ONCE AGAIN, TRUMP ENACTED A STUPID & HIGHLY EXPENSIVE DIRECTIVE

…There will now be fewer of these STEM students.  That is, those that study: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics for key, high-tech jobs

The college enrollment of new foreign students is now at its lowest level since the end of World War II.

We all know how President Trump has pissed off most of our allies.  But now he has upset a system that is going to cost the United States up to $44 billion. 

This is according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis as to approximately what is spent annually in the US by those students that come here for an education.

Yes, it true that the Trump administration did unexpectedly backed off his bazaar new rule that would have affected international students.  But other policy damages may not be so easily undone.

In a federal hearing last week, the government just happened to drop its recent directive against international students whose classes go purely online, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The directive had said they would be refused visas or they could also be subject to deportation, for Pete’s sake..

Even so, thanks to other Trump anti-immigrant policies, international student enrollment is still expected to plummet this fall to its lowest level in decades.  This will add to problems in the nation’s economy for years to come.

Enrollment of new international students at American universities in the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year is projected to decline from 63% to 98% from the 2018-2019 levels.  This is according to a National foundation for American Policy Analysis.  That wide range of estimates reflects uncertainty about how other Trump anti-immigration measures will be implemented over the coming weeks.

Due to the current administration’s “America First” attitude, enrollment of new foreign students is at its lowest level since the end of World War II.

Two major US policy decisions are also expected to hold back foreign student enrollment.

First, American embassies and consulates around the world suspended routine services amid the pandemic closures.  Those services includes the processing of student visas. The State Department says visa services are being phased back in, but it hasn’t given any dates for when it will reopen, and at which consulates.  Even if consulates in countries that send the largest numbers of students, such as India, South Korea, and Taiwan, re-open soon, there’s likely to be a big backlog of applications to be processed.

There already may not be sufficient time to process and approve visas for the fall semester.  This process begins at many institutions in just a few weeks.

Additionally, many countries today are still subject to Trump’s US travel bans.

Even if consulates reopen, it’s unclear whether students from these places can get US visas. At least one consulate, in Vienna, has said students may qualify for a: “national interest exception” to the travel ban, but State Department higher-ups so far, have not issued a policy for these students.

Countries subject to Covid-19-related travel bans, including China, Europe’s Schengen zone and Great Britain, they accounted for about 40% of international students in the United States in 2018-2019.  This is according to the Institute of International Education.

“[Due to the pandemic], someone from the Czech Republic would probably be more scared of coming to the U.S. than we should be, in going to the Czech Republic,” says Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy.  Even so, he says, the Trump administration will not want to lift its travel ban for fear of acknowledging that other countries might be doing better than the US is doing against Covid-19.  (A typical Trump attitude.  We can never admit we did something wrong.) “So, perhaps national-interest exemptions could provide a “face-saving” way around the ban, if other consulates grant them”, he said.

Work-arounds that allow students to enter are no guarantee that large numbers will actually arrive.  Before Covid-19, new international student enrollment had already been declining since Trump was elected.

Colleges surveyed by the Institute of International Education said that US cost was still the top reason their foreign student enrollment had been falling.  This included visa application problems, the social and political environment in the United States, and US tuition costs.  Other countries, such as Canada and Australia, have taken advantage of such discontent and have successfully recruited international students quite heavily.

This is according to the 2019 Fall International Student Enrollment Snapshot Survey Report, from the Institute of International Education.

Even though the administration recently dropped its controversial policy barring visas to all the on-line international students, the administration is considering another, narrower ban that could apply only to newly enrolled students.

But the question really is, “Would anyone want to come to the United States under the current conditions?”

Trump might be unbothered by any of the reservations foreign students have about visiting a coronavirus-infested, anti-immigrant country that is doing its darnedest to keep them out.  After all, he’s merely keeping his promise to build the border wall against all forms of immigration.  That includes legal, illegal, skilled, unskilled, professional, working-class, researcher, student, or whatever foreign student might apply.

Others, of course, see such policies as inflicting needless cruelty, uncertainty and anxiety upon international students, many of whom have already had their lives in the US up-ended multiple times under the Trump administration.

There are also those selfish, “America First” Trump reasons to oppose policies that drive away global student talent.

In fact, Trump and his senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, they might pause to consider who and what else their plans to punish immigrants also hurt, perhaps irreparably.  It could also be their attitude against the American students, American schools, American businesses, American workers and mostly, the American balance of trade.  Yes, I am referring to both Trump and Mr. Miller.

International students enrich campuses by bringing different perspectives and customs from around the world. And they do so by literally paying more money.  International students are more likely to pay full, un-discounted tuition.  Schools, especially those in states where taxpayer funding for public education has fallen, they use these tuitions to remain solvent and to subsidize many of their American students.  That is now an issue in the past.

International students are also more than likely the ones to study STEM fields, that is in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

That has previously provided a crucial pipeline of talent to the US high tech industry and to the America’s R&D infrastructure.  So, say “bye-bye” to that situation, and that will take decades to fix.

Over the course of the past century, immigrant scientists helped revolutionize US science and innovation, as documented in a study of patent records by the key economists: Petra Moser, Alessandra Voena and Fabian Waldinger. Today, more than 50% of the most highly valued US tech companies were founded by immigrants.  Related research by economist Britta Glennon suggests that making the US skilled-immigration system more restrictive ends up pushing tech jobs and innovation outside the United States.

Education-related travel is one of America’s most successful exports.  This is where the $44 billion figure came from.  US educational exports were roughly equal to our total exports in soybeans, coal and natural gas… combined.

All of this, and yet Trump, who has falsely pledged to eliminate the trade deficit, is continuing to nuke this wildly successful educational export industry.  This is all because he is genuinely too ignorant to understand how much economic damage his on-going actions are causing.

Whatever the motivation, America will be paying the cost long after Trump is out of office.

Just one more reason to oust the president’s ass in November.

Copyright G. Ater 2020