As many as 60 per cent of the United States' top science students and 65 per cent of those who excelled in mathematics are children of immigrants, a new study has found.
               
Foreign-born high school students make up 50 per cent  of the 2004 US Math Olympiad top scorers, 38 per cent of the US Physics Team and 25 per cent of Intel Science Talent Search  finalists, America's most prestigious awards for young  scientists and mathematicians, the study said.

The Intel Science Talent Search finalists showed a diverse mix comprising seven students from India, five from China, three from Taiwan, two each from Russia and Ukraine, and one each from Vietnam, Israel, Turkey, and South Korea, the study by the National Foundation for American Policy, a public policy group, found.

Students who topped the prestigious US Math Olympiad include those from South Korea (four), China (four), Russia
(three), and India (two).
 
The foundation conducted more than 50 interviews and examined the immigration backgrounds of top US high school  students as part of the study.

The study, The Multiplier Effect, is appearing in the coming issue of International Educato.

"These findings provide evidence that maintaining an open policy toward skilled professionals, international students, and legal immigration is vital to America's technological and scientific standing in the world," Stuart Anderson, Executive Director of NFAP and author of the report, said.

"If opponents of immigration had succeeded over the past 20 years, two-thirds of the most outstanding future American scientists and mathematicians would not be here today because US policy would have barred their parents from entering the United States," said Anderson.
 
He said efforts to preserve US strength in science and technology should start by recognising the key role that immigrants and their children play in the nation's leadership in these fields.

"As the research demonstrates, the contributions made by the children of immigrants are beyond that ever considered
by policymakers," Anderson said.