The diploma tax is an informal reference to the one-time payment imposed in the Soviet Union on would-be emigrants who received a higher education there.
[1] The professed justification for the tax was to repay state expenses for public education, but the measure was designed to combat the brain drain caused by the growing emigration of Soviet Jews to the West.
[3][4] The development caused international protests, 21 United States Nobel laureates issued a public statement that condemned it as a "massive violation of human rights.
The findings were surprising: the vast majority of the Jews applying to visas were not educated professionals but sales clerks and people of minor trades.
[2][4] Brezhnev, demonstrating his knowledge of the internal works of the American politics, mentioned Jackson-Vanik when he argued the repeal of the tax, apparently trying to prevent the amendment.