Studying abroad has become a hot button subject in recent years, both due to the previous administration’s lack of interest in welcoming and retaining foreign students, and the blunt restrictions imposed by a halt in international travel.
What has this meant for international students?
Sometimes it’s meant a dream deferred with the inability to secure or extend a visa to enter or stay in the country they’d long hoped to be educated in. Sometimes it’s meant being stuck in a foreign state with no opening to return home. We’re familiar with these tribulations via news updates, even if we’ve never experienced them firsthand.
But what don’t American citizens, higher education professionals, and traditional students understand about the experience of being an international student in the US?
I spoke to Rajika Bhandari about her new book, America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility—one Indian immigrant’s story reflective of millions more that shows us why international students are the lifeblood of the American higher education system.
The story so far
Bhandari chose to share her account at this juncture in part to heighten awareness around the international student experience—those of studying in the US specifically.
Being that her higher ed journey took place in the 90s, I first wondered how it would speak to the broader experience of the international students of today, especially due to recent developments in the COVID age.
This was also a question that she considered when beginning her book because not only has the world has changed so drastically, but the landscape of higher ed and the nature of students along with it.
In interviewing several students throughout her writing process, she was surprised to find that much of the experience had in fact endured. Students are still attracted to the US for the quality of education, and many of the challenges that they face in this pursuit have also remained.
“One of the reasons that I wrote the book was that, at least here in the US, that pathway from education to immigration for those who do stay on and become immigrants is not well understood,” she explains, “and the challenges of that pathway are still very much extant for international students.”
Intentional and accidental journeys
The narrative of the student who envisions and plans for an international educational experience in America is the classic tale of the American dream.
As aforementioned, it’s a long-term goal for many students to travel to the US for a world-class education. However, it was not one that Bhandari had always sought.
“There are the very driven, intentional, international students who have been mapping this path for quite some time. I fall into the second category of what I call ‘accidental’ international students,” she says.
She grew up surrounded by a generation of parents and family elders who either had studied abroad or always aspired to and didn’t have the chance. Her father fell into the latter group, and he’d always pushed her to consider that possibility, though she was reluctant.
So, what ultimately landed her in the States? “I actually came for personal reasons,” she explains, “and I think that’s often true for students who come following a relationship or their family. That’s what brings them to the US, but then they begin to change and evolve and grow, and I think that’s what happened for me.”
There is also a key difference between what motivates students to come and what motivates them to stay. Sometimes there’s no deliberate intent to come, but the trajectory of the experience leads one to settle down.
“You’re not thinking about all of these things in a very active and intentional way, but it’s when you reflect back on that experience that you realize how much it has actually transformed you,” she remarks.
Classroom discrepancies
In comparing and contrasting her educational upbringing in India with that of what she experienced at a US university, Bhandari can pinpoint some stark discrepancies. They represent two educational systems and resultant experiences that foreign students are not prepared for.
“The most startling discovery for me, over a period of time, was how different the academic culture is between India and the US,” she notes.
She’s conducted research within the field that’s allowed her to broaden her perspective to assert that the cultural difference applies to students from many Asian countries—most of whom come from more traditional education systems.
“Students in many countries are really not brought up to be independent learners or critical thinkers—to engage with the knowledge they’re being presented and question it. And yet, that is what is expected of students in an American classroom,” she states, “That was the big culture shock.”
The notion of academic integrity is a huge one at American universities, which presents an obstacle for international students who are unaccustomed to this unique set of rules.
They haven’t been trained and prepared to understand what paraphrasing means or what proper citations look like in APA or Chicago format. These gaps are often overlooked by both their peers and professors alike.
This is not to mention that these students are learning in a language that isn’t their native tongue—navigating American diction while writing papers in their second, third, or fourth language. These examples all point to stacked odds against international students, only compounded by the lack of awareness around them.
The intersectional experience
There are other layers, however, that pile atop these already stacked odds. As a woman, this aspect of Bhandari’s identity also profoundly influenced the navigation of her circumstances.
“I was ‘foreign and female,’” she states, “and the third piece was belonging to a minority group.” She was also saddled with the cultural baggage of having been groomed in an educational culture where students don’t speak up in class—being a woman surely adds to that dynamic. A study from the Journal of International Students backs this concept.
She thus questioned how she would find her voice.
“I will be honest and say that it has actually taken me a number of years. I’m not even sure it ever happened in all my years of graduate school, or even my early career. It was a lot of work and really pushing myself out of my comfort zone and gaining more confidence that’s gotten me to that point,” she admits.
Leaving India, coming to the US, and experiencing these two cultures shaped her identity as a woman. She began to question the status quo of her own culture and reject a lot of the ideologies she was meant to follow.
“When you leave home and go to another country, what it also helps you do is look more objectively at both places and assess them,” she says. What she came to find was that many of the issues were actually similar.
She had previously held the belief that all American women were liberated and equal to men, but the realization of the gender wage gap was one monumental wake-up call.
Still, qualitative research has shown that the experience of studying abroad in the US is a more transformative and enriching one for women—as reflected by Bhandari’s personal insights—and that process of finding a voice can be supremely empowering.
What international students bring to the table
There are two sides to the coin as it pertains to the value of international students studying in America; one more tangible than the other.
In terms of capital, international students contribute massively to the US economy. An American degree is the nation’s sixth-largest service export, yet it’s one that never leaves the country.
In 2019 alone, international students brought in an estimated 44 billion USD according to the Department of Commerce.
“I think there is a tendency to get fixated on that because it is such a large number, and certainly a very compelling one,” Bhandari states. However, an equally important factor is that of the direct impact of international students on the learning experiences that institutions can provide.
People travel overseas to study in the US in large part because of the international flavor of its universities. “And really, US universities would not be what they are if not for that international flavor,” she adds.
US universities are supposed to be global leaders in education, and international students give them this opportunity. They bestow to both American students and other international students a truly well-rounded education.
Students acquire the ability to go beyond their own culture, and it helps prepare them to exist both personally and professionally amidst the environment of a globalized world.
International students help internationalize American campuses, point-blank.
“Only 10% of American undergraduates will themselves go abroad as part of their undergraduate degree, but what about the remaining 90%? They can learn about the world if they have a student from Somalia or India or China sitting next to them in class,” Bhandari explains.
The road ahead
How will this value continue to evolve with both the higher ed sector and the needs of international students?
In a story by Karin Fischer titled “Fading Beacon,” she poses, “International education is changing, swiftly and in real time, and America’s signal has become weaker. Will U.S. colleges be able to adjust before it goes dark?”
The article expounds upon the idea that because of the former administration and the pandemic, there is a huge possibility that US universities can’t provide the world-class educational experience that was foretold.
Fortunately, international students have begun finding their niche at other universities in countries with similar cultural or linguistic backgrounds to their own. While this trend is a flagrant detriment to the US higher ed system, it’s a workaround for students everywhere to expand their horizons and attain that global education they’re after.
Last year the US government reported an 18% drop in overall student-visa holders.
The question stands as to whether or not this retraction of international students from American classrooms will persist. And the answer will affect students from other countries far less than it will transform the US higher ed sector on the whole.
