Global is local edition
International migration is driving U.S. population gains. It includes foreign students.
International Boon to Local Communities
Last fall I found myself in Lansing, Michigan, having lunch with Bob Trezise, CEO of the Lansing Area Economic Partnership, the local economic development agency.
We’d just spent the morning driving around as Trezise pointed out the signs of the region’s growth, from the insurance company headquartered in an old industrial plant to a cutting-edge facility for studying rare isotopes under construction on the Michigan State campus. It was a remarkable turnaround, Trezise said – a decade earlier, 70 percent of the storefronts in the heart of Lansing had been vacant. Now, over club sandwiches, he wanted to tell me why the area was flourishing while other Rust Belt cities were not: immigration.
I thought of Trezise the other day when new census data came out. It showed that international migration – immigration and other international moves – was key to local population growth across the U.S. It’s true in both big cities and rural counties – and it’s especially critical in college towns. Of the 10 metro areas where international migration contributed the most to population growth, four were home to universities: Brookings (South Dakota State), Pullman (Washington State), Ames (Iowa State), and Champaign-Urbana (University of Illinois).
It’s much the same for the Lansing-East Lansing metro area, which gained 14,460 residents thanks to international migration between 2010 and 2017. Meanwhile, the domestic population declined by 12,653.
Because of low birth rates and rising death rates, 44 percent of the population nationally would be in shrinking counties if not for international moves. Instead, 27 percent is.
“The people who sit at these tables,” Trezise told me that day, gesturing around the cozy Soup Spoon Cafe, “many of them are immigrants. If it wasn’t for the 14,000, that would mean a lot of mom and pop restaurants closing, a lot of clothing stores not making it.”
Many of the newcomers to Lansing are there because of the auto industry and many are refugees – the region has long been a resettlement hub, although that is changing under President Trump. But a great many have come because of the presence of Michigan State: international students, professors and their families, graduates who stay on to work. About half of all Michigan State participants in optional practical training, the temporary post-graduate work program for international students, remain in the area, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
Trezise laments the share isn’t higher. And he is frustrated that federal policy makes it difficult for more of Michigan State’s 6,200 international students to put down long-term roots.
Yes, foreign students have helped Lansing stave off population losses. Yes, they are a major infusion of revenue into the region through the rent they pay, the cars they buy, the restaurant meals they consume. NAFSA estimates international students contribute more than $346 million to the economy around Michigan State. (Writing about the economic impact of international students was what brought me to Lansing in the first place. You can read the story – with a free link – here.)
But Trezise knows the infusion is only temporary. He worries, too, that it could diminish, and for good reason: The number of international students coming to the U.S. is falling, and even OPT growth is leveling off.
"Our federal policy already makes it hard for students to stay and work and create businesses," he said, "and now we want to make it harder for them to even come."
Trezise is a local guy; he grew up in Lansing. But for it, and communities across America, to thrive, he knows the future is global.
Live in a college town? What do international students mean for your local community? I’ll share your stories of local impact next week.
An Outsider’s Take
As someone whose bread and butter is international education, I’m always curious how foreign universities will be perceived by newcomers. So when my friend Jeff Selingo traveled to China for the first time last week, I was excited to hear his impressions.
He came away from a few days in Shenzen at a new joint engineering institute between Georgia Tech and Tianjin University struck, he said, by China’s investment in higher education versus declining public support in the U.S., especially at regional public universities. “In China there is a sense of optimism, opportunity, and growth.”
I think the comparison is a thought-provoking one, although it only goes so far. China is investing in quality, in its elite institutions, like the Georgia Tech-Tianjin joint venture. I’m unsure if he’d have quite the same takeaway if he visited a lesser-ranked university in a third-tier city.
For more, check out Jeff’s really good Twitter thread:
And if you want more international education tweets – with a side of baseball commentary – follow me @karinfischer.
Corruption Concerns
Falsification of transcripts. Nepotism in university hiring. Instructors who demand sexual favors in return for grades. All are forms of academic corruption, and a new report says that such unethical and sometimes illegal practices can be found worldwide.
“It’s both a developed and developing country issue,” says Judith S. Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which commissioned the report. “It cuts across all societies.”
It makes for uncomfortable but illuminating reading. Here’s what you should know:
It’s unclear if incidents of academic corruption are increasing, but attention is growing. That may be because more people around the globe are participating in higher education, Eaton told me. As more students cross borders in pursuit of a degree, it could lead to greater scrutiny of credentials and transcripts.
College admissions and recruitment are a particular area of concern. The issue has, of course, been in the spotlight with the arrest of wealthy parents in the admissions bribery scandal. But there are a number of corrupt practices that have dogged international education, including cheating on admissions tests, forged letters of recommendation, and the existence of fake institutions that serve as degree or visa mills.
There’s more for accreditors and other regulatory bodies to do to identify and combat academic corruption. The report is critical of procedures such as institutional self-assessment and cursory checklists, saying “such approaches are unlikely to uncover evidence of corruption in an institution.” Eaton, whose association is drafting an inventory of problematic practices, was blunt: “The report confirms that this is an issue and that there is more to do.”
Around the Globe
North Korea handed American negotiators a bill for $2 million for the care of Otto Warmbier before they released the comatose University of Virginia student. President Trump says no money was paid for Warmbier, who later died.
Charges were dropped against University of Arizona students who protested a talk by U.S. border agents. That hasn’t quelled the controversy on campus.
More than 250 academics worldwide have signed onto a letter to China’s Tsinghua University protesting the suspension and investigation of a prominent law professor who had spoken out about deepening repression under President Xi Jinping.
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro wants to eliminate public funding for philosophy and sociology at the nation’s universities:
Columbia University rescheduled a discussion about the rule of law in Turkey. Panelists suspect pressure from the Turkish government led to the original session’s cancellation.
Leaders of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, including a pair of academics, were sentenced to jail for their role in pro-democracy demonstrations. A former student leader was given a suspended sentence.
He was about to board a plane to go to college in the U.S. Instead, he was arrested and later executed for taking part in protests against the Saudi government.
Got international education news? Email me at latitudesnews@gmail.com.
And finally…
Interested in a position at the University of Nagasaki? You’d better be a nonsmoker. The Japanese university has said it won’t hire faculty members who light up unless they promise to quit. It’s part of a broader antismoking push on campus and in Japanese society.
Nagasaki isn’t alone. At Oita University, there is a “priority on nonsmokers” in hiring.
University officials are apparently unworried that the new policy could run afoul of discrimination laws. A spokesman told Agence France-Presse, “We have reached a conclusion that smokers are not fit for the education sector.”
’Til next week – Karin
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