The Turn to Nativism Hinders in International Education

Words are the fundamental building blocks of communication. Imprecision in the use of language creates confusion and misunderstanding. For example, in the ongoing debate about the potentially negative impact of the United States presidential election on international education, I’ve seen a number of colleagues misuse certain key words, thereby muddying the rhetorical waters. 

In their article of 11 November entitled,"Now we face the (temporary?) end of American internationalism", Philip G Altbach and Hans de Wit wrote that with Donald Trump as president “the United States will join the growing list of countries with hard-right, nationalist, anti-globalist and xenophobic governments. This list today includes countries like Hungary, Poland, the Philippines and, in some respects, Turkey.” 

Since nationalism is not a recent phenomenon in the United States and there’s nothing to indicate that any of the other countries are nationalistic, using the dictionary definition of the word, do they mean nationalist or nativist? 

More information: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170116192441402