Immigration is among the more contentious issues in contemporary politics and often becomes a flash point during times of economic duress. As universities strive to increase their share of the growing number of internationally mobile students, immigration policy in parts of Europe has come into conflict with the ambitions of the higher-education sector.
Britain, which attracts more foreign students than any other country in the world after the United States, offers the starkest example of this disconnect. The Conservative Party campaigned in 2010 on a pledge to curb immigration if elected, and the goal has remained a key policy plank for the coalition government.
Shortly after taking office, Home Secretary Theresa May announced plans to significantly reduce the number of immigrants allowed into Britain each year. To the dismay of universities, students from outside the European Economic Area are included in this group, a classification that university leaders say puts Britain “out of sync” with the way international students are viewed in competing countries, such as Australia, Canada, and the United States.
In some ways the government simply wants to clamp down on abuses of the student-visa system, a move that universities support. Institutions enrolling international students must now be certified by the government, an effort to weed out bogus establishments, many of them small private colleges that take in students whose intention is to work illegally in Britain.
But other changes affect mainstream universities and their ability to attract international talent. For instance, students can no longer bring dependents with them unless they are enrolled in a graduate program lasting more than a year. As of April, the government has also closed off a route that allowed students to look for work after graduation. Now international students must now have a job offer in order to remain in the country once their student visas expire. There are also minimum income requirements.
Government officials argue that these changes should not deter legitimate students from studying in Britain, but university leaders counter that perception is often more important than reality. And the perception in countries like India, they say, is that Britain no longer welcomes foreign students.
In a letter last week to Prime Minister David Cameron, 68 university leaders made clear what is at stake. In 2009, Britain claimed 9.9 percent of the global market in international students, with export earnings of £7.9-billion, or about $12.7-billion. That amount could more than double by 2025, the leaders said, if Britain forges the right path. Among the first things the government could do to support universities’ efforts to internationalize would be to remove international students from the government’s definition of immigrants.
A Controversial Decision Reversed
In France, too, universities have recently had to cope with the fallout from more restrictive immigration policies championed by a conservative interior minister. A controversial directive issued last year by then-minister Claude Guéant called on local authorities, which authorize student and employment visas for foreigners, to crack down on requests by students to transition to work visas. The policy resulted in delays in the processing of work visas for hundreds of graduates and prompted widespread opposition among students and academics, thousands of whom signed a petition denouncing the measure. Early this year the government backed down and revised the policy to allow the granting of temporary work visas on a case-by-case basis to foreigners with graduate degrees.
During the recent French election campaign, the Socialist candidate François Hollande pledged that he would make annulling the directive a priority if elected, and last week the new interior minister repealed the controversial measure. Geneviève Fioraso, the new minister for higher education and research, has yet to unveil her plans for the job, but during the election campaign Mr. Hollande, now president, made clear that he would seek to pass measures to make France more hospitable to foreign students and graduates.
In Sweden, in contrast, Parliament defeated a motion that would have made it easier for doctoral students from outside the European Union and the European Economic Area to remain in the country to work after completing their degrees.
Under existing rules, the time that foreign doctoral students spend living in Sweden while they work toward their degrees, usually earning money and paying taxes, does not count toward the four years of residency that are a prerequisite to seeking permanent residency status. Other foreign workers living in Sweden are allowed to count the years during which they are working toward their residency requirement, but doctoral candidates are considered students, not workers. An online petition aimed at sending what it called “a clear message” to the government that it was in the country’s best interests to change the rules for doctoral students secured some 3,000 signatures before the measure was debated late last month.
A Different View
Germany, meanwhile, continues to stand apart in the degree to which it welcomes foreign students. Europe’s largest economy is also among the most popular destinations in the world for international students, tying with Australia for third place behind the United States and Britain. But unlike Britain and Australia, for which foreign students are an important source of income, Germany does not charge non-European students higher tuition. The prevailing German view of the role of foreign students emphasizes fostering international ties and, increasingly, educating skilled workers to fill a looming void caused by an aging population.
Another crucial difference, says Ulf Rinne, a senior research associate at the Institute for the Study of Labor, an independent research center in Bonn, is that Germany has largely escaped the worst of the economic crisis, which has pummeled Britain and bruised France. Germany’s shift to an immigrant nation is a recent one, and “immigration is a hot topic in general, but the popular debate is dominated by other topics,” such as Germany’s role in the future of the euro zone, says Mr. Rinne.
Ulrich Grothus, deputy secretary general of the German Academic Exchange Service, describes a “sea change” in German attitudes toward foreign students and immigration in recent years. Even 10 years ago, he says, there was still a need to justify to more conservative lawmakers in some parts of the country why foreign students didn’t immediately return to their home countries upon finishing their studies. “Now we need to justify why they go back,” he says.
Meanwhile, the European Union has encouraged member countries to adopt legislation known as the Students’ Directive. It covers issues such as conditions for the duration of stay and the procedures for refusing to renew visas for students who fail to progress in their studies. There is no common E.U. framework to cover the transition of international students to workers, although there are laws that govern the treatment of highly skilled foreigners. The so-called E.U. blue card allows such workers who meet certain conditions, such as providing proof of a well-paid job offer, to work and live in Europe. Again, Britain, which has a long history of standing apart from the rest of Europe on immigration policy, decided against adopting the directive, meaning the European rule is not enforceable domestically.
As Germany recently moved to enact blue-card legislation into national law, it also passed a package of measures tweaking existing rules to further improve conditions for foreign students and academics. The grace period international graduates are given to look for a job was increased from 12 months to 18 months, and no restrictions are placed on whether they can work during this period. International students were given permission to work longer than under previous regulations. Foreign academics will also benefit from more liberal residency restrictions.
Mr. Grothus and Mr. Rinne agree that most Germans recognize that their country will soon face a skilled-labor shortage and that foreign students could play an essential role in maintaining Germany’s economic prowess. As Europe continues to face turbulence over the future of its common currency and as immigration levels rise, Germany’s international educators are hoping that such attitudes remain the norm.
