According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, international students contributed up to $30.5 billion to the U.S. economy. Close to a million international students enrolled in public and private institutions in 2014-15, out of which 57.4% were from China, India, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. In the academic year 2014-15 the number of international students in US increased by 10% from the previous year.

It would be interesting to see whether this trend would further incline or decline, if Donald Trump is elected as the President. Going by the rhetoric he has been churning out in his campaigns against immigrants, especially Muslims, many colleges and universities are already dreading the consequences of it. They believe there may be a heavy drop in number of students visiting the country for education.

The campaign has created quite a negative impact as far as international students are concerned. According to another independent survey conducted by FPP EDU Media and International Education Advantage LLC, out of the 40,000 prospective international students surveyed, 60% said they were less inclined to study in the U.S. if Trump is the next president. Among Mexican respondents, 79.8% said they were less inclined to attend a U.S. school if Trump is president compared with 4.2% under Clinton. The Trump campaign has specially affected the mind-set of the students from Mexico. This is due to the top-most priority in his immigration reform plan – which is to build a wall along the US-Mexican border.

Incidents of hostility towards ethnic communities are already being reported across the country. Experts suggest that this number could dwindle with the implementation of the immigration reforms proposed by the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, especially from India and Saudi Arabia.

Following 3 factors inferred from his manifesto clearly point out adverse effects on the influx of international students in U.S.:

Scrapping and replacing of the J-1 visa.
Companies benefited by hiring cheap labor of foreign students, due to ‘no set wage’ for workers who are hired under the J-1 visa (The Exchange Visitor (J) non-immigrant visa category). This has led to Americans losing out on certain jobs and increases the country’s unemployment rate. With no J-1, companies will struggle to employ foreign working students. Working at a summer camp, interning are just a few of the roles that would be affected by the replacement of this visa. Although the policy isn’t totally clear; one thing is that there would be fewer opportunities for international students.

Americans will be prioritized in employment.
Immigration levels in the U.S. at the peak right now and unemployment levels are soaring. To fulfill his third key principle: ‘A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation,’ he could add restrictions various visas such as the H-1B and prioritize American professionals over foreign professionals. As a number of students from Asia seek value for their education in US, this could be seen as a major setback for their plans to study in U.S.

Effect of your religion on the right to study and work.
The terrorist attacks that took place in USA and Europe in the past 6 months have fuelled his campaign rhetoric against immigrants (specifically Muslims) and his call for need to curb their entrance. His repeated utterance on social media and campaign speeches that ‘Muslims are apart from the West and cannot be seen as equal citizens,’ could ultimately prevent you from studying at one of the world’s best universities or from interning at a top company.

These policies, which rank high in Donald Trump’s campaign manifesto, are in direct contrast to what the NAFSA board members had urged the new Presidential hopefuls last month, i.e. to create a “More welcoming and globally engaged United States”. There’s nothing much that the educators in U.S. can do to determine the outcome of the results of the elections in November this year, it only leaves us to see what steps the universities and education institutions take to ensure that U.S. still stands as an epitome of Land of Opportunities for people all over the world.

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