The fundamental problem is that it is difficult to determine if importing this foreign talent is of net benefit to the nation in the long term. It strikes me that the emergence of more competitive universities in China and India is inevitable given that stay-rates for their expatriates will erode as their domestic economies improve. We've already witnessed that in the case of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Consequently, we run the very real risk of spending tax payer money to educate our future competition which will benefit from the quality of our education and as you pointed out, the labor cost structure of their countries of origin. Alternately, if foreign talent stays they end up glutting the supply of S&E labor market and eroding wages which in turn deters domestic talent from considering S&E. Obviously, my analysis overlooks many mitigating factors that may in fact be signficant such as the potential net economic gain derived from foreign talent establishing startups etc.