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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My husband is an MD/PhD who does biomedical research. He once worked at NIH. Obviously nothing has ever paid him enough to compensate for the years of study, but that isn't the point. The people going into scientific research with MDs, or PhDs, or both, are doing labors of love. Their work is a source of great inner satisfaction.

My husband once tried to work in private biotech (which paid him double the salary he was getting at NIH), and realized he was being asked to cut corners and lie to clients to squeeze them for as much money as possible. He left and returned to academic research.

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Me again. Only someone who has an inner drive to do this work will end up in one of those jobs, OP. The barriers to entry for an American are high because of the cost of college and grad school - the financials end up working against them.

This is why until this year, there was a STEM brain drain from others parts of the world to the US: all the research scientists from other countries wanted to work in the US, because the funding here is (used to be?) great. Americans look at the bottom line and most don't want those jobs. In some other countries, universities are more affordable, so you're not paying an arm and a leg to get a medical degree, researchers are respected, and you can get by on a small salary in your home country. All you need is a high IQ, not a ton of family money. But if you can make it to the US, and get paid more to do the same work, then even better! And since academic research is published for all to use and benefit from, the entire world benefits from your research, wherever it's been done. Win-Win-Win.

A ton of research scientists in the US are foreign born, either on visas or green cards. Some of them get their citizenship eventually, and have US citizen kids. We are one of these families.

Now of course, all of this is coming to a screeching halt with the double whammy of funding freezes and threats to legal immigration. US Customs and Border Control have detained so many people in legal situations that many countries in Europe and elsewhere have issued travel advisories for the US.

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