OFF:/ON: HW: The War on Tour-rer

[Paul Mather]

On Wed, May 26, 2004 at 07:17:08PM +0200, Henderson Keith wrote:

=> And I've read recent articles in science journals that tell horror stories
=> about graduate students (from all sorts of countries, many having no
=> relationship whatsoever to islamic extremism) not being able to return to
=> the US to finish their graduate studies due to some ridiculous border
=> screening.

Not to mention the gubbins that was in place for quite a while whereby
students here from "certain countries" would have to travel up to
Northern Virginia to report for "routine questioning" upon returning
to the US after foreign travel.  Failure to do so within a certain
time period would result in loss of student status.  I never had to
attend one of these, being from good ol' Blighty (home of the
shoe-bomber), but I did get talking to a lad who did when I was
queuing up for my Sevis mass-processing.  He said it was a stupid
waste of time.  They'd ask the same inane questions every visit.
Eventually he got fed up, so when they asked him the name of his
father, he'd say, "he's *still* called such and such," or "yes, I'm
still from so and so" as if such personal details would be subject to
a lot of change. :-)  Of course, the worst of it was the student got to
foot the bill for travelling up there and associated accommodation...

=> And new prospective students are finding it so difficult right
=> now to get approved to enter the US, that they're deciding it's not worth it
=> and going to school in some other country.  Ha.  The US is likely to
=> stupidly ruin the great advantage they've had in
=> science/technology/innovation ever since, what 1938?, if they keep this up.

A friend who read Wen Ho Lee's book told me that apparently a boycott
against working in the US National Laboratories was organised by
Chinese students, postdocs, and researchers.  By all accounts it was
rather successful, and revealed how dependent the US is on cheap
foreign brain power.

BTW, given that tourists will be (are) routinely fingerprinted upon
entry into the USA, does this mean it will be easier or harder for UFO
to get work permits to gig in the USA in future? ;-)

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa