Who Pays? New Study Considers Cost of Foreign Students

Center for immigration studies email alert ^ | May 22, 2008 | David North

[AuntB]

Foreign Students Do Not Help with the Balance of Payments

WASHINGTON (May 2008) – Lobbying groups frequently claim that foreign students are a benefit to America’s balance of payments, comparable to a booming export sector. For instance, the Institute for International Education (IIE) asserts that foreign students contributed a net $14.5 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2006-07 school year by paying for tuition and living expenses with resources from abroad, representing a net inflow of nearly $25,000 per year, every year, from the average foreign student.

To assess these claims, the Center for Immigration Studies has published a new Backgrounder, “Who Pays? Foreign Students Do Not Help with Balance of Payments,” written by immigration researcher David North. Acknowledging other, non-financial reasons the United States might benefit from admitting foreign students, North examines the most recent IIE report on foreign students’ monetary contributions and compares it to two other studies on the subject. His report finds that the balance-of-payments claim is totally without merit.

The complete report is available online at http://www.cis.org/articles/2008/back608.html and includes the following findings:

# The IIE assumes that the only cost to the domestic sources is tuition. However, partially hidden subsidies from U.S. sources, such as endowments and taxpayer contributions to state schools, are not taken into consideration.

# The IIE report relies on questionable data collection techniques, using foreign student advisers as a primary source for determining whether students’ funding originated overseas or domestically. In the most recent year, little more than half of the foreign student advisers surveyed even responded to the survey’s question on the origin of students’ resources.

# While the IEE claims that two-thirds or more of foreign students’ funding comes from abroad – i.e., money pumped into the U.S. economy from abroad – other, more rigorous studies that surveyed the students themselves have produced very different results. In prior research, the author found that only 10.4 percent of the foreign students’ incomes came from overseas, the rest coming from U.S. sources. A multi-agency survey of doctoral students found that only 9.7 percent of foreign students’ resources came from overseas.

[AuntB]

Charts, graphs, complete study and article here:

http://www.cis.org/articles/2008/back608.html

[AuntB]

I wonder about those tens of thousands of extra Saudi students the Bush administration decided to let in.....their rich Saudi parents aren’t paying much of it, are they?

Some interesting stuff in this study:

“I find it hard to accept the IEE estimate that on average international students bring $24,872 from overseas — every year — when a majority of the parents of the people I interviewed did not even have an automobile.16

It is more than slightly ironic that the other annual publication of the IIE is entitled “Funding for United States Study: A Guide for International Students and Professionals.”17 It is a how-to book, as its introduction states, “designed to be a descriptive guide to financial assistance for prospective international students interested in studying or doing research in the United States.”

[Neoliberalnot]

I guarantee that foreign students do not come close to paying the full cost of their education. Graduate students come to the US in droves and rarely bring money from foreign sources. Every student is seeking a US funded stipend.

[AuntB]

On top of that you can be sure they are getting their free medical care, food stamps, and what else? A few of them have killed some of us...so there is incarceration/trial costs on top of that. It’s a loosing situation. Our kids need to fill our colleges. Often classes are full and our kids (happened to mine!) can’t get in.

[muawiyah]

Foreign students, unlike your typical illegal alien, are required by law to sign up for medical insurance.

End of story.

[abigailsmybaby]

....required by law....

As if that means anything.

[muawiyah]

It definitely does. You have to remember, ICE is here to enforce laws against foreigners with a legal presence in the country. They really don’t have much interest in those here illegally.