I agree that it&#x27;s possible to overstate the influence of immigration policy but I really don&#x27;t agree that it is &quot;not a motivating factor by any measure&quot;.  When I was in grad school at Berkeley (didn&#x27;t finish, dropped out with an MS), many international students were quite open about the benefits of a grad degree in gaining US residency, and expressed irritation that other fields weren&#x27;t as open as STEM.<p>These are just our anecdotes, but there is some data to support this.<p>Take a look at this study from the RAND institute (historically a very pro-immigrant think tank) that compares STEM PhD programs to other options available to highly educated people <i>with choice</i> and concludes that the decision to avoid STEM graduate programs (PhD in particular) is a rational response to market conditions relative to the professions.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rand.org&#x2F;pubs&#x2F;issue_papers&#x2F;IP241.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rand.org&#x2F;pubs&#x2F;issue_papers&#x2F;IP241.html</a><p>A more general audience report on this research:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;usatoday30.usatoday.com&#x2F;tech&#x2F;science&#x2F;2009-07-08-science-engineer-jobs_N.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;usatoday30.usatoday.com&#x2F;tech&#x2F;science&#x2F;2009-07-08-scien...</a><p>Here&#x27;s the thing - those &quot;professions&quot; are much more closed off to international students than STEM graduate programs.  This absolutely influences choice!<p>It&#x27;s pretty clear that some fields and paths to graduate study in the US are far more open to non-citizens than others, and that visa programs targeting STEM fields do provide an extra incentive for non-citizens to go into STEM graduate programs rather than other study paths.  This doesn&#x27;t make it the only reason, or the main motivation, but I&#x27;d say it is a motivating factor to go to grad school.<p>I tend to agree with you that once the MS is achieved, the motivation would be lower, but it still influences the field of study.