How much do you know about international students who study in the US? Did it ever occur to you that some of your classmates or schoolmates actually don't identify themselves as "American?" In what ways are they considered "international" instead of "domestic?" How many international students are there in the US? What kind of trend and policy bring them here or push them away?

According to the definition of UNESCO, "international (or internationally mobile) students" refer to those "who have crossed a national or territorial border for the purpose of education and are now enrolled outside their country of origin" (UNESCO). Even though it uses "country of origin" to specify, we need to understand that this concept can be more complicated than what it sounds like. For instance, some people associate their country of origin with their nationalities, while others associate it with their cultural, religious, or lingual backgrounds.

According to Statista, in the 2019-2020 academic year, there were 1,075,496 international students studying in the US (Statista, 2020). This number has dropped drastically from the previous academic year (2018-2019) when 1,095,299 international students came to the US to pursue their studies, mostly due to the irruption from the Covid-19 pandemic (Israel and Batalova, 2021). Before the year of 2019, the number of international students in the US had always been increasing since 2004, as shown in the graphic below (Statista, 2020). Despite the decline, the United States is still the biggest receiving country of international students around the world (International Student.com). The proportion of international students in US higher education has maintained 5.5% in the last three years (Statista, 2020). Many believe that it is the advanced US higher education system, both for its teaching/researching capacity and service, that these students were drawn to.

These international students, on the one hand, fuel the American universities, since they usually pay full tuition for their studies. "At public universities, the out-of-state tuition they pay has helped make up for a drop in state funding, especially after the Great Recession" (Fischer, 2021). Duffin (2020) also noted that: "Foreign students in the United States pay some of the highest fees... with an average of 24,914 U.S. dollars." On the other hand, they also intensify the competitiveness in the US job market, as Fischer (2021) wrote in their article, "Foreign students often go on to build their lives in the United States, filling our faculty offices, our laboratories, our boardrooms." This contrasting attitude toward international students has led to whimsical policy shifts regarding this group. Sometimes, international students are welcome to study and work in this country; sometimes, they are welcome to study, but not to work here; and sometimes, they are not welcome at all. This policy change reached its peak during the Covid crisis.

For example, in the summer of 2020, the ICE released a new guidance for international students, which required those who chose to study fully online to return to their campus and take at least one in-person course, in order to maintain their student visa status (LA Times, 2020). Though this guidance was not implemented completely in the end, it caused tremendous anxiety and uncertainty for all international students at the time. Even in the post-pandemic era, the future awaiting international students will still be in the mist.

On Statista's ranking of Number of International Students by Country of Origin, China is in the first place. Among the 1,075,496 international students, 372,532 are Chinese international students, while India, who's in the second place, sends 193,124 students to America. The number of Chinese students in the US has been increasing since 2009, although the growth rate has been dropping in recent 7 years. The top four fields that Chinese students prefer to study are mathematics, computer science, engineering, and business. It's also worth noting that "the vast majority of Chinese students were self-funded, with the remainder receiving state-funding to complete their overseas studies" (Textor, 2021).

This enthusiasm of Chinese young people studying abroad is ascribed to several factors. In a formerly colonized and developing nation, the rhetoric about the West being more advanced and China being backwards is still pervasive in the society. Thus, many Chinese people naturally associate America with having better work opportunities, higher incomes and social status, fairer system, and more freedom (Yan & Berliner, 2010). Moreover, China's own economic growth certainly has created bigger upper and middle class groups, and therefore boosted the willingness and feasibility of Chinese students going abroad. Some also hypothesize that China's Only Child Policy might have contributed to this trend, since the parents have higher expectations and sufficient funds for their only child's education.

In addition to the challenges that all international students are facing, the situation for Chinese students in the US can also be very unique due to the complex relationship between the two big powers, as well as the discrepancies between the two cultures. Since early 2020, there has been a regulation banning Chinese students in STEM fields from studying in the US (Wang, 2021). This ban, unfortunately, is still in place as the year of 2021 is concluding. The news about Chinese students being harassed or even deported when they tried to enter the US border is often heard. In the meantime, Chinese students may constantly feel that they are living "in between" as they adjust to American culture and the academic settings (Yan & Berliner, 2010). When figuring out their identities in the strange land, they also have to deal with discriminations, microaggressions, and/or stereotypes against Chinese and/or Asian people.

Self-Strengthening Movement 洋务运动

(Mid to Late 19th Century)

After Qing Dynasty was smashed by the European countries in the mid 19th century, the Qing imperial government did try to reflect on its own failure and learn from the Western countries. However, the reflection and learning were only limited to the technology of weapon and ship making, medicine, and language acquisition, instead of culture and value. Thus, Qing sent young children and youth to England, France, Germany, and Japan to study these technologies. These young students were prescribed to return to China and serve the Qing government.

New Culture Movement 新文化运动

(Early 20th Century)

When Qing was finally terminated, the New Culture Movement began in the chaotic and unstable time following the closure of Qing. In this movement, more Chinese people recognized the deeper problems embedded in Chinese society, and therefore started to seek a new path for China to save and modernize itself. With this purpose in heart, a large number of young adults went abroad to study a variety of disciplines. The popular destinations around that time included France, Japan, the US, and Russia. Unlike the government-funded students during the Self-Strengthening period, these older students usually paid for themselves or finished their degrees through work-study programs. They were not only interested in science and technology, but also interested in philosophy, sociology, literature, history, etc. These international students, together with many domestic students, initiated the New Culture Movement, aiming to wake China up and adapt to a new kind of culture.

Reform and Opening-up 改革开放

(1978 - Present)

After China experienced all the ups and downs in the past 100 years, it finally led itself into a relevantly stable and prosperous period. With the Reform and Opening-up policy put into action, China has been sending students and workers abroad and introducing business opportunities into the country. Generally speaking, China was like a humble student, trying hard to absorb all kinds of knowledge from all over the world in the past four decades. However, as China's economy becomes the second largest in the world, its global power has been increasing in the most recent decade. ChinaPower, a research project dedicated to study China's growth, claimed that "In just a few decades, China has moved from the periphery to the center of the international system." Because of this newly emerged confidence, China and Chinese students are rethinking their stance, identity, history, and culture when communicating with whole world.