During Trump Presidency, Colleges And Students Anticipate Changes In Visa Programs

The following content is excerpted from a report by New England News Collaborative.

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International Students around New England

With visas in hand, about 85,000 undergraduate and graduates students from overseas are pursuing their higher education degrees in schools around New England. That’s out of more than a million who come to study every year in the United States.

Graduate students, in particular, are big business for colleges. But President-elect Donald Trump’s many anti-immigration stances have brought uncertainty into the classroom.

The greatest number of young men and women come from China, India, Saudi Arabia and Korea. Among the graduate students, the top areas for research are science, technology, engineering and math, known collectively as the STEM fields.

International Students Love STEM Fields

A 2014 National Science Foundation report stated the group grew by 35 percent. At the same time, the number of U.S. citizens in the field fell 5 percent.

At University of Massachusetts – Amherst, in some STEM fields, foreign graduate students make up almost the entire department.  They are depended on for their research skills, to teach some classes and grade assignments.

U.S. Schools Love International Students

Money is another reason foreign graduate students are in high demand at big research schools, like UMass (University of Massachusetts), UConn (University of Connecticut) and Brown. Their tuition is sometimes higher and often paid in full. And importantly, the STEM knowledge they bring allows schools to apply for millions in research grants.

American vs International Workers

“I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here, in our great homeland: America – creating wealth and jobs for American workers,” said Donald Trump, in a speech shortly after the election.

In the first 100 days of his administration, Trump said he would direct the Department of Labor to “investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker.”

Illegal International Workers

In a March 2016 statement, Sessions described 600,000 students who come to the United States every year who “have not been authorized by Congress to work, but the Department of Homeland Security has manipulated the rules to allow many of them to work through the much-criticized Optional Practical Training (OPT) program.”

Trump May Bring Changes to Visa Programs

Jobs are one thing, threats to national security are another.  Trump’s original plan to stop all Muslims from entering the country has softened.   He now calls it “extreme vetting.”

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Source: New England News Collaborative

Author: Jill Kaufman, JANUARY 16, 2017 AMHERST, Mass.

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