Sunday, March 2, 1997
TRENDS:
Anti-foreign sentiment may cause slowing of increase in
non-immigrants to U.S.By Yvonne Champana
Daily Bruin Contributor
Seventeen year-old Tamar Cherebin is the only student at UCLA
from her country, the Bahamas. She began her dream of studying here
years ago by watching television, particularly sports. That dream
materialized, and Cherebin is now UCLA’s top junior sprinter on an
athletic scholarship.
Cherebin is one of UCLA’s non-immigrant foreign students, as
part of a program that has grown by seven percent this year. The
growth is unusual since the program has experienced a downward
trend of approximately 5 percent between 1993 and 1995, according
to the UCLA Office of Planning and Budget and UCLA’s Office of
International Students and Scholars (OISS).
Nationwide, colleges are experiencing the slowest increase
 only one-third of one percent  of non-immigrant
foreign students in over 25 years, according to the Institute of
International Education’s report, "Open Doors 1995-1996."
This recent slowdown has some experts worried that Americans are
losing a share of the world market in education, according to an
article published December 1996 in The Chronicle of Higher
Education.
The article cited that one reason for the decline of interest in
American colleges could stem from a rising "anti-foreign" sentiment
in the United States, causing foreign students to look
elsewhere.
In the early 1980’s, about 40 percent of all international
students worldwide studied in the United States. Now only 32
percent are coming here, according to the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The "anti-foreign" sentiment that has some experts concerned may
be the result of recent U.S. legislation, according to Jimmy White,
counselling attorney at the OISS.
The new law, the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996," goes into effect today and may have
serious consequences for non-immigrant students and all
non-immigrants who stay in the U.S. beyond their authorized time
limit, said White.
Previously, foreigners were treated more lightly for this
offense, White said, but now those who overstay will be barred from
returning to the United States for as long as three to 10
years.
"Cost and personal circumstances are often more important than
laws," White said however, in causing the nationwide slowdown in
non-immigrant foreign students choosing to study in the U.S.
One important factor is that it is primarily affluent students
who are able to study here. "You can’t see there the marginal and
lower-income scale students," White said of the approximately
$14,000 a year cost of tuition, which is paid for primarily by
personal and family funds, according to the Institute of
International Education.
The cost of out-of-state tuition which non-immigrant students
pay has approximately doubled in the last seven years, White
said.
This increase may be partly due to the difficulty of
nonresidents to rally together and protest such increases since
they hail from divergent backgrounds. The majority of the
non-immigrant students also return to their homelands upon
graduation, which may make the politics of allocating funds more
complex, White said.
On a personal level, families can object to their children
studying such a long way off, as did Cherebin’s mother, who did not
want her daughter to study here until she realized that it would be
the fulfillment of her daughter’s dream.
America’s lack of community and family values, and personal
difficulties with the language and prejudice are some other factors
that the non-immigrant students mention as reasons to not study in
the States, according to some international students.
"American people don’t have their priorities straight with
families and other things," said Melinda Holme, a third-year design
student from Australia. Holme plans to return directly home
following graduation. Holme has not seen her mother in three years
because making a trip back home has been too expensive for her,
with the high airline costs.
Yelena Vdovichenko, a third-year English and computer science
student who got all A’s her first quarter at UCLA, plans to stay in
the United States after graduation, in spite of the fact that she
claims "here, teachers are prejudiced because of your accent and
it’s very intimidating and they don’t give you the opportunity to
show what you know."
In other countries, Vdovichenko says, teachers are more
welcoming to hear foreign students attempt to speak their
language.
Foreign non-immigrant students contribute to UCLA life in a
unique way, White said, and combine with immigrant students to
create approximately one quarter of UCLA’s student body.
"Foreign students tend to be very serious, loading up on classes
and getting the work done. Very few dilly-dally," he said.
UCLA is so popular among foreigners that White said he has often
seen UCLA sweatshirts worn for fashion in other countries.
Sometimes when he asks if natives know what the letters signify,
they reply, "it’s ooklah."
UCLA is currently building a new International Students Center,
situated at the corner of Strathmore and Gayley and slated for
completion in August 1997.
"The new Center is going to make it possible for us to attract
national and international conferences and symposiums," White said.
He thinks the Center will also make UCLA increasingly attractive to
foreign students.
White also hopes that the location near the fraternity houses
will generate a certain amount of "cultural exchange" with the
fraternities, who many foreign students have stereotypes about,
which, White said, he does not share.
He stresses that the foreign students, who he says can be "real
whizzes but struggle socially," and other UCLA and students and
staff must learn to communicate, tolerate and understand, rather
than divide through differences.
The "anti-foreign" sentiment … may be the result of recent
U.S. legislation.