lawandborder.com

In academic year 2007/08, there were 81,127 students from China studying in the United States, up 19.8% from the previous year. That makes China the second-leading place of origin for students coming to the United States, following India (94,563). These figures were released in a study called Open Doors: Report on International Educational Exchange, published annually by the Institute of International Education with support from the U.S. Department of State.

In my opinion, the record numbers are in part attributable to aggressive recruiting by U.S. schools in China as well as China’s booming economy. Also, the numbers mark a rebound in Chinese students confidence in the U.S. visa system. After 9/11, Chinese students were disappointed by a high rate of visa denials and long security checks that delayed visa issuance by months for some.

According to the report, the majority of Chinese students study at the graduate level: 20.3% undergraduate, 65.4% graduate students, 4.8% other, 9.5% optional practical training.

China sent no students to the U.S. from the 1950s until 1974/75. In the 1980s, numbers of Chinese students grew dramatically, and in 1988/89, China displaced Taiwan as the leading sender. China was the leading place of origin from 1988/89 until it was displaced by Japan in 1994/95. In 1998/99, China overtook Japan as the leading sender, and remained in the number one position until being overtaken by India in 2001/02, and has remained in second place since.

Year: # of Students From China (% of Total Foreign Students in U.S.):

2007/08: 81,127 (13%)
2006/07: 67,723 (11.6%)
2005/06: 62,582 (11.1%)
2004/05: 62,523 (11.1%)
2003/04: 61,765 (10.8%)
2002/03: 64,757 (11.0%)
2001/02: 63,211 (10.8%)
2000/01: 59,939 (10.9%)
1999/00: 54,466 (10.6%)
1998/99: 51,001 (10.4%)
1997/98: 46,958 (9.8%)
1996/97: 42,503 (7.8%)
1995/96: 39,613 (8.7%)

Following Barack Obama’s landslide win in the presidential election, headlines in many newspapers read like this one from the New York Times: Election Unleashes a Flood of Hope Worldwide. It strikes me that part of the optimism is due to Obama’s compelling personal story as the son of an African immigrant as well as his own experiences living abroad.

His father, Barack Obama, Sr., traveled from Kenya on scholarship to study economics at the University of Hawaii. There, he met and married Ann Dunham, who gave birth to Barack Obama, Jr., in 1961.

Obama is not the first president to be the son of an immigrant. According to Wiki info (hat tip to ILW.com), five former presidents (Jefferson, Buchanan, Arthur, Wilson, Hoover) had one immigrant parent each, and one president (Jackson) had two immigrant parents. Still, being the son of an African immigrant is different. Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former president, said in a letter to Mr. Obama: “Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place.”

Also, Obama spent several years (1967-71) in Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. This was a time of Cold War chaos in Indonesia. Newsweek editor John Meacham believes Obama’s experience of “what American power feels like on the receiving end as opposed to the giving end” may help him think two steps ahead about the impact of U.S. actions abroad.

Obama wrote about his personal story in his books, Dreams of My Father and Audacity of Hope. He campaigned on his personal story. The next several years will show whether the current wave of global optimism is justified.

In July, I blogged about a Pew Research Center survey showing that Australia is the most popular destination for Chinese seeking to emigrate. Canada was ranked #2 and the U.S. #3. I theorized that the limited interest in emigrating to the U.S. is due to America’s current economic woes and plummeting international popularity because of the Iraq War.

Today, an OpEd in the Washington Post by Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace argues that we’re not witnessing the decline of the U.S.:

• The U.S. has a 21% share of the global economy, compared with 23% in 1990 and 22% in 1980. Although the U.S. is suffering economically, the world’s other major economies are too, and U.S. may be the first to come out of rescession.
   
• While America’s image is certainly damaged, the scale of damage doesn’t compare to the 1960s and 1970s, with the Vietnam War, the Watts riots, the My Lai massacre, Watergate, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy.
   
• Even in the Middle East, there’s been no fundamental strategic realignment against the U.S. due to the Iraq War. Longtime allies remain allies.