Well, like in the US many wealthy people don't want to see more "STEM" graduates, they are quite satisfied with the numbers we have
and they don't want more young people developing skills that, in their opinion will just give them 'unrealistic expectations' of being able to use those skills to find employment in the future.
They also don't like the creation of new knowledge which might make a case that prevents technology developed by the commercial world from being patentable and maximally exploitable for money. To them every new idea or invention must be patented and exploited by somebody and when its instead given to the public domain that makes them angry. For the same reasons they hate open source software. There is a big
debate discussion, going on about this but its totally out of our view, deliberately so, in various think tanks.
Basically, there is a war going on between -
Read up on the Inclosure Acts in the UK centuries ago, and what they did. Like that.
In some circles there is a depressing hostility to self-education.
like what?
When you are on top all positive change is seen as a potential threat unless you control it fully. They want to 'future-proof' the future - (thats where the trade deals like GATS and TiSA and privatizing education come in.) - BUT -
'Future proofing' the un-knowable future is impossible.
The real future is totally unpredictable.
Also, its really stupid to try to exclude all but a privileged group from having access to learning or instantiation (permission to speak, to exist) meaning not just from degrees - also entry to a world of work protected by
costly screens. Which is whats happening. In all professions. Its happening because jobs are becoming scarcer so the elite and economics 101 say that wages should be in free fall the more jobs are done by machines.
What this meant before is that only the very best will be able to find work - but its being changed into a situation where the very best of the best plus only those who can pay to get their feet in the door by doing work for almost free will find entry into the world of professional work. Plus the bread and butter, meat and potatoes core of the jobs in technology, especially IT, healthcare and teaching, are being turned into precarious low wage labor transacted by 'body shop' firms across intntnl. borders. Which only recently in the US is supposed to comply with US minimum wage laws (before it didn't) Even that may be challenged. (see the WTO document mentioned below)
By fiat, because of a push to use 'services' (80% of a modern economy) to 'pay back' the most unequal countries for participation in trade deals. This has been framed as the repayment of a debt to them. The plan dates back to the late 80s, and began officially after 1995 but because of endless 'rounds' of negotiations including Uruguay, Doha, etc. plus now a newer 'plurilateral' agreement outside of the WTO which is intended to be merged with it at a later date, driven by a group called "Friends of Services" (negs started in 2006) or ('Really Good Friends of Services" (2013) by the US, EU and Australia, the process is only just beginning. When it gets going itis supposed to save trillions of dollars that it is claimed would be wasted on 'too overhigh wages'. (Its main goal is to push wages in developed world down to more approximate wages in the developing world to free up more profits, even if that requires eliminating all laws that stand in the way and putting the WTO in charge of intra-corporate work travel for periods of up to many years, perhaps decades, as long as the flows are defined as temporary.)
In order to do that a very wide scope has been defined as covered by these agreements. Lots and lots and lots of good jobs are being put up for bidding to become subcontracts, and bid on internationally. Services are supposed to be 'liberalised' which begins with jobs involving tax money that are currently done by civil servants and domestic NGOs, instead they must be fed into a global e-tendering system - put up for bidding with the implicit recognition that the developed countries wont be able to cut wages low enough to get the contracts, so basically they are, with additional help from the
LDC Services Waiver, supposed to be farmed, if it is possible farmed out to Least Developed Countries, (LDCs) wealthiest firms, which are being set up by insiders to do this.
Because they feel that having to pay national minimum wages would impede their principal advantage, being able to pay workers almost nothing, a fairly large group of unequal nations have stated upfront that they
don't want 'wage parity' or economic need tests to apply..
See WTO document "TN/S/W/14"
I don't know if you have traveled much but the educated in poor countries are basically just the wealthy. Poor people - at least in most poor countries, are almost never able to attend college, certainly not to get to the MS level which is where these visas generally kick in. So with some exceptions, channeling jobs to body shop firms, which employ degreed people in poor countries (they must have been employed for a year and have special skills of some kind) more often than not, has the effect of helping the children of the wealthiest people in the developing world, quite specifically, and displacing others who currently do the work by supplying workers who are working for in many cases a tiny fraction of what somebody would typically be paid for a job. Sories abound in the US of firms that advertise their ability to work for almost nothing, replacing entire teams of high skill workers. Smart companies with unique products don't do this but many third and fourth tier companies do.
This end run around what used to be the law, is similar to slavery and indentured servitude in the Middle Eastern countries in that it creates a powerful corrupting influence on everybody who comes into contact with it, they are all trying to figure out how to make lots of money off this pool of desperate young people.
They are good workers, and deserve a decent wage. Most are just normal people who are trying to get decent jobs like everybody else, with the difference being that their parents, from countries where bribery is common, are willing to pay to get them the years of experience that employers want to see in new hires.
In the US at least, there is still a path to immigration and citizenship through the channels we know of and despite the media carnival, most Americans do generally approve of immigration in skill areas we need, and to reunite families, and for 'the best and the brghtest' in tech and the arts and also political refugees fleeing oppression.
However, what is happening is powerful forces want to capture transnational money flows and turn non-immigrant work travel into a dominant piece of work in certain sectors in order to prop up authoritarian regimes.
Also the developing countries - critical of a 'brain drain' have gotten the ear of the developed world and they want to replace the kind of worker, who is fleeing corruption (them) and replace them with wealthier people whose families have gotten rich off of corruption.
Immigrant workers intend to become part of their new home country for good, while disempowered "Mode Four" workers are in a very restrictive emplyment situation where they can not negotiate wage increases (if fired they have to immediately leave the host country and are often sued upon their return home)
They cannot exit this exploitative system so easily. This aspect of WTO managed "supply chain" is called "Mode Four" (after the "Four Modes of Supply which were first defined in the 1990s WTO services agreement, which is intended to permanently change the world's service sectors.) and are the subject of "Movement of Natural Persons" annexes in services trade agreements.
Basically trade agreements are being substituted for national laws regulating work permissions (not permanent immigration, as Mode Four is involving work for hire only and is officially classified as 'non-immigration'.)
Temporary, for example in the US, typically only for six years per visa.
Currently one popular kind of visa under this kind of agreement is limited to 65,000 per year giving a total of around 260,000 workers at any one time. But there are others.
The powerful advocates of this scheme want to get rid of these numerical quotas completely and 'let the market decide' how successful these firms become. They also want to 'progressive liberalization' widen the scope to include more and more low skill jobs, saving even more money, until every public jobs with the exception of the government and national security is either done by a civil servant of a domestic firm exempted for national security reasons. Other work will go to the lowest bidding firms, whomever they are. As time passes, wages are expected to fall bringing developed country wages more in line with those in the developing world. A 'race to the bottom'. These 'efficiency gains' even though they are defined as large job losses - because they increase profits (but, who will buy the products?) are defined as one of the main 'benefits' to owners of businesses of these services agreement.
So where will the displaced workers go? There has been a fair amount of criticism of these proposals but as only a certain segment of government and academia are even aware that these negotiations have been going on and these agreements signed or pending, the general public remains almost totally unaware of these changes which are intended to become so costly to reverse or defy that they are for all practical purposes irreversible. They will have the effect of discouraging young people from entering tech fields because they wont be able to get work, and if they do manage to, they wont pay well. In addition to requiring a substantial body of skills.
Without the job motivator to go to college, few will be able to afford to do it only for the experience and big picture, families will be in crisis and many will be losing homes. Many may attempt to emigrate to countries less involved in this system, as happened in the past. There they may become marginalized and deprived of the ability to put down roots. The growing numbers of dispossessed may eventually be pushed out to the margins of society, gathering in the nether lands, perhaps areas partially flooded by sea level rise, and/or toxic chemicals - where such places exist.
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