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American universities run on international students. For decades, schools have competed to enroll students from all over the world, and many rely on their talent and labor — as well as their tuition dollars. But over the past few months, the Trump administration, often citing national-security concerns, has tried to either block international students from entering the country or revoke the visas they already have. Some, like Palestinian Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, have been targeted for peaceful protests against Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Others say they have been targeted for as little as an unpaid traffic ticket or nothing at all.
The government’s first run of attempts to revoke student visas without due process began in March and April. After students met those attempts with a wave of lawsuits, the administration looked for other ways to punish institutions that it sees as defying its agenda. This week, Trump signed a proclamation preventing Harvard from issuing new student visas (late Thursday, a federal judge blocked him in turn). Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the government would begin to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” Which fields would that be? The administration hasn’t specified. Here, a Chinese doctoral candidate studying climate change at an elite institution describes how the chaos has changed his plans and already damaged U.S. academia.
I never thought about going abroad for my education when I was in high school in Beijing. Honestly, I went abroad because I failed my college entrance exam! Exams in China are extremely competitive and there was only one shot. I did so badly that I had to go to school in Canada. I don’t mean to be arrogant — I’m very grateful for that university’s generosity. Then I came to the U.S. for my master’s, and now I’m doing my Ph.D. with still two or three years to go. The majority of my high-school friends are in the U.S. now, most of them in the tech sector. Why? I mean, the U.S. is a talent magnet.
As anyone would expect, I came here primarily for the intellectual freedom, the room for critical thinking and debate. But that’s changing. The Sino-U.S. tension has been around all this time, and perhaps it’s pathetic, but I’m quite used to that. The difference is, during Trump’s first term, it was all political rhetoric. Nothing really landed. Whereas this time the uncertainty is real.
After the last inauguration, I’ve been keeping a very close eye on all kinds of developments. What drew my attention first was the tariff war. I could see from the very beginning he was going to target international students because of the Palestinian-protest question. I never had difficulty getting a student visa before. I spent a couple years at home in Beijing during COVID then came back to the U.S. in 2022, and I didn’t hesitate to return — my program is superb, unparalleled in so many ways. Good or bad, we’re in a lovely academic bubble, different from the politics going around us. Then ICE started coming to campuses. That was a very concerning moment. Students started to circulate all kinds of resources, about pro bono legal services and other, more expensive legal services; tips about who to call; and how to respond if ICE knocks on your door. I’ve never interacted with ICE or even with police, not in China or in any country.
For students, March was the hardest. Everything that happened to the Palestinian protesters at Columbia was very stressful. People were deported for no reason, or self-deported. And there was also always this looming travel ban. For some of my friends, it was just difficult to stay motivated. Pakistan was on the initial travel-ban list, and my Pakistani friend commented that if she could not really travel for her research, and she could not go home, what was the point of staying here? My mom has always been supportive of me being here — no matter how competitive the U.S. is, it’s still less competitive than China — but my dad is worried because of all the hostility. My dad and I started discussing whether I should get a travel visa to Canada so I can leave if I need to. That way I could fly to Canada, then fly to my next destination. I’ve never done that before, not just in case I need to leave.
The statement that Marco Rubio made about Chinese students — my understanding is that my school is trying to get more communication with the government, but so far we have not heard anything. I more understand it as, again, rhetoric rather than something material. Whenever I go on Chinese social media, the subject is impossible to escape. People are sharing news reports about the tariffs and the targeting of Chinese students. Similar nationalism arises in China, as well, as it did in the COVID era. When people talk about international students on Chinese social media, it’s a complex mix of reactions because China also wants to attract talent back home. In China, you need a special residency permit to live in specific cities, and the benefits of getting a permit for big cities like Shanghai are the greatest. In recent years, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and other very rich cities have started to attract students who studied abroad by allowing them to get a permit there on the condition that they graduate from a top university. I don’t think Chinese people’s concern is students going abroad. It’s still generally thought that the U.S. has the best technology, knowledge, and research. It’s more the concern that people do not go back to China to serve their country and do research there. At the end of the day, though, most Chinese students do go back because it’s very hard to find a job here and secure a work permit.
This is all part of a longer history. Even before this year, there was already a trend of people leaving to either go back to China or go to other countries, such as Canada, Singapore, or the U.K., because of the very famous Gang Chen case at MIT. I mean, after that, Chinese academics, professors, and researchers were very worried, so they either changed their research subjects or switched to other institutions. I think it’s important to connect that to the recent crisis. It’s not really about F-1 students — I mean, undergrad programs are only three or four years. That’s not that much of a commitment compared to a professional career.
Right now, though, all the international students I know — from Pakistan, Mexico, Canada, India, Russia, Turkey, and Australia — they’re all worried. Even the Canadian and Australian students. I believe the majority of international students, of every nationality, are not traveling. The regime of fear is also deterring conference participants. I went to this conference at Harvard and so many international academics, who are not even in STEM disciplines, are very afraid to travel to the U.S. I should have three conferences scheduled for this year — two in the U.K., one in Germany — but I’m not going to any of them. What effect does that have on my career? I mean, it’s tremendous. In addition to socializing with other like-minded academics, I was hoping to use the conferences to expand my subject matter and meet people from a new discipline I’m exploring, but now it’s not possible.
Whatever happens, I mostly just feel sad. Despite all this geopolitical hostility, I’ve been treated extremely well as a Chinese student at my school, and I believe most international students feel the same. U.S. academia is unparalleled. It’s very open minded. It’s very interdisciplinary. Whereas in the European or Chinese system, Ph.D. students are really just doing their supervisors’ research projects, here — at least in my program — we are encouraged to pursue whatever we want, and to learn from the crazy ideas of other students. The academics here are brilliant. But given this environment, I don’t think I want to stay in the U.S. after I’ve finished my Ph.D. — or at least I should say I’m exploring many different options. I may go to other countries to do my field work, as well as to stay away from these politics. I’m definitely looking for opportunities in Europe or Asia. But then again, for academics, jobs are very scarce anywhere. So I have very little leverage. I will just follow wherever there is a job.
So now I have emergency contacts in my phone. I have my Canadian travel visa. I have a long-term U.K. visa as well, because of the two conferences I mentioned, and now I’m thinking I should just save it for an emergency. Compared to many of my colleagues from other countries, I think I’m in a privileged position. I mean, worst-case scenario, I will just go back home to Beijing and live with my parents and finish my Ph.D. Whereas some of our friends, they cannot go back. One of them, her family no longer has property nor a proper home back in her home country. That’s a much more stressful situation. I think the same feeling is shared by most internationals: It’s this general hostility, if not xenophobia, that’s concerning. As millennials, we grew up imagining a united world, a globalizing world, but apparently we’re not going there.
As for incoming students — there was a Chinese student I talked to who was debating between my school or another institution in Hong Kong. I gave her the advice to come to my school. And now … I’m not sure if that was the best solution. She was basically worried about whether she could still go back to China to see her parents. Now I worry about the same thing. I still believe that it will be very hard to revoke our visas and, even if they do, that there may be a ban from the courts. But in the long run, the damage has already been done. There’s no way that we can return to that secure environment of exchange.
