Now Trump and the UK government are saying they want more international students to stay

Now Trump and the UK government are saying they want more international students to stay
Former US President Donald Trump wants to give foreign graduates green cards upon the completion of their studies in a US educational institute. Source: AFP

On June 20, 2024, former US president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that if re-elected, he would automatically grant green cards – officially known as permanent residency cards – to foreign graduates of US colleges.

“It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, the greatest schools, and lesser schools that are phenomenal schools also,” said Trump during his appearance on the All-In Podcast. “I think you should get, automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country and that includes junior colleges, too.”

It’s a statement that’s coming out of left field for a politician known for his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

His administration from 2017 to 2021 saw the denial rate for applications for H1-B visas (a non-immigrant work visa that allows US employers to hire foreign workers with specialised skills to work in the country for a specific period of time) for initial employment rise to 24% for the 2018 fiscal year and 21% in 2019; meanwhile, denial rates for H1-B visa renewals went up 12% in 2018 and 2019.

The H1-B visa, or any other temporary visa, is usually the first step towards permanent residency, especially for foreign graduates still waiting to receive their employment-based green card. 

In 2023, there were 6.4 million international students worldwide. In the US, higher education institutions welcomed 1,057,188 international students from more than 210 countries during the 2022/23 academic year. 

If enacted, this green card plan – even with heavy vetting, as said by a statement from a spokesperson and some scepticism – will see a surge in foreign graduates in the US. 

India Today, the most widely circulated magazine in India with a readership of close to eight million, wrote that Trump’s plan “could revolutionise US education for Indian students.” Within the article, India’s leading education consulting agency Career Mosaic comments, “We anticipate a surge in applications from Indian students in 2024/25, most likely owing to recent statements made by Trump.”

This, on top of the fact that India is one the US’s largest international student markets – only right behind China – reached an all-time high of 268,923 international students in 2022/23, a 35% increase against the previous year. Combined with China, they made up 53% of international students in the US in 2022/2023.

“I know of stories where people graduate from a top college, or from a college, and they desperately wanted to stay here. They had a plan for a company, a concept, and they can’t,” Trump said.

“They go back to India, they go back to China, they do the same basic company in those places and they become multi-billionaires employing thousands and thousands of people, and it could have been done here.”

The US aren’t the only ones hoping to secure more skilled foreign graduates into their ranks too. 

foreign graduates

The US has a Diversity Visa programme that allows more than 50,000 randomly selected people — only from countries that don’t send many immigrants to the country — to obtain permanent residency. Source: AFP

On July 22, 2024, UK’s new Labour government vowed to “welcome international students” by maintaining its Graduate Route visa – the country’s policy for post-study work rights that allows the holder to stay in the UK for at least two years after successfully completing a programme in the country. 

This comes after data showed a drop in main applicants in the first three months of 2024. Current numbers range around 34,000, while in 2022, they were around 46,900.

The Graduate Route visa, introduced in 2021, was previously said to have led to “unsustainable levels of immigration,” according to former Conservative minister Simon Clarke. In 2023, over 114,000 people claimed the visa, almost 18 times higher than those who stayed in the UK after being sponsored for a job in 2020. 

However, the claim that people were abusing the scheme has been disproved

UK Home Secretary James Cleverly commissioned a report from the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) and the results are clear: there is no evidence of “significant abuse” of the route, and they concluded that the graduate route is “not undermining the integrity of and quality of the UK higher education system.”

Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson adds to this, saying: “What we had under the Conservatives was a fascination and fixation with picking fights with the sector completely needlessly, just using universities as a source of cheap headlines. That is now at an end, but we need to get the regulation right.”