as 

 Adams and Dirlam observed, "is an inevitable magnet for migra- 

 tion." "== Salary and the high standard of living that it can provide the 

 itinerant professional in the United States exert, as Dr. Giorgi wrote, 

 "a permanent draw." ^^^ 



Current data from the National Science Foundation corroborate 

 these observations on salary and living standard as a substantial "pull" 

 factor in professional immigration. A sample survey in mid-1970 of 

 some 8,000 alien scientists and engineers who were admitted into the 

 United States between February 1964 and January 1969 and who were 

 reported as permanent U.S. residents in January 1961, revealed that 

 "most often" (between 60-70 percent) they were "seeking a higher 

 standard of living." It was also found that about 90 percent earned 

 more than $10,000 yearly and 9 percent more than $20,000. According 

 to the survey, about one-half said that their current salary was at least 

 200 percent greater than those abroad. On the basis of this survey, 

 NSF concluded : 



Immigration of scientists and engineers leads to greatly increased income, 

 more intellectual freedom, and opportunities for these personnel to advance them- 

 selves and their families professionally and personally.*^* 



Closely related to the salary factor in attracting professional man- 

 power is that of career opportunity often denied scientists, engineers, 

 and other professionals in their own country. The lure of a promising 

 career in American industry, the universities, the medical establish- 

 ment, and even the Government is compelling to the economically 

 disadvantaged and professionally dispossessed. As Stevens and Ver- 

 muelen said, FMGs have "virtually unlimited opportunities to prac- 

 tice medicine in major cities" of America.^^^ Few Saudi Arabian stu- 



=*» Hearings, Senate Judiciary Committee, International Migration of Talent and Skills, 

 1968. p. 79. 



^0 Adams and Dirlam, op. clt., p. 248. 



^ Sllj. op. clt., p. 9. 



312 Adams and Dirlam, op. cit., d. 248. 



"3 UNESCO, Final Report of the Conference on the Application of Science and Technol- 

 ogy to the Development of Latin America, 1965, p. 174. 



DeTocquevllle understood the nature of this "permanent draw" early in the American 

 experience. After his visit to the United States, he wrote in his "Democracy in America" 

 published in 1832 : "To build a house, to run a ship, to manufacture an object, or to pro- 

 duce w'Jeat, the American people always found a way to use half the manpower needed 

 in Europe. Hence, salaries are twice as high and this in turn draws large groups of Immi- 

 grants." (Quoted by Dr. Kldd in Hearings, House Government Operations Committee, 

 Brain Drain, 1968, p. 49. ) ^, ... ^ 



31* National Science Foundation, Immigrant Scientists and Engineers in the United 

 States: A Study of Characteristics and Attitudes, 1973, pp. vi-vlii. NSF 73-302. (Here- 

 after cited as, "NSF, Study of Characteristics and Attitudes of Immigrant Scientists and 

 Engineers in the U.S., 1973.") 



31" Stevens and Vermeulen, op. cit., p. xll. 



