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Talent - better cheap and imported, or home-grown?

Cato-at-liberty » The Global Contest for Talent and Brains The 109th Congress failed to enact meaningful immigration reform to allow more low-skilled immigrants to enter the Untied States legally. An even bigger failure was its neglect of our need to attract and keep more highly skilled workers from abroad.

The other long-term part of the equation is making highly skilled professions attractive to young Americans. When MIT engineering graduates go to work as salesmen for mortgage brokers - because the pay is better - you have a problem. When wages are declining and employment uncertain, you can expect young people to largely go into different fields. Easing the entry of cheap highly-skilled workers - more likely to later leave with all their acquired experience - could be a rather large long-term strategic mistake.

" ... now India and China are sucking back their expats, and America’s European competitors have woken up to the importance or retaining their talent. "

This "suction" will only get greater in the future. What strategy makes the most sense in the long term?