Trump promise of Muslim ban could cost the U.S. billions from international students

NAFSA: Association of International Educators on Monday expressed concern that the United States could potentially lose billions of dollars from international college student enrollment, an unintended result of a Trump presidency.

NAFSA released a report displaying the economic benefits the U.S. gains from international student enrollment in the nation’s colleges and universities. The analysis looks at a decade of growth in the number of international students on U.S. college and university campuses from 2005 to 2015.

International students contributed nearly $33 billion and supported more than 400,000 jobs to the U.S. economy during the 2015-2016 academic year.

The report comes just a week after the election of Donald J. Trump, who promised during his campaign to limit some foreign movement into the country. Campaign rhetoric has spread fear in the Middle East, where some countries warned citizens about travel to the U.S.

“It is too soon to know the exact impact of this election on international student recruitment. However, policies proposed by the current president-elect, such as banning all Muslims from our country, could have devastating effects on international student recruitment,” said Marlene M. Johnson, NAFSA’s executive director and CEO.

“With approximately 15 percent of foreign students coming from Muslim-majority countries, we stand to lose the innumerable academic, cultural and foreign policy benefits that these students bring to our nation. In addition, we risk the loss of up to $4.9 billion to the U.S. economy and more than 60,000 jobs.”

Johnson said that if U.S. campuses and communities are to continue to benefit from both the academic and economic benefits international students bring, “we must ensure that our government policies encourage them to choose the United States as their first choice for higher education.”

Currently, the U.S. is the top choice for international students, with the United Kingdom a distant second, said Rachael Banks, a NAFSA spokeswoman. Most of the foreign students in the U.S. come from China and India.

Eleven years ago, during the 2004-2005 academic year, the boost to the U.S. economy from foreign students was approximately $13.3 billion.

According to NAFSA, for every seven international students studying in this country, three U.S. jobs are created by student spending occurring in higher education, housing, dining, retail, transportation, telecommunications and health insurance.

The report breaks down the economic impact by state, revealing that for 2015-2016 in Kansas, 10,351 international students generated $247.2 million and created 2,516 jobs. Those numbers are down from the previous year, when there were more than 12,000 students on campuses, spending $278 million and creating 2,755 jobs.

Missouri saw an increase in foreign students, dollars and jobs from 2014-2015 when 21,703 international students were enrolled in schools in the state, $615,00 million was generated and 7,200 jobs created.

The latest figures show 24,171 international students enrolled in schools in Missouri last fall, which contributed $696.4 million dollars and 8,123 jobs to the economy for that school year.

For NAFSA, Indiana University’s Office of International Services collected and analyzed enrollment data from the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors 2016 report and tuition and expense data from the Department of Education’s National Center of Educational Statistics.

This story was originally published November 14, 2016 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Trump promise of Muslim ban could cost the U.S. billions from international students."