What predicts whether foreign doctorate recipients from U.S. institutions stay in the United States: foreign doctorate recipients in science and engineering fields from 2000 to 2010

Abstract

Using data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates by the National Science Foundation, this study examines factors influencing foreign doctorate recipients’ decisions to stay in the United States after they complete their degrees. This study expands the existing literature on human capital theory on migration decision by exploring the variables that appear to be associated with one’s migration decision, which takes into account the prestige of degrees and the home country context. The findings suggest that the foreign doctorate recipients with a prestigious doctoral degree were less likely to stay in the United States. The home country’s economic conditions relative to those of the United States also significantly influenced one’s migration decision. The foreign doctorate recipients’ odds of staying in the United States increased when the unemployment rate gap between the home country and the United States widened. Lastly, the country of origin was important in predicting migration decisions for foreign doctorate recipients.