David North
2008-07-02 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

It has been argued for years that foreign students contribute [$14.5 billion] to America’s balance of payments because of money they bring with them from abroad.

A careful analysis shows that such arguments are false. ... The claim [by] the Institute of International Education, a New York-based advocacy organization ... is annually reported by — and never examined by — the media. It is an argument totally without merit. ...

There are three problems with the IIE position. ... First, it is based on a heroic but false assumption. Second, it is supported by a series of highly questionable data-gathering and statistical practices.

Finally, it runs quite contrary to other, better sources of information, including my own extensive experience with the microeconomics of the foreign graduate students I have interviewed at 15 American graduate schools. ...

There are a lot of them. Open Doors 2007, the most recent of IIE’s annual reports on the subject, reports that there were 582,984 of them in the 2006-2007 academic year, or 3.9 percent of the universities’ total enrollment. ... Most of them are graduate, not undergraduate, students ... here to secure academic credentials that will help them find jobs.

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