While political discourse and the media in the United States have focused on the rise of job outsourcing, few have mentioned the sharp fall of talent “insourcing,” or the drop in enrollment of foreign-born graduate students since 2001, and its dire results. The decrease in such insourcing will hurt America’s competitiveness in basic research and applied technology, with serious consequences for years to come. The de-internationalization of graduate programs across the country will also negatively affect the global outlook and experience of the American students remaining in those programs; they will not have the opportunity to learn about foreign cultures directly from members of those cultures. What distinguishes the decline of talent insourcing from the rise of job outsourcing is that the former can be easily rectified by a policy change of the United States government.
Type- Evaluate
Boil it down - The decrease in such insourcing will hurt America’s competitiveness in basic research and applied technology, with serious consequences for years to come.
• What is the cost to reverse the trend of insourcing in America? - irrelevant - the actual cost is not a concern
• How does insourcing replace domestic jobs lost from outsourcing? - irrelevant - the argument does not specify this
• Since 2001, what has been the decrease in the number of foreign-born students in America? - irrelevant - the actual number of decrease is irrelevant to the argument
• What opportunities do American graduate students have to interact regularly with foreigners who are not students? - Correct - applying variance test -
If American students regularly interact with foreigners who are not students, then the argument is weakened, else it is strengthened
• What effect would a government policy have on the number of foreign graduate students?- irrelevant
Answer D
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