While America becomes saturated with anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions, international students and their families view traveling here for education and work as an increasingly risky decision.
A survey published by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers found that foreign students and their families have growing concerns about "xenophobia, anti-Muslim sentiments, discrimination and the general climate in the U.S., especially towards international students.”
Sharifa Bahri, president of UNM’s Saudi Students Club, and an international student mastering in Linguistics, shared these growing concerns.
Although Bahri is not from any of the banned countries on the list, she said being a Muslim woman with a headscarf is something that she feels the need to disguise at airports and “almost anywhere” off campus.
“Not only that, it gives me a terrifying feeling every time I dream of visiting home over the summer and attend Ramadan with my family,” Bahri said, adding that it's been three years since she has seen her family.
“What if Trump suddenly decides to have my home country in the list while I am gone?” she questions. “My dreams of pursuing my postgraduate studies will go to jeopardy.”
These sentiments can be measured in the decline of fall 2017 international applications to attend U.S. institutions.
The same survey compiled by the AACRAO found that 40 percent U.S. colleges reported a decrease in graduate student applications from Middle-Eastern countries. 77 percent of those stated they had concerns about the low number of applications coming in from countries involved in the March 6th executive order.
UNM has been directly affected as well.
Bahri, who is currently finishing her master's degree and will soon begin work on her doctorate, feels the pressures.
“Would it be wise to risk all this to visit home to be hugged by your mom once after so long?” she said. “It is a dilemma. And everyone I know from a Muslim country is scared.”
In a year-by-year comparison, UNM’s Global Education office saw an average decrease of 20 percent in international graduate applications for fall 2017, with the greatest decrease in applications coming from India.
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Iran, Mexico, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia were also among the countries with a decrease in fall 2017 applications.
Pablo Torres, associate director for International Recruitment and Admissions, said a lot of Indian students come to the U.S. to gain jobs skills after graduation. International students are allowed to work any where from a year up to three years, depending on their program.
“There is concern that there will be changes from our political leadership in regards to this,” he said.
Torrez emphasized that many students from those regions, as well as their families, are concerned about their safety as a result of a recent shooting which resulted in the death of an Indian man, Srinivas Kuchibhotla.
Torres said that particular hate-crime sent “major shock waves” across India, and it was “all over the major newspapers.”
Torres pointed out that a major Indian newspaper, the Hindustan Times, ran an article on the shooting that included an interview of victim’s father, where he expressed his fears for the safety of Indian immigrants in the U.S., and pleaded that fellow parents not send their children here for higher education at this time.
The positive and essential impact that international students have on the U.S. cannot be overstated, Torres said.
A report published by the Institute of International Education, titled “Advising International Students in an Age of Anxiety,” stated that international students bring $36 million into the U.S. economy, but that is far from their only contributions.
“International students’ contributions extend far beyond the financial, as they enrich the academic dialog, expand perspectives of their American classmates, contribute to research and teaching while here, and to ongoing academic collaboration after graduating,” the report stated. “After returning home, U.S.-trained alumni strengthen their own countries’ economies and societies and sustain ties with American companies and communities. Those who remain in the U.S. create new enterprises and drive innovation, as documented in several studies on the number of new companies and new jobs created by immigrants who first entered the U.S. as foreign students.”
In regards to how UNM is approaching this issue, acting University President Chaouki Abdallah acknowledged the drop in UNM's international students applications.
“Our office of Global Education Office continues to monitor such changes, and to adapt our long-term recruiting strategies to the changing national policies and geopolitical concerns,” Abdallah said. “Our BECA Mexico program is one such program, as are many others, that we hope will cushion the drop and help us increase both applications and support for our international students.”
Through the BECA program, which began this semester, UNM offers international students from Mexico a discounted tuition rate, citing a “commitment to international education and cross cultural collaboration with Mexico, as it actively seeks to attract talented students from the country.” New Mexico State employes a similar program.
Torres recognized other ways that UNM is making efforts to curb the unwelcoming sentiments towards immigrants, through participating in events such as “You Are Welcome Here,” a nation-wide campaign against anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Roughly 120 students participated in a video that was created in collaboration with the UNM Marketing and Communication Department to send the message “You Are Welcome Here” to international students.
The Global Education office also runs a group called Lobo Friends that partners domestic students with international students to help them create connections and community ties that they might not otherwise find.
Torres encourages current and prospective international students alike to reach out to the Global Education office, and take advantage of its resources in this time.
Hannah Eisenberg is a news reporter at the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
