Jobs Follow People, Not the Other Way Around
Here's an excellent article about how the U.S. policies since 9/11 have helped accelerate a loss of creative talent overseas. This is especially critical, since as I've written before, the only really scarce resource in today's economy is creativity.
Unfortunately, as long as our national policies are driven by fear instead of cooperation, this will continue. I'm worried that if it persists too long, we could wind up exporting a lot of our best and brightest to other countries, especially the English-speaking ones. That will make it much harder for the United States to maintain its position as the leading economy in the world.
Remember: if you're fighting a war, there's two ways to lose. The enemy can destroy you (not likely from a bunch of extremists half a planet away), or the enemy can make you commit suicide. Our response since 9/11 has often been more driven by irrational fear and paranoia, rather than a considered response to a known threat. That way lies madness.
A few ideas....
Without significantly impacting our security, there are a few things we could do to start attracting talent and creativity back to our shores:
Anyone accepted to a PhD program at an accredited American university automatically gets a green card (permanent residence status). This could hypothetically be revoked if intelligence showed someone was a security threat, but we should at least presume that if someone is smart enough and hard working enough to get into a PhD program, then he or she belongs here.
Anyone who holds a job in the United States making more than $100,000/year for three years in a row automatically gets a green card. As with the PhD green card, this could be revoked if needed, but anyone good enough to consistently make that much money is probably in pretty high demand, and should be encouraged to stay.
Anyone with an academic appointment in an accredited university may travel freely to the U.S., with exceptions for individuals known to present a threat. This would solve the problem of scientific conferences being moved overseas because participants can't get visas.
Artists, musicians, and writers may freely travel to the U.S. to promote and perform their work if the visit is sponsored by a bona-fide U.S. cultural institution, publisher, or promoter, with exceptions for individuals known to present a threat.
Basically, all this boils down to: If someone has a lot to offer the U.S., we should encourage them to come here. Seems obvious to me.