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What does it mean to be an international student in the current environment?
It wasn’t easy for me to answer this in the form of a first-person essay but it was necessary to highlight the unjust scapegoating of intl students by the administration. 1/
https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-international-student-first-person-carnegie-mellon-trump-biden/ https://twitter.com/richelord/status/1336643552584011782
It wasn’t easy for me to answer this in the form of a first-person essay but it was necessary to highlight the unjust scapegoating of intl students by the administration. 1/
https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-international-student-first-person-carnegie-mellon-trump-biden/ https://twitter.com/richelord/status/1336643552584011782
Right out of the gate, we saw the first travel ban and that made it clear to me that what I perceived as rhetoric really would translate into actual policy, which would cause a tremendous amount of uncertainty and even harm. And it did. 2/ https://documentedny.com/2020/10/07/muslim-families-continue-to-struggle-due-to-travel-ban/
In @NaomiJayHarris’s story on how the policies and the political rhetoric of the Trump administration have harmed cities like Pittsburgh, Darya Kharabi a CMU undergraduate student with family from Iran tells how difficult these past few years have been for them. 3/ https://twitter.com/richelord/status/1336643548746223617
It also did for Srinivas Kuchibhotla who first came to the US to attend the University of Texas at El Paso and was murdered in Kansas in 2017. Why? Because his skin was brown. His murderer yelled, “get out of my country,” before he started shooting. 4/ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/us/he-became-a-hate-crime-victim-she-became-a-widow.html?referringSource=articleShare
This rhetoric translated into policy throughout the past ~4 years. In fact legal immigration to the country was at lower levels in 2020 than anytime after World War II based on this analysis by @David_J_Bier. 5/ https://www.cato.org/blog/no-year-has-seen-legal-immigration-cut-2nd-half-fy-2020
As @crampell discussed in her amazing article, the President built his wall out of paper. 6/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/29/trump-immigration-daca-family-separation/
But now the country has elected a new President whose Vice President is a daughter of immigrants and frequently speaks of her mother who came to the US as an intl student. And they have a tough job ahead. Over the last year, we saw a 43% drop in new intl student enrollments. 7/ https://twitter.com/karinfischer/status/1330916902361722880
Over the last few months, I also talked to multiple students overseas who are deciding not to apply to US universities for studies due to a growing unwelcoming environment that has only worsened in the past 4 years. @crampell also discussed it earlier. 8/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/one-of-americas-most-successful-exports-is-in-trouble/2018/12/13/f7234e8c-ff1b-11e8-83c0-b06139e540e5_story.html
Whether it was the proclamation banning entry of some Chinese graduate students, or the H1B visa ban, or the July 6th ICE directive, or the recent rule that would limit length of student visas, these policies have only made things worse. 9/
These are just a few of the policies we @MITgsc and @cmugsa have been fighting on behalf of our constituents. In May-June, the administration was looking to revoke the OPT program when we worked to push back on that idea. 10/ https://twitter.com/dkaushik96/status/1272542225587744770
In June itself, came the H1B ban. And in July came the directive to deport international students unless they attend classes in person. Harvard/MIT sued the administration and with the help of @Clifford_Chance and @Mintz_Law we filed an amicus brief on behalf of students. 11/ https://twitter.com/dkaushik96/status/1282719244883550209
In September came the proposed rule to limit the length of student visas which faced backlash from both Democrats and Republicans on the Hill. And we wrote on behalf of 850k+ students at 51 universities asking DHS to withdraw the rule. 12/ https://twitter.com/dkaushik96/status/1320744635841609728
A student from Germany, who decided not to come to the U.S. but chose to attend the University of Toronto, told me how Canada’s welcoming nature played a crucial part in his decision. He’s not alone, as this analysis from @CSETGeorgetown shows. 13/ https://cset.georgetown.edu/research/canadas-immigration-system-increasingly-draws-talent-from-the-united-states/
It is a global market for talent, and the U.S. is falling behind. The implications of these policies are massive for PA and the nation. It only makes things worse when only a handful of PA politicians like @JohnFetterman (and @giselefetterman) are openly speaking about this. 14/
International students contributed over $2 billion to Pennsylvania’s economy in 2019, supporting over 25,000, and those at @CarnegieMellon have founded brilliant companies and startups including @duolingo. 15/ https://twitter.com/dkaushik96/status/1272542235087769600
As I said, “To further American leadership in the global higher education and [R&D] enterprise, we must make full-throttled efforts towards attracting the best and brightest from around the world.”
But @RepEBJ @HouseScience said it even better here. 16/
But @RepEBJ @HouseScience said it even better here. 16/
And while the United States has raised barriers to immigration, countries such as Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom have been tearing theirs down. There’s a limit to which universities could attract the best talent on their reputation alone. 17/ https://ft.com/content/8f3ab80a-ec2b-427d-80ae-38ad27ad423d
It is a global market for talent, and until now, the U.S. maintained its reputation as a leading destination for talented scientists and foreign students through “sheer inertia.” A phrase I borrowed from this article in the Atlantic. 18/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/americas-innovation-engine-slowing/614320/
Why is it so important to preserve American competitiveness in this arena? “For the same reason the Boston Red Sox don’t limit themselves to players born in Boston,” the president of @MIT wrote in @nytimes. 19/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/opinion/coronavirus-trump-immigration-students.html
And while there are bipartisan efforts to ensure American leadership in global R&D (article below), recent policies have only added to the already growing uncertainty around America’s crucial higher-education sector that drives these efforts. 20/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/05/14/coronavirus-exposes-danger-of-underinvesting-in-scientific-research-column/3115013001/
So it is crucial that @JoeBiden and @AliMayorkas work to reverse this harm, and they could start by following up on the suggestions laid out by @SamanthaJPower in her brilliant piece. 21/21 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-11-20/samantha-power-can-do-power
Thanks to @JulietteRihl for inspiring me to write this essay, my amazing friend and colleague @ThatBBLane for co-leading the efforts to stop these harmful policies with me, and @zacharylipton for fully supporting my work outside of research. 22/21?
Also going to tag few folks who might be interested in this.
@ReichlinMelnick @giselefetterman @EstherAtNAFSA @gsiskind @danielgilman @karinfischer @NeuSummits @deniswirtz
@ReichlinMelnick @giselefetterman @EstherAtNAFSA @gsiskind @danielgilman @karinfischer @NeuSummits @deniswirtz
