Study: US Science Talent Has Foreign-Born Parents

Tuesday, 24 May 2011 | by Pat's Picks

It’s obvious in Silicon Valley says the San Jose Mercury News. But now it’s been quantified. Looking at the entrants for Intel’s Science Talent Search (“the Nobel Prize of high school science”) a group of researchers determined that two-thirds of them were born to Indian or Chinese parents. Only 12 of this year’s finalists had American-born parents. By contrast, 16 had Chinese parents and 10 had Indian parents—-Immigrants from China make up 1.0 percent of the population; Indian immigrants constitute only 0.8 percent. Describes one Bay Area educator: “You see it here in Silicon Valley. It’s like planting a vigorous sapling and giving it Miracle-Gro.”

Read a press release about the study, conducted by the National Foundation of American Policy