Latitudes

The U.S. doesn’t hold onto international graduates, study finds

Just-released research paints a fuller and more sophisticated picture of international students’ transition to the work force and impact on the American labor pool than previously understood. But the new paper also underscores how poorly the United States does in holding onto talented foreign graduates, finding “significant leakage” of American-educated workers from the labor market.

The paper, “International College Students’ Impact on the U.S. Skilled Labor Supply,” examines the transition of recent graduates to work, through Optional Practical Training, the popular work program for international students. OPT, as the program is known, is the most-common route for graduates seeking to gain American work experience because they can remain on their student visas.

The researchers found that one in 10 international bachelor’s-degree graduates and one in four master’s graduates take their first job in the same state in which they went to college. A large share of international students stay local in their first job — two-thirds of bachelor’s graduates and half of master’s graduates were employed within 10 kilometers of their alma mater.

The researchers used what is known as an instrumental variable approach, introducing an additional factor, nonresident tuition, as a control to help estimate a causal relationship between international enrollments and skilled employment.

While the paper, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, acknowledges that colleges “do not explicitly enroll students on the basis of their labor-market potential,” increased international enrollment expands America’s skilled work force, it found. Each additional foreign master’s graduate, for example, adds 0.23 more skilled workers.

But should that impact be greater? The researchers argue yes. Flipped around, they write, “more than 70 percent of locally educated foreign master’s and about 90 percent of bachelor’s graduates do not translate into high-skilled supply.”

“The headline is how few international students stay in the U.S. after graduation,” said Giovanni Peri, a professor of economics and founding director of the Global Migration Center at the University of California at Davis. Peri is one of the paper’s authors, along with two researchers at the University of Luxembourg, Michael Beine and Morgan Raux.

U.S. government policies, such as caps on the number of skilled-worker visas, make it difficult for international graduates to start their careers here, Peri said. Even OPT, the most straightforward path, can be “short term, cumbersome, and uncertain,” he said.

Peri would like to see new approaches, such as giving green cards to at least some foreign graduates of American colleges, but such proposals have failed to win congressional approval. Meanwhile, he noted that other countries, like Canada and Australia, have enacted more international-student-friendly policies, helping them to attract top graduates.

And retaining more international graduates could have an outsized effect on local college-town economies, given that most students who remain in the United States take jobs close to their colleges.

The researchers demonstrate how one policy change has already made a difference. In 2008, President George W. Bush expanded OPT to allow international students in certain science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors to work for as long as 29 months after graduation, up from 12 months. (In 2016, the period was extended, to three years, and over time additional fields have been added to the list of approved STEM majors.)

The impact of the change on bachelor’s students was difficult to estimate, Peri said. Under the more-generous policy, the share of STEM master’s graduates who have stayed and worked in the United States has doubled, from one in 10 students to roughly two in 10.

Professor accused of selling secrets to China sues the U.S. government

A Temple University physics professor has gone to court to argue he should be allowed to sue the Federal Bureau of Investigation for wrongfully arresting him on charges of selling scientific secrets to China.

Xi Xiaoxing said federal agents had already been told by another scientist — the inventor of the technology that he was accused of revealing — that they had misinterpreted the science in Xi’s emails to colleagues in China by the time they raided his suburban Philadelphia home at dawn seven years ago and arrested him in front of his wife and two daughters. Prosecutors quickly backtracked and dismissed the charges against him just a few months later.

But Xi wants to sue to hold the government, and the FBI agent who led the investigation into his alleged espionage, accountable for wrongful prosecution. To do so, however, he faces legal hurdles — a federal judge ruled last year that he was barred by law from collecting damages from the government.

Last week Xi was back in court, as his lawyer argued to three federal appellate judges that his case should be allowed to move forward.

Much of last Wednesday’s hearing revolved around technical legal questions about the narrow circumstances in which those who are wrongfully accused can collect damages from the U.S. government. But the backdrop to Xi’s case — and the issue that filled a Philadelphia courtroom with the professor’s supporters — is the China Initiative.

Xi’s arrest precedes the federal-government investigation of academic and economic espionage with China, begun in 2018 under President Donald J. Trump. The Biden administration formally ended the controversial inquiry, which has led to a number of dropped prosecutions, in February, saying it “fueled a narrative of intolerance and bias.”

Still, Xi and those who support him said his case is emblematic of what they see as a pattern of discrimination by the government against scientists of Chinese and Asian descent.

“What happened to Professor Xi and his family is proof that biased FBI profiling didn’t start with the China Initiative, and it hasn’t stopped since the Justice Department disavowed that initiative earlier this year,” said Patrick Toomey, one of Xi’s lawyers and deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national-security project.

The increased scrutiny may have had a chilling effect on research collaborations between scientists in China and academics here. Xi said his research productivity has dwindled because has been scared to apply for federal grants.

Xi’s lawyers said it could be months before the appeals court issues its decision. In a briefing with reporters, he said he is driven to pursue the case, no matter how long it takes. “It’s not because the agent made a mistake or misunderstood something,” Xi said. “He knew he was wrong. He knew I was innocent, and he went ahead.”

Judge throws out convictions in China Initiative case

A federal judge has thrown out three of four convictions against a former University of Kansas researcher accused of hiding his ties to China as part of the China Initiative. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson granted a motion of acquittal on the most serious convictions against Feng (Franklin) Tao, for wire fraud. She said there was no evidence presented during Tao’s trial earlier this year that the chemistry and engineering professor benefited financially from his work with colleagues in China, as is required under the wire-fraud statute.

But Robinson upheld a fourth conviction, of making a false statement, and denied Tao’s request for a new trial on that charge. A lawyer for Tao told KCUR, Kansas City’s public-radio station, that his team was pleased with the judge’s decision and considering potential next steps to take.

In other China Initiative news, a federal judge has sentenced a Southern Illinois University professor to a year of probation for failing to report a Chinese bank account on research-disclosure forms. Mingqing Xiao was found not guilty of hiding his ties to China but convicted of the lesser tax charge. Prosecutors had asked for a yearlong prison term.

Around the globe

The Alliance for International Exchange has named Mark Overmann as its new executive director. Overmann is rejoining the association of exchange programs, where he previously had been deputy director.

A professor in Norway is on trial for allegedly violating sanctions against Iran and regulations on exporting scientific knowledge after he invited several Iranian scientists to his university.

As the U.S. Supreme Court considers the future of affirmative action at American colleges, my colleague Katherine Mangan examines what we can learn from France’s race-neutral admissions policy in the Race on Campus newsletter.

Male Ukrainian students are being stopped at the border as they head to study at colleges abroad because of confusion about their conscription status.

A university in the disputed Tigray region of Ethiopia was hit by a drone strike.

The Ugandan government will hold patriotism lectures at all of the country’s universities.

Japan is investing $30 billion to help improve higher education and training across Africa.

Incoming classes at South Korean universities will be smaller as part of a college-restructuring plan prompted by low birth rates.

A number of Chinese universities lack sufficient housing in campus dormitories because of larger student enrollments.

The Canadian government donated $20 million to a scholarship program that focuses on international exchange and leadership named for the late Queen Elizabeth II.

And finally …

What are the trends and challenges for Chinese students at American colleges? I’ll be joining a roundtable of experts this Thursday, September 22, at 8 p.m. EDT for “Chinese Students in America: Still Caught in the Crosshairs?” The virtual event is co-sponsored by the U.S.-China Education Trust, the Carter Center, and the United States Heartland China Association. Register here.

Thanks for reading. I always welcome your feedback and ideas for future reporting, so drop me a line, at karin.fischer@chronicle.com. You can also connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn. If you like this newsletter, please share it with colleagues and friends. They can sign up here.