The US economy is losing billions of dollars because international students are no longer enrolling in US Schools
American universities are bleeding now as less and less international students are coming to study in the US and this is not good for the economy. As the number of international students who come to study in US continues to decrease since the fall of 2016, this is hurting the US Economy as it has cost the US economy $11.8 billion and more than 65,000 jobs, according to estimates from NAFSA; Association of International Educators, an international association of professional educators. Rachel Banks, the director of public policy at NAFSA says; “There’s many variables, but largely it’s been the policies and rhetoric from the current administration that’s really driven the numbers to move in that direction”.
NAFSA survey shows that, international student are not seeking admission into the US because the chances of getting a visa is very low and they feel unsafe in America. “It’s not only the anti-immigrant rhetoric being expressed by this administration, there’s also increasing concern with regard to gun violence in this country,” said Banks. “There’s been a number of shootings and that gets reported worldwide, and parents certainly take all of this into account when they are thinking about where they want to send their children to study.”
According to the most recent US Department of state Open Doors Report, the enrollment of international student has declined by 0.9% during the 2018-2019 academic year, following a 6.6% reduction in new enrollments in the previous year.
The Trump administration tries to justify this by saying that the reason for the decline is due to the fact the fact that foreigners cannot afford the high cost of education in US, according to Caroline Casagrande, deputy assistant secretary for academic programs at the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural affairs. She added in a call with reporters last week that, the Trump administration has made “more efforts than ever in outreach to international students,” and “to mitigate against the cost of education in the US”.
It is worth noting that, for every seven international students, three US jobs are created, according to NAFSA, and more than one million international students who were enrolled at US colleges and universities contributed nearly $41 billion to the US economy, and supported 458,290 jobs during the 2018-2019 academic year.
International students are very important to a school’s budgets, as many colleges and universities collect higher tuition from them. At Peninsula College in Washington State, international students are charged about $10,000 a year in tuition, while in-state students pay about $5,000. Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington, has seen a 25% drop in international student enrollment over the last two years.
