Do We Need Foreign Students?

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As the airplane crashed into Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the U.S. government revealed that a well-covered terrorist organization consisted of foreign students. Hani Hasan Hanjour was a 26-year-old Saudi national who got a student visa to study English at ELS language centers Oakland, but he did not attend a single English class and became one of the terrorists (Borjas). According to a report of the Nation Science Board in 2003, the U.S. risks losing its talent to struggle in the global economy unless it persuades more Americans to fill science and engineering jobs. In addition, considering that too many foreign students apply for the same jobs in some fields, such as civil engineering, software engineering, and financial accounting, the average salary has declined slightly. Even though foreign students may affect the U.S. in terms of job opportunities and wages, it is not a problem because they contribute to the U.S. society and local economy.

At first, some politicians were afraid that foreign students illegally and personally applied for jobs to displace native-born workers. The U.S. government might not notice because not all foreign students are accurately tracked. The tracking system that the government uses is called Students and Exchange Visitor information System (SEVIS), which is a database that aims to certify that the foreigners are in fact studying in the United States (Martin and Midgley). However, this database is so huge that it cannot track each foreign student correctly (Borjas). Martin and Midgley also emphasize that foreign students could enter the U.S. as students, but never enroll. Consequently, the U.S. government doesn’t know whether foreign students are studying in the U.S. or not. It is a great...

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