Trump’s student visa plan will hurt Africa, US

Against a backdrop of rising tensions with the Soviets in 1959, President John F Kennedy delivered a speech in New York that presented a new strategic approach towards African nations and US global leadership in a world defined by great-power competition.
“Opening our universities and college doors to several times as many African students as now come over — this would be an investment which would be repaid to this country many times over in increased goodwill, trade and national security.”
Kennedy’s efforts spoke directly to US national interests. Sixty years later, the Trump administration’s new plan to restrict Africans from educational opportunities in the US works directly against American competitiveness and lasting geopolitical power.
The bipartisan commitment to support Africans who want to study in America has been a secret weapon in our competition with foreign adversaries, from the Soviet Union to China today.
Since 1950, the US has welcomed an estimated 1.6 million African students to colleges and universities, and many have later risen to positions of prominence and power in their home countries, according to data from Open Doors, a research and advocacy group focussing on international students. Those students who chose to remain have contributed to the US economy, innovative edge and cultural diversity.
In recent years, the US has fallen behind China as the top destination for African students, and the Trump administration is contemplating a move that would further hobble America’s race for Africa’s sharpest minds. At the end of September, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) introduced a set of draft rules for young Africans from 36 countries. Students from countries with a visa overstay rate of more than 10% would be limited to a two-year visa, with a possible two-year extension. That would inject uncertainty into the student visa process and almost certainly dissuade students from choosing to attend US colleges and universities.
If implemented, the DHS policy would significantly undercut US interests, weaken the US economy, sour African and US political relations and hurt the American brand at home and abroad.
International students contributed $41 billion to the US economy in 2019, with African students contributing about $1.7 billion. This helps countless American companies, from a dorm room lamp bought at a Target store to a laptop from Apple to an Uber Eats delivery. Importantly, about 62% of international students receive the majority of their funds from sources outside of the US, such as family or home-country government assistance. Furthermore, Open Doors found, three US jobs are created for every seven international students, meaning African students supported more than 20,000 American jobs in 2019 alone.

—Bloomberg