A key feature of the strategy is the overhaul of immigration laws in order to facilitate ease of access for international students. Fresh accountability initiatives in publishing visa waiting times, and a commitment to staff mobility in tackling problem waiting areas are designed to ensure a fast-track access process for students. Greater rights for international students’ families such as attending state-funded schools have been integrated into the plan as well as the right for students to remain in Ireland for up to a year after completing their degree in order to gain work experience. (Read NAFSA’s recommendations for immigration and visa policy reform in the United States).

These legal reforms are complemented by further measures to create a positive international education reputation. These measures include scholarships for outstanding students to attract the brightest minds to Ireland and an international marketing strategy for the Education Ireland brand. The government has also committed to greater engagement with the European Union’s ERASMUS program to ensure that Irish students and faculty study and work abroad in preparation for participation in a global economy.

Interestingly, the strategy is fully aware of the role of international education in shaping public diplomacy. A specific aim of the plan is to create a new generation of advocates for Ireland across the world after they complete their studies in the country. Taoiseach Cowen noted:

Ireland has a tremendous opportunity to become a global leader in the provision of high-quality education to the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers, who will make a difference in their own countries and who will form vital networks of influence for Ireland.

The goal is that as the historic ties between waves of immigrants that once formed an immense Irish diaspora fade, these new ambassadors will form fresh sources of support for Ireland in a global economy. (Read NAFSA’s public diplomacy recommendations for the United States).

However, as the influential Irish Economy (a blog run by economists from Irish universities and regularly cited by the Irish media) noted, the strategy will have to overcome major financial difficulties in the Irish education system if it is to continually attract high-caliber international students. Current fiscal woes of the government have continually pushed universities to charge higher costs on international students as Irish students attend university for free. The government will have to shift focus away from international students as a lucrative source of income and toward the strategy’s bold vision of international students as future advocates and allies. Thus the fate of international education in Ireland is inextricably bound to more domestic matters.

NAFSA continues to urge Secretary Clinton to end all State Department policies and practices pertaining to ideological exclusion. Ideological exclusion hampers the advancement of academic and political debate in the United States and undermines this country’s ability to support voices of dissent and reform in other countries. Ideological exclusion also deprives U.S. citizens of their First Amendment right to “hear, speak, and debate with” foreign scholars face‐to‐face. Visa policies should be based on security threats, not ideology.

You can learn more about visa and immigration policy on Connecting Our World. On the site you can also sign-up for updates and join our global community of advocates speaking out in support of academic freedom and other international education issues.

Speaking Other Languages
Recalling President Obama’s speech in Cairo last summer, Duncan said that international education and exchange can better connect us. He acknowledged that we live in a world where the line between the international and the domestic is increasingly blurred and emphasized the need for Americans to learn to speak other languages and to study abroad. He noted that our notion that English is the language of choice in the business world tends to limit us and disconnect us from the world. Quoting Nelson Mandela, he said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” I couldn’t agree more – those of us who work in international education know there’s no substitute for speaking and understanding other languages as a way to truly know and understand our neighbors around the world.

Higher Education Can’t Rest on its Laurels
Notably, Duncan devoted a good portion of his remarks to the importance of international education at the higher education level. He said that deans, provosts, presidents, etc. need to understand the importance of international education and foreign languages and that this isn’t the time to scale back, despite today’s tight budgets. He praised the U.S. higher education system for its strengths in international education, including Fulbright-Hays and Title VI programs, but cautioned about the dangers of resting on our laurels. While he acknowledged that much more work needs to be done at the K-12 level to help students receive the world-class education they deserve, he repeatedly noted that we can’t afford to neglect investments in higher education, in light of increasing competition from abroad. One audience member asked about the connection between our leadership in higher education and immigration policy, noting that visa concerns and our immigration system cause many talented people to study and conduct academic conferences elsewhere. He agreed that these are real concerns and expressed an interest in working with international partners on the issue, and added that he also strongly supports the DREAM Act, as he believes it is vitally important that all students have the chance to go to college. Duncan also emphasized the importance of community colleges in connecting education with workforce development, which he noted the Department is committed to pursuing, particularly in the Muslim world.

Support the Administration’s Efforts to Focus on Global Issues
Listening to Duncan’s remarks, I was struck and encouraged by his refusal to accept the false choice between improving our domestic education system and engaging with the world. When asked by one audience member how he would balance the triage between the dire needs of our domestic education system and diplomacy abroad, he stated emphatically that we must play a role internationally, in coordination with the Department of State and others. “If we want a safer world,” he said, “I can’t think of a better way than making sure students have a way to be educated,” and then noted that veterans from the war in Afghanistan have told him countless times that to improve the situation we must focus on building more schools there – while we’re concerned with how long our lunch hours are, many children around the world, especially girls, don’t even have a school to attend. He said we have to do both – we have to improve the quality of our education here and give students around the world more opportunity for learning.

To help support the Administration’s efforts to remain globally focused, get involved in NAFSA’s grassroots efforts to make a difference. Visit www.connectingourworld.org.

Technology has helped. Five years ago, Intellipedia — a classified collaborative tool similar to Wikipedia but used by analysts and collectors — was a timid and limited experiment in a single agency. No one had yet imagined A-Space, a cutting-edge collaborative electronic workspace in which analysts have access to data from all components of the intelligence community, social networking software that identifies others working on similar problems and data manipulation tools that were previously available to a select few. Time Magazine called A-Space one of the 50 best inventions of 2008. The Library of National Intelligence, a groundbreaking distributed repository of all disseminated intelligence reports that enable intelligence professionals to discover what we already know and how obtained information has been used, was not even a gleam in anyone’s eye. Today, all are proven and widely used tools that enable analysts (and, increasingly, collectors) to work together responsibly in cyberspace.

New technologies were a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for building communities of analysts and collectors. The sorts of collaboration that are routine today were impossible until DNI-led efforts changed policies that had prevented analysts with the same clearances from seeing or sharing large volumes of information. Such changes required finding ways to ensure the protection of sources and methods, giving appropriate attention to counterintelligence concerns, solving meta-data incompatibility problems and overcoming cultural impediments to collaboration. The intelligence community is transforming from a confederation of feudal baronies into networks of analysts, collectors and other skilled professionals who increasingly think of themselves as members of an integrated enterprise with a common purpose.

I do not cite this article for the purpose of getting into the intelligence debate, for which I lack any expertise. I raise it for another reason:  Fingar and Graham have given us an almost perfect description of what is not happening in another area that is equally critical to U.S. security—visa and immigration policy. In this area, to far too great an extent, people are not guided by a common policy, officials do not work together across agencies—or even within them—with a common sense of mission, databases do not talk to each other, and feudal baronies are still the order of the day. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security—another post-9/11 reform—was supposed to enable the solution of these problems, but it has not done so. Our dysfunctional visa and immigration system affects, in myriad ways, our country’s ability to attract the students, professors, researchers, scientists, innovators, and other valuable immigrants that we know are essential to U.S. security.

Fingar and Graham lament the fact that the fifth anniversary of the creation of DNI has occasioned more second-guessing of the reform than recognition of its accomplishments. Yet it’s interesting that despite DHS’s failure to address these problems, virtually no one questions whether this agency in its current form is the best way to protect our security. DHS needs to accomplish in its area what DNI is accomplishing in the intelligence arena. If it can’t, maybe it’s time to re-think the assumptions that led to the creation of this agency.

To remain economically competitive and culturally vibrant in the 21st century, we need to have the world’s best educated work force. International education will strengthen our country and enhance the quality of our lives.

NAFSA couldn’t agree more. International education has a clear role in enhancing America’s competitiveness and long-term economic growth. Students who study or volunteer abroad and learn foreign languages are far better prepared to compete in the job market, as cross-cultural competency and global experience are now widely recognized as essential skills and the keys to innovation and competitiveness in the global economy.

Yet today, only 1 percent of American college students participate in study abroad programs each year, and, as Hamilton points out, minorities and students of limited financial means are underrepresented. Hamilton argues that we need to expand educational exchanges, and he is a strong supporter of the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Act, which aims to send one million American college students abroad annually in ten years time. The Simon Act will encourage diversity in student participation as well as locations of study abroad, particularly in developing countries.

While study abroad is vital to helping our graduates succeed in the global economy, we must also give attention to international students on American campuses. International students contributed a significant $17.6 billion to our national economy in the 2008-2009 academic year. But talented students have an increasing number of options around the world – in order for American higher education institutions to be able to compete, immigration law and visa policy must change. Hamilton says that we need to streamline the visa application process in order to attract more foreign students – something NAFSA has called for, among other policy recommendations, to make the United States more attractive to foreign students and scholars.

Hamilton makes a compelling case for the important role of international education in public diplomacy, writing:

Look no further than the roster for last week’s Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, a nearly unprecedented gathering of world leaders to discuss the most important issue in international security: nuclear proliferation.

Among those in attendance were Mexican President Felipé Calderón, Chilean President Sebastian Piñeira, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. All are products of American universities whose familiarity with the United States is an asset to their countries and ours.

Before these individuals were world leaders, they were international students. Generations of American foreign-policy leaders like Lee Hamilton have pointed to educational exchanges as one of our most successful foreign policy tools, the most proven and effective way for the United States to build a foundation for dialogue and partnership with the rest of the world. This is why NAFSA stands with him in our conviction that international education, by its nature, is fundamental to fostering peace, security, and well-being. We appreciate his leadership in bringing these issues to the forefront of our public debate about issues like immigration reform and the education of our own students – these are very important matters for the country.

On February 25, NAFSA along with 20 other organizations sent a letter to Secretary Clinton, thanking her for ending the exclusion of Professors Adam Habib of the University of Johannesburg and Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University. The letter goes on to urge Secretary Clinton to end all State Department policies and practices pertaining to ideological exclusion, and replace them with policies based on security threats.

As reported in late March, Secretary Clinton signed orders in January lifting the ban barring Dr. Habib and Dr. Ramadan, and since then, both professors have traveled successfully to the United States. As the New York Times points out,

The appearances last week by the two men at separate public forums in New York City were a tangible victory for freedom of speech and the robust exchange of ideas across international borders.

However, as the article illustrates, much more needs to be done. It is time to end all State Department policies and practices pertaining to ideological exclusion for foreign scholars so that we can ensure a vibrant global marketplace of ideas.

The award recipients are based either at leading U.S. research universities or at one of the DOE-funded national laboratories, and they represent the best and brightest in their fields, fields ranging from basic energy sciences and biological and environmental research to high energy and nuclear physics. According to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, “This investment reflects the Administration’s strong commitment to creating jobs and new industries through scientific innovation.”

What the announcement neglected to mention is that at least one third of the award recipients are foreign-born, having first come to the United States to study or conduct research either as a graduate student or as a post doctoral fellow. China, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, and Canada are just some of the countries they hail from.

When addressing how the United States can best support scientific innovation, visa and immigration reform must be part of the discussion. According to recent National Science Foundation figures, 33 Percent of doctoral recipients at U.S. universities are foreign-born. While every effort should be made to encourage more Americans (especially women and minorities) to pursue these career tracks, we must also recognize the important contributions made by international students and scholars to our scientific leadership.

NAFSA: Association of International Educators has long recognized the importance of international education and exchange in bolstering not only America’s global understanding and long-term security, but also our scientific innovation and economic competitiveness. Our latest policy paper, A Visa and Immigration Policy for the Brain-Circulation Era, identifies key recommendations for reforming current visa and immigration policies in ways that support U.S. innovation and economic competitiveness.

Global collaboration by U.S. and foreign scientists is increasingly the norm, not the exception, especially in areas such as climate change and space exploration. Positive visa and immigration reform will ensure that foreign scientists have the ability to travel to the United States and to successfully contribute their talents, much like the foreign-born recipients of this Energy Department funding are doing and will continue to do.

As Energy Secretary Chu, whose own parents first arrived in the United States as foreign students, has said, the Administration is committed to investing in scientific innovation. But to be truly committed, we need to invest more than just funds. We need policies that support the realities of 21^st century scientific collaboration, where bright ideas are no longer the dominion of one nation, but of the world.

…Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse.  Meanwhile, China’s not waiting to revamp its economy.  Germany’s not waiting.  India’s not waiting.  These nations aren’t standing still…They’re putting more emphasis on math and science.  They’re rebuilding their infrastructure.  They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs… As hard as it may be, as uncomfortable and contentious as the debates may be, it’s time to get serious about fixing the problems that are hampering our growth.

Another thing these countries are doing is attracting talented people from around the world, recognizing that in a global economy, they can’t get the job done alone. Foreign talent contributes to innovation and technology research, spurs new ideas and new businesses, and creates jobs.   The economic future of the United States is tied to effective immigration and visa reform that opens our doors to that talent.  President Obama understands this.  At his recent jobs summit at the White House, he said:

One of the great things about this country is we get the best and the brightest talent to study here, and once they study here they start enjoying the intellectual freedom and the entrepreneurship, and they decide to stay, and they start new businesses.  And suddenly you’ve got a whole new generation of folks who are creating Intel or other extraordinary businesses.  If those students start seeing a closed door, then we are losing what is one of  our greatest  competitive advantages, and that’s something that I think we’re committed to doing.

Attracting globally mobile talent often begins with our colleges and universities.  Despite the economic downturn, international students and their families spent $17.6 billion in the United States during the 2008-2009 academic year, according to a study by NAFSA.  Beyond these direct financial contributions, international students and scholars bring global perspectives to our classrooms, teach our students at our universities and colleges, and enhance innovation in our research facilities, labs, and businesses.

Investing in education and sending more American students abroad will further help our long-term economic growth.  Students who study or volunteer abroad and learn foreign languages are far better prepared for the demands of the 21st century.  Cross-cultural competency and global experience are now widely recognized as essential skills in the job market and the keys to innovation and competitiveness in the global economy, yet today only 1 percent of American college students participate in study abroad programs each year.  Congress and the president can take a step forward in investing more in the global competency of our students by passing the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Act.

International education has a clear role in enhancing America’s competitiveness and long-term economic growth.

Unfortunately, the Chicago bid raised questions about whether visitors might find it too difficult to enter the United States for the Olympic Games. According to a recent report by the New York Times’ Michelle Higgins, “Syed Shahid Ali, an [International Olympic Committee] member from Pakistan, in the question-and-answer session following Chicago’s official presentation, pointed out that entering the United States can be ‘a rather harrowing experience.’” This comment speaks to the reality that the level of indignities facing some visitors at our borders continues to negatively impact America’s reputation around the world as a welcoming destination.

News media and blogs in the United States and around the world regularly describe the harrowing experiences of visitors at U.S. airports and in encounters with immigration officials. These experiences have a real cost, and it’s more than just a public relations problem. As people around the world make their choices about where to travel, they are too often choosing not to come here, and that has serious implications well beyond the Olympics – for tourism, business, research, and education in our country.  Unfortunately, the question of how we ensure that we meet our country’s legitimate security needs while presenting a welcoming face to the world isn’t even on the radar in the current debate about comprehensive immigration reform.

President Obama made clear in his speech at Cairo University in Egypt earlier this year that he is committed to expanding educational exchange programs between the United States and other countries. In order for the promise of that commitment to become a reality, this situation must change.

The Dallas Morning News made the correction only in a brief mention as part of a news round-up; to its credit, though, the paper took note of the importance of the distinction: “The difference is crucial: For foreign students, dropping out of school triggers a report to a central database and, often, a follow-up by immigration authorities. For those who arrive as tourists or workers, it’s almost certain authorities won’t take notice unless they apply for a driver’s license, get pulled over or arrested or call attention to themselves.”

Unfortunately this information didn’t come in time to prevent the usual misplaced outrage from anti-immigration pundits equating the highly regulated student visa system with a lax process that is easy to exploit. What’s clear is this: Any person using any type of visa to enter the United States to do harm to Americans should be prosecuted. As far as the student visa itself goes, it is not easy to obtain, and student visa holders are exhaustively tracked. The reality is that visa status will never be able to tell us much about a person’s intentions. Only good intelligence and investigation can do that.

*Update* On October 6, NAFSA sent the following letter on this subject. The Center for Immigration Studies has since corrected its error in an Author’s note.

Ms. Jessica Vaughan
Director of Policy Studies
Center for Immigration Studies

Dear Ms. Vaughan,

I am writing to request that you update your blog post on the Center for Immigration Studies Web site, titled “The Case of Hosam Maher Husein Smadi: Déjà Vu All Over Again,” to reflect the updated facts of this case, which are that Smadi did not use a student visa to enter the United States. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on September 30 that in fact he was in the country on a tourist visa. Corrections have appeared in a number of subsequent news articles that have been published about the case. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Ursula Oaks
Media Relations Director
NAFSA: Association of International Educators