Cheryl Hall:
U.S. no longer the only place to be
Biggest threat of global outsourcing is the loss of talent, author says
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont....134c95c7.html
"Worried about global outsourcing? Chances are you're focused on the wrong end of the job equation.
Every day, hundreds of trained workers leave the United States for opportunities abroad.
This talent outflow poses more long-term dangers to our economy than the migration of low-skill-level jobs to cheaper foreign labor markets.
Many are going home – lured by improving homeland economies and highly targeted recruiting programs aimed at poaching America's brainpower.
"The United States used to have a monopoly on skilled immigration," says David Heenan, a former senior executive with Citigroup and author of the newly published Flight Capital: The Alarming Exodus of America's Best and Brightest.
"Whether it was Alfred Hitchcock, I.M. Pei, Peter Drucker or Albert Einstein, this was the place where everyone wanted to be. Few other countries were even in the game. That's no longer the case."
Now we have people like Hong Kong-born Edison Lui, former director of clinical sciences at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
He is moving to Singapore to head that country's impressive genome institute. When Mr. Heenan asked him why, Dr. Lui said, "It's a small city-state of 4.5 million people where I can get decisions out of the government in a week, not three months."
Mr. Heenan estimates that up to 1,000 legal immigrants – many in leading-edge professions such as science, engineering, medicine and technology – make U-turns home each day.
He gets that admittedly squishy number by taking the figures of returning expatriates in such countries as India, China, Singapore and Ireland and then working backward.
Ireland? Yes, Ireland.
The Emerald Isle has zeroed in on more than 1,000 Irish immigrants living here and working in life sciences and technology. It's holding massive recruiting fairs and pursuing them with gusto, he says.
"For many attendees, it's shock and awe," Mr. Heenan says. "Many have been out of the country for 10 or 20 years and aren't that knowledgeable about the dramatic improvement in Ireland's educational institutions, tax system, general economy and the depth of research money.
"Of course, there's also plenty of Guinness going down the tubes," he adds with a laugh. "They've clearly turned some heads."
Terrorism's role
We can blame terrorism for part of the problem.
"For perfectly understandable reasons, we've tightened the borders and heightened constraints on potential recruits to the United States and also those who recently arrived," says Mr. Heenan. "The atmosphere for newcomers here post-9-11 is chilling and has renewed their sense of national roots."
We've removed the welcome mat while the Aussies, Canadians, New Zealanders and Singaporeans are rolling out the red carpet.
For example, in the past year, Australia hosted skilled labor expos in London, Berlin, Amsterdam and various Indian cities, Mr. Heenan says. Americans who have become more adventurous about living and working abroad are taking the recruitment bait, too.
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