Want Geniuses? Welcome Immigrants by Frank Bruni at the N.Y. Times
Last edited Mon Sep 25, 2017, 02:27 AM - Edit history (1)
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Every year since 1981, the foundation has bestowed so-called genius grants on more than 20 of the countrys most accomplished and promising scientists, scholars, artists and writers. These awards are a huge deal, trumpeted in the media and worn with pride forevermore. And the winners, typically in the middle of their careers, get $625,000 each.
Of the 965 geniuses (or, more properly,MacArthur fellows) to date, 209 were born outside the United States, according to Cecilia Conrad, who leads the fellowship program. Thats 21.7 percent. The 2010 census determined that less than 13 percent of the American population is foreign-born.
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Conrad, the MacArthur Foundation executive, said that in all the debate lately about how many immigrants our country needs for jobs of varying skill levels, she hears too little about the ambient impact of immigrants on Americas creative climate. They have certain attributes, she told me. They are risk takers. And their thinking and discoveries are nourished by the experience of dislocation, of navigating a new culture and a new set of norms, she said.
They come with a sort of hunger and a kind of gaze that dont subtract from what those of us already here have but, instead, add to it. They give us insights, inventions, art. Embracing their genius is the genius of America.
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