Visitors or immigrants? International students in the United States

Abstract

Even though international students are officially temporary migrants, many eventually become immigrants to the United States. Despite the large number of students who adjust their status, little is known about their migration intentions and decisions. We used a questionnaire sent to international students at the University of Minnesota to investigate these migration intentions. Here we report the factors that students consider in deciding whether to stay in the US or return to their home country on completion of their studies, and how these factors vary by nationality or other characteristics, such as gender or field of study. We also investigate whether international students see their stay in the US as temporary or as a springboard towards permanent immigration. Our findings suggest that few students arrive in the US with the intention of immigrating permanently. Instead, a wide variety of professional, societal and personal factors influence students in an ongoing decision‐making process. Broadly speaking, economic and professional factors typically act as strong incentives to stay in the US, while personal and societal factors tend to draw students back to their home countries. In the long run, a natural progression of professional and personal decisions leads many to become permanent immigrants. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Why do they return? Beyond the economic drivers of graduate return migration

“…In a similar vein, by focusing on the impact of a scheme granting scholarships to students resident in the Italian less developed region of Basilicata, Coniglio and Prota (2008) found that student mobility significantly increases the likelihood of future migration thanks to its impact on the shape and geographical scope of social networks. Similar mechanisms drive return migration, in that having strong social ties in the home country can favour return migration or brain circulation (Hazen and Alberts 2006;Meyer 2001;Saxenian 2006;Saxenian et al 2002;Vertovec 2002).…”

“…Interestingly, given the large amount of funding that has been directed at student mobility, there are only a few studies that explicitly target FMG and these have not arrived at a shared understanding of the determinants of their locational choice following graduation (Geddie 2010;Hazen and Alberts 2006;Marinelli 2011;Venhorst 2013).…”

“…The conceptualisation of the migration decision as a circular process, also referred to as brain circulation (Gaillard and Gaillard 1997), contrasts with the neoclassical approach since migration is no longer considered a one-off decision and also because it is no longer expected to necessarily be negative for the sending country/region. On the contrary, highly skilled international migrants can be of great value for the sending country/region, since their social ties with peers, professionals, family members, friends and so on can result in knowledge flows, foreign direct investment, return migration as well as brain circulation (Hazen and Alberts 2006;Meyer 2001;Saxenian 2006;Saxenian et al 2002;Vertovec 2002). The 'multiple situatedness' of migrants provides them with idiosyncratic structures of constraints and opportunities that shape their professional, economic and location choices (Olwig and Sørensen 2005).…”

Engaged pedagogy and responsibility: A postcolonial analysis of international students

“…In this literature, students are also viewed as incipient skilled migrants (Kuptsch, 2005) in 'the race for skills' (Ziguras and Law, 2006) and migration is seen as one way of channelling skills that are in formation. By offering extension of stay for immigrants with the right skills (Tremblay, 2005) and preferential treatment in points-based systems of migration (Baas, 2006;Hazen and Alberts, 2006), international students are encouraged to contribute their newly acquired skills to developing the economies of destination states (Findlay and Stam, 2006;King and Ruiz-Gelices, 2003) or indeed to return home to economically 'develop' sending countries.…”

Development of the Global-Self Through Collegiate Recreational Sports

“…To address the gap, it is helpful to review the literature on the experience of immigrants, as they often have similar attributes to international students and there has been more research done on their relationship to sport. Immigrants and international students face similar challenges in their new countries, including finances, language barriers, social isolation, and cultural dissonance (Hazen & Alberts, 2006;Kim, 2012). For immigrants, participation in sports has reduced the perception of us-versus-them (Allen et al, 2010;Coryell et al, 2012;Kim, 2012;Stodolska & Alexandris, 2004).…”