The Baggage You Can’t Check
Fear
April 21, 2025
“Why are the international students in class so quiet? I keep asking them what they need but they don’t speak up,”
said a faculty member to me at the large Midwestern campus that I was visiting. I was there to do a workshop for university administrators and faculty on understanding international students and ensuring their well-being.
This question has come up in some shape or form at the 30+ American campuses I have been on in the past four years. It is a question I have considered as well and there isn’t a simple answer. One set of reasons has to do with where students come from and the cultural and social norms they have grown up with. My book describes how many young Indian women of my generation were sent the social message to be quiet and not speak too much, especially in situations where one was face-to-face with those in a position of authority. Regardless of gender, this sort of social conditioning is true for many international students, the majority of whom are from Asian countries where deference to teachers and professors—or the “sage on the stage” approach to education—is deeply ingrained, and where students struggle with the “guide on the side” ethos of American post-secondary classrooms.
But another reason for the silence has nothing to do with where students come from but has everything to do with where they have arrived.
Fear and apprehension are the travel companion of every international student and never leave their side during their journeys in the U.S.
It begins when they stand outside a U.S. consulate for the first time, wondering whether their visa will be denied (as it is for over half of all African students), to when they arrive in the U.S. and wait at the border for their immigration papers to be scrutinized, to when they are on campus and are worried that they might unwittingly run afoul of rules and regulations that would result in their student visas being terminated.
We should never underestimate the trepidation that international students feel. Fanta Aw, Executive Director and CEO of NAFSA, said it just right in a recent article:
Between SEVIS and university compliance documents that record things like academic standing and residency, international students are “some of the most tracked people in the country…there is no other group that has anything comparable.”
The subliminal fear that international students feel probably also explains why so few of them seek out campus services such as mental health support despite these issues being on the rise amongst all American students, including international students.
It’s all about staying under the radar and not drawing too much attention to oneself.
Yet, in just the past few years, international students began to find their voices, motivated in part by the Black Lives Matter movement and their growing awareness of belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups in the U.S. It was exciting and inspiring to watch international students rallying and protesting alongside their Black classmates, expressing their ideas and feelings collectively as perhaps never before.
In just the past decade we have witnessed a growing number of international students going shoulder-to-shoulder with their American peers, taking on leadership roles in campus-based organizations, whether it is graduate student associations, diversity and inclusion-focused groups, or serving as student representatives on campus-wide committees—roles that allowed them to move beyond the confines of being an “international” student.
A key element of my student-facing workshops and talks in recent years has been to remind international students of their agency and to encourage them to develop self-advocacy in order to succeed on an American campus. After all, they are surrounded by American students who have been taught the critical skills of self-expression and advocacy from an early age.
But the developments over the past month have effectively silenced the international student voice.
As of this writing, over 1,550 international student visas across 240 institutions have been revoked. I don’t know how we continue to ask international students to speak up; to participate fully in their American education; to embrace what an American education has to offer, which is so much more than just obtaining a Made-in-America credential.
Yet I also know that international students are resilient and the closing paragraph of my book applies just as much today as when I wrote it a few years ago:
“International students have grit and are unfazed because they are used to struggles and upheavals and dealing with ruptures in their daily lives, be it fleeing to seek refuge elsewhere, facing health crises, or coping with domestic terrorism. And the arc of history shows us that a student’s quest always recovers because of the strong desire to seek something better, to learn and go beyond. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes.”
From Chapter 22, America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility
READ!
Here are some more resources and reflections from these past few weeks:
Inside Higher Education tracker of visa revocations: Led by reporters Liam Knox and Ashley Mowreader, Inside Higher Ed has compiled a dataset of colleges and universities across the nation that have indicated visa revocations for current students or recent alumni. The database was first published April 8 and will be updated regularly.
Silencing international students corrodes the spirit of higher education: Op-ed by Haishan (Sam) Yang of the University of Southern California and Gerardo Blanco of Boston College.
The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration along with 86 institutions and higher ed associations in the U.S. has submitted an amicus brief in support of AAUP’s (American Association of University Professors) case challenging the revocation of visas and detentions of non-citizen students and scholars. The brief is long but if you have the patience to read it, it makes a comprehensive data-based argument for the short- and long-term impacts on the U.S. of international student visas being revoked.
NYT article on the impact of these recent developments on U.S. colleges and universities.
Our foreign students are terrified, and they have a right to be: NYT op-ed by Rachel Riedl and Stephen Yale-Loehr.
LISTEN!
With everything going on this past month with international students, it feels like an opportune time to listen to and reflect on their journeys and experiences. Here are two episodes from the World Wise podcast.
➡️ An international student’s passage from India: Aryan D’Rozario. Since the time of this recording, Aryan graduated from Oxford and is now a Programs Coordinator at the East-West Center in Washington, DC.
➡️ Helping students finance their international education dreams: A conversation with Emmanuel (Manu) Smadja. Manu is a former international student to the U.S. from France and is the co-founder of MPOWER Financing.
On the Road: Walking the red carpet!
No, I didn’t really walk the red carpet at Cannes, but I did get to take a photo on the stairs of the Palais des Festivals where the legendary film festival is held. I was there to deliver the keynote for the Global University Systems (GUS) Partners' Conference and participate in a panel discussion on how recent national and policy-related developments around the world are affecting higher education. It was an opportunity to learn from education leaders from all over, while also catching up with colleagues Tony Ogden, David Fisher, and Denver Muirhead.
Upcoming Events: Join us!
Do international students want what you’re offering? Assessing your institution’s program portfolio
When & Where: April 25, 12pm ET, Sign up here
We are pleased to have partnered once again with the Oxford Education International Group to develop a report on how academic preferences, labor market trends, and national policies are shaping international student choices. Come join us for this webinar with a panel of institution leaders, including Cheryl Matherly of Lehigh University and Bryan Gross of Hartwick college, to discuss the implications of the report. Also joining the panel will be Tonya Creamer and Alex Korda of Oxford International. Don’t forget to get your copy of the report and to sign up for the webinar.
Reserve my spot for the webinar!
𝐖𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐂-𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬: C𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐔.𝐒.-𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬, 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, and internationalization
Date & time of higher ed panel: May 10, 2025, 10:45 - 11:30am
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, Washington D.C.
Registration link: https://hopkinsindia.events.whova.com/registration/
I'm delighted to be chairing a panel and leading a timely conversation with Sunil Kumar of Tufts University, Leah Mason of IIE, Hanan Saab of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and Shuchita Sonalika of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) about how the U.S. and India can engage even further through higher education and internationalization. The panel is part of a two-day event organized by the Gupta-Klinsky India Institute at Johns Hopkins University and Indiaspora. Registration for this two day event covering various aspects of U.S.-India relations is free but will close soon.
Get your copy of America Calling
Signed copies (for sale in the U.S. only)
