What is the endgame for current attack on elite unis + international students?

[Anonymous]

And let's not forget the "soft power" of educating foreigners who went on to become political leaders in their countries. All these individuals studied in the US.

A partial list:

Africa
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Liberia – President
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala – Nigeria – Finance Minister; Director-General of the WTO

North America & the Caribbean
Felipe Calderón – Mexico – President
Carlos Salinas de Gortari – Mexico – President
Danilo Medina – Dominican Republic – President
Bill Morneau – Canada – Finance Minister

Central & South America
Carlos Alvarado Quesada – Costa Rica – President
Luis Guillermo Solís – Costa Rica – President
Sebastián Piñera – Chile – President
Julio María Sanguinetti – Uruguay – President

Europe
Kyriakos Mitsotakis – Greece – Prime Minister
Petro Poroshenko – Ukraine – President
Valdis Dombrovskis – Latvia – Prime Minister; European Commissioner

Asia
Benazir Bhutto – Pakistan – Prime Minister
Ashraf Ghani – Afghanistan – President
Ban Ki-moon – South Korea – UN Secretary-General
Lee Hsien Loong – Singapore – Prime Minister
Tharman Shanmugaratnam – Singapore – President

[Anonymous]

^^
Where did they go to school ?

[Anonymous]

But why don’t they study in their own countries if they are going to lead them? Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was a foreign student advisor in a large East Coast university for many years and am appalled by the open and unapologetic attack on foreign students. I have thought long and hard about this issue and have some ideas on what it's really about. Sorry for the long post, but I hope some of you will take a moment to read it.

At first I thought it was just a part of an overall effort to bring a handful of "elite" institutions to heel in the guise of addressing anti-semitism and DEI. But as I dug further, I learned that:
--it's not just the usual suspects such as Columbia, Harvard, and other Ivy League universities that are being targeted nor are students being targeted just for anti-semitism. In fact, over 80 U.S. colleges and universities have had international students or recent alumni subjected to visa revocations, detentions, or deportations under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.In our own backyard, foreign students have been asked to leave GMU, UVA, and UMD, just to name a few.
--increasingly, there is 1) ZERO reason given for these actions or 2) the reason given by ICE is "Other" with no explanation given.
--increasingly, the students are not just Muslims, but also from a range of other countries.

To answer the OP's question about "what is the endgame," I would say these are some of the main motivations/objectives:

1) Nationalism/populist messaging to the base—“We’re protecting Americans from foreigners who want to take over our country, take our kids’ spots in universities, take our jobs, etc.”
2) Ideological control – threatening to deport foreign students or limit universities’ ability to enroll foreign students is a way to control universities and the educated class in general (the “elites”) and to limit dissent, a key tactic in authoritarianism (see Orban’s efforts to exert government control over public universities in Hungary, https://apnews.com/article/hungary-business-government-and-politics-europe-education-9b76dce30164e77be1c3a2fe47db8bfa)
3) Voter distraction and political theater. Whip up the base and their anti-foreigner impulses and hope they don’t notice the tanking economy, the Trump administration’s inability to meet its economic promises (lower grocery prices, lower housing costs, etc) and scandals like Signalgate.
4) Furthering the anti-globalization and anti-multiculturalism stance of the government. Attacking foreign students is a part of a larger project to disconnect the US from the rest of the world. This includes withdrawing the US from multinational organizations, imposing punishing tariffs on every country in the world, promoting anti-globalization rhetoric, and rejecting multiculturalism. Foreign students on US campuses are a tangible and potent symbol of multiculturalism and interconnectedness to the rest of the world.

Defund racist Harvard.

You are either a troll or a pawn in the scheme to divide the country.

Defund habitual racist Harvard.

And how would that change YOUR life?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges want out of state kids hoping to lure in talent that will stay post graduation and improve their state. This is especially true of graduate school. I don’t see that happening with international students who take that education back home. If they want to pay on their dime that’s fine but taxpayer dollars flowing to private universities in particular should prioritize citizen students.

The vast majority of international students are full-pay.

[Anonymous]

The goal is to limit education, k-12 and higher ed to white, rich fully pay, Christian boys and men.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is the idea that you have to be a United States citizen to go to a United States institution? Because if so, I’m not necessarily opposed to it.

That is because you are a xenophobic imbecile who has no understanding of the damage this would do to this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges want out of state kids hoping to lure in talent that will stay post graduation and improve their state. This is especially true of graduate school. I don’t see that happening with international students who take that education back home. If they want to pay on their dime that’s fine but taxpayer dollars flowing to private universities in particular should prioritize citizen students.

The vast majority of international students are full-pay.

Why not take more American full pay instead??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So is the idea that you have to be a United States citizen to go to a United States institution? Because if so, I’m not necessarily opposed to it.

That is because you are a xenophobic imbecile who has no understanding of the damage this would do to this country.

I’m was born here to immigrant parents. Sheesh.
WTF.
You can immigrate here legally, become a citizen, and then you (or your US born offspring) can go to college here. Why is that so hard to understand?

[Anonymous]

I'm a different poster, but you must not be paying attention to scotus, trump and his plan for striking down birthright citizenship.
You will no longer be a citizen because your parents are immigrants.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s hard for the ultra left-wing to hear this, but it’s one of the reasons why Democrats lost the last election.

Americans, people born in this country, feel like our institutions, including higher education, favor those born abroad over those born in our own country. It is a problem. Part of it does ring true. I say that as a lifelong Democrat. And it’s true for many institutions.

We don’t prioritize aid to the poorest parts of our country, but instead send it abroad. Look at what happened in the Carolinas after the hurricane? This isn’t rocket science and you can’t discount the anger that so many in the region felt. The USAID money that would go to a foreign hurricane ravaged area - like Haiti -should have been going to the Carolinas as well.

It works the same way with universities. We should be opening our doors to as many people from all parts of this country - in every university - at every level of selectivity. That should be our priority. Educating our people. Everything else should come second.

If we don’t realize that this is a real growing sentiment in the vast majority of American households, then you’ve lost the narrative. It’s not our responsibility to educate the world. They can still come here, and Silicon Valley will still entice them with jobs with legitimate H1-B visas. They’ll want those jobs since they’ll know that the only way their kids can go to college here is if they come and work in those tech jobs (and those kids are born here).

This isn’t xenophobic. It’s America first. And most voters, including liberal voters, actually agree. Feed ourselves first. It’s like the oxygen mask on a plane….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a different poster, but you must not be paying attention to scotus, trump and his plan for striking down birthright citizenship.
You will no longer be a citizen because your parents are immigrants.

I’m not worried. They’d become l US citizens when I was born.

I’m also married to someone whose great-great grandparents were immigrants in 1845. What about him?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges want out of state kids hoping to lure in talent that will stay post graduation and improve their state. This is especially true of graduate school. I don’t see that happening with international students who take that education back home. If they want to pay on their dime that’s fine but taxpayer dollars flowing to private universities in particular should prioritize citizen students.

The vast majority of international students are full-pay.

Why not take more American full pay instead??

Because part of what makes an education at a top school so amazing is being in an Econ class and having fellow students from Singapore and South Africa and France asking really interesting questions about how the model would apply in their society, or taking a literature class and having someone from India talk about how Jane Austen speaks to them. If you want to dumb down an educational experience, start by eliminating all of the international students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^
Where did they go to school ?

Most studied at Harvard. Makes perfect sense that the xenophobic president (more likely the xenophobic Stephen Miller) whose mother, grandfather, and two wives were immigrants wants to cripple Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students.

This is one a partial list.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis (Greece)
Current Prime Minister of Greece (since 2019).
Studied at Stanford University (B.A. in Social Studies) and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan)
First woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country.
Studied at Harvard (Radcliffe College) and later at Oxford.
Served as Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988–1990, 1993–1996).

Carlos Salinas de Gortari (Mexico)
President of Mexico (1988–1994).
Earned a Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard University

Sebastián Piñera (Chile)
President of Chile (2010–2014, 2018–2022).
Earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

Rafic Hariri (Lebanon)
Former Prime Minister of Lebanon.
Studied business in the U.S. (University of Texas, briefly)

Abhisit Vejjajiva (Thailand)
Former Prime Minister of Thailand
Educated at Harvard as an undergraduate

Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Singapore)
Current President of Singapore (since 2023).
Studied at Harvard Kennedy School (Master’s in Public Administration).

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia)
President of Liberia (2006–2018).
Master of Public Administration from Harvard — a trailblazer for women in African politics.

Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya)
Former President of Kenya (2013–2022).
Studied political science and economics at Amherst College.

Ban Ki-moon (South Korea)
Former UN Secretary-General (2007–2016).
MPA from Harvard Kennedy School.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Nigeria)
Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
Studied at Harvard and MIT (Ph.D. in Economics).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a different poster, but you must not be paying attention to scotus, trump and his plan for striking down birthright citizenship.
You will no longer be a citizen because your parents are immigrants.

I’m not worried. They’d become l US citizens when I was born.

I’m also married to someone whose great-great grandparents were immigrants in 1845. What about him?

I believe Trump and his people are trying to exclude everyone whose parents were not born in the US, thus irrelevant that your parents *became* citizens. He doesn't want them either. Your husband clears that hurdle. I'm always amazed at how easily people think they are in the protected class and this is about others. No, it's about you.
My family on both sides have been here for 200+ years, and yet, I'm still concerned about others and their being protected and not targeted by this white nationalism.