Crisis to opportunity: Rehumanising internationalisation

 

A warning bell went off this past week when the Institute of International Education Open Doors reported a 3% decrease in new international students at American universities and colleges during 2016-17. While seemingly insignificant, this was the first drop since the IIE Open Doors has reported new enrolments over the past 12 years.

Even more concerning is that a steeper decline is forecast for the international enrolment. In another survey based on about 500 colleges and universities, respondents reported an average 7% decrease in the number of new enrollees for 2017-18. The news confirmed what many institutions were fearing over the past year – that the peak of international student numbers in the US might be short-lived.  

Since then, much of the blame has been attributed to President Donald Trump’s proposals to limit visa issuances from abroad. The IIE university survey further indicated that approximately two thirds of colleges and universities attributed the decline to visa denials and delays and that about half also attributed declines to the US social and political environment and feeling unwelcome.

The Trump factor

Beyond the survey results, among the most criticised of Trump’s moves this past year were his attempted travel bans against people from numerous Muslim-majority countries.

The executive orders were widely and openly condemned by university and higher education organisation leaders, and most recently a revised version of the travel ban was partially permitted by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, allowing for a ban against travellers without any US ties from six countries. The government is currently appealing for stricter measures.

Earlier this year, more than 50 academic organisations signed a joint letter in opposition to the US Department of State’s projected changes to the visa vetting process, which would increase scrutiny and require applicants to disclose personal information, including social media handles.  

The letter warned that such extreme vetting was “likely to have a chilling effect not only on those required to submit additional information, but indirectly on all international travellers to the United States”.

Other initiatives also are underway. Trump has pledged to enact limits on the H-1B visa – a non-immigrant visa that allows US employers to employ graduates in speciality occupations – which is already serving as another major deterrent, particularly for international graduate students. Most recently, the Department of Homeland Security is considering a proposal that would require international students to reapply annually to remain in the US.

More than the specific proposals and whether they will be enacted, such attempts more broadly reflect a negative climate in the US that is less welcoming to particular groups from abroad.

Enrollment challenges

Meanwhile, universities are already grappling with how to counterbalance a drop in international student enrolment and declining revenues.

If anything, these enrolment challenges are symptomatic of a deeper issue left unaddressed for too long. Internationals did not suddenly turn around or look elsewhere upon these recent events. The proportion of the world’s students in the US has actually been declining for some time. But it is only very recently that the turn has been sharper than in years past.

Who is responsible?

More than the will of a single elected individual is the will of the voters and the issues they support. Xenophobia and nationalism are nothing new. In fact, internationals had been targeted long before Trump’s travel and immigration proposals, as is well documented in numerous studies that I and many others have conducted.

Ten years ago, my colleague Charles Rice and I introduced the concept of ‘neo-racism’, based on interviews with international students on the various ways they felt negatively stereotyped and mistreated based on their national origin. While the term has been widely cited since, conditions have not noticeably changed. 

However, what is seemingly different now, and not for the better, is that anti-immigrant and anti-international sentiments have become part of the accepted mainstream discourse. And they have evolved into policy attempts that make it clear in no uncertain terms that particular ‘foreigners’ are not welcome, at least by the White House administration and its countless supporters.  

What remains uncertain is how international students will choose to respond and what US international higher education will become. Let us consider how such challenges, possibly crises for some, can lead to some major opportunities in rethinking what internationalisation is and should be. 

I offer three orientations, each examined below:

  • Humanising international education
  • Politicising international education
  • Consciousness-raising international education.

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20171115085055664