Foreign students, who “account for about 40% of all science and engineering Ph.D. holders working in the U.S.”, are staying in the U.S. following graduation in higher rates, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Stay rates” are “slightly higher than they have been in recent years,” especially following the post-9/11 slump in foreign students studying in the U.S.:

“Separate NSF surveys show the fraction of foreign Ph.D.s planning to stay in the U.S. dipped in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack and then rebounded. Nearly 80% of those with temporary visas surveyed in 2007 said they planned to stay; more than half had definite plans to do so.”

Despite the increasing numbers, “[o]ther analysts see signs that recent foreign grads are increasingly likely to return home, particularly in today’s weak job market.” A recruiter at Carnegie Mellon “finds young Chinese less eager to come to the U.S. than those of his generation” because of the improved living conditions and research opportunities there.