As the pandemic continues to intensify the global crisis in the realms of social, economic, cultural and health; amid this uncertain times, the impact on student’s migration cannot be sidelined.
Student migration has been a widespread phenomenon across the world. The process of “globalisation” and “internationalisation of education” has led to a continuous rise in the number of students globally. Amid the pandemic, the students are facing multiple challenges grappled with nationwide lockdown and limited human interaction, constantly re-shaping the mode of teaching with the virtual setting and change in curriculum. To dwell further on this issue, the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT), and Center for Research on North America (CISAN), UNAM jointly organised a virtual panel discussion on 18th August 2020, with the overarching theme “Student Migration during and post COVID-19: Latin America and Asia” to assess the impact of COVID-19 on student migration and the future challenges in post COVID scenario, drawing perspectives from Latin America and Asia.
The insightful discussion began with Dr Amba Pande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.While moderating the session, she brought to the fore new dimensions to students mobility with two distinct trends, namely; as a source of capital drain and the pull factors accelerating the movement.
The Indian policymakers had modified New Education Policy (NEP), to reverse the drain of wealth, intending to invite top 200 global institutions to open a campus in India to attract international students: Dr Amba Pande
COVID-19 and the Changing Facets of International Student Migration
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the perception of International student migration, said Dr Alma Maldonado, Center for Research and Advanced Studies, Mexico. They are now perceived as ‘Online Students’ and are no longer considered as an ‘International Student’, as the former lacks the experience and the exposure. Resonating with the view of Dr Maldonado, Dr Raj Bardouille,Former Senior Officer in UN, commonwealth of Dominican, also argued that with the closure of the university, the international exposure to students has been hampered. Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider this new definition of international students, she further added. The pandemic has unleashed different challenges to migration. In the US context, Dr Maldonado argued that the non-compliment of the online mode by an international student can prove to be detrimental to the student rights as a global learner and can face repercussion, such as deportation. Correspondingly, in the case of Mexico, the students cannot avail the scholarship benefits due to lack of their physical presencein the country.
The nationwide lockdown and university closure has been impacting the lives of students in Brazil as well. In the opinion of Dr Erica Sarmiento, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the country of Brazil sends a large number of students to the United States, due to the pandemic, the temporary closure of the consulate have posed an additional challenge to the Brazilian students apart from restriction of movement. All these events, she claimed, will further exacerbatestudent’s integration.
Generally it is the vast diaspora that facilitates the student’s migration in the host country.According to Prof CS Bhat, what sets the student migration different from other trends is the fact that “it is a process of immigration for a longer time”, especially in the case of student’s movement to the USA. But, COVID-19 has certainly exposed various vulnerabilities that the migrants face in the host countries. According to Prof. María Amelia Viteri, Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and the University of Maryland, College Park, in Ecuador, the pandemic has widened up the education gap among the students of the marginalised communities. They were already suffering from COVID-19 effects. Rather, it has further amplified student vulnerabilities due to lack of access to computers, smartphone and internet facility to continue their education.
COVID-19 has provided with the opportunity to consider what is working and what was not working in the system of education with continuously required efforts in post-pandemic phase on the notions of revisit, adjust and change the curriculum: Prof. Maria Amelia Viteri
However, Ambassador Nahida Sobhan, the Bangladeshi diplomat in the Middle East, believed that the global negotiations on inclusion of migrants in 2030 Sustainable Development Goals or on the Global Compact for Migration have remained silent on the integration of international students, which she considered as a wide gap. Speaking especially from the context of Bangladesh, she highlighted the significant presence of students globally, especially to Malaysia in the recent past apart from pull towards other developed countries like the USA, Canada and the UK. There has been a climate of uncertainty among students, whether the courses will continue online or offline mode. In terms of challenges, she argued that the concerns range from registration and application process to the issue of mental health and stigma due to various factors like financial constraints and the alien host environment. The future of the student’s mobility will largely rest upon the policies acknowledging these students concerns, she said.
In the opinion of Dr Anjali Sahay, Gannon University, USA, the impact of COVID-19 on student migration in the United States can be discerned from the political and health perspective. In the long term effect, she believed that the political factors have always impacted student’s immigration to the United States while citing references to the events like 9/11 and recently changed immigration policies under Donald Trump. Significantly, she believed that the move would hamper the mobility of student from China and India.
The US has continued its restrictive policies on the immigrants, and the current situation has further provided leverage to the political administration of the US to restrict immigration, especially in the form of student’s mobility: Dr Anjali Sahay
Managing International Student migration from Latin America and Asia
In terms of managing the international student migration, Bangladesh Ambassador Sobhan does not see any significant role played by the Bangladeshi government in providing financial assistance to the international students. Instead, on the ground of repatriation, she argued that the government have been continuously engaging with the stakeholders to repatriate international Bangladeshi students back to their country of origin. In the context of the United States, the closure of borders and ban on international flights, as argued by Dr Sahay, has made the repatriation of the student difficult.
With the limited availability of resources to fund the student’s education abroad, according to Dr.Raj Bardouille, the development of ‘sister’s education institutions’ in the country of origin is a welcoming step to make learning more accessible to those who could not afford to go to the developed countries. Echoing with Dr.Raj Bardouille views, Dr Sahay also believed that there would be an opening of the remote campuses shortly.
As COVID-19 has reordered our thinking of education viz-a-viz ‘disaggregated forms’ as claimed by Prof. Binod Khadria, starting from the issue of admission, examination and grading, there is a need to re-examine them in the post COVID world. Further, as stated by Prof. Luis Arnoldo Ordoñez Vela, Fundación Interconectados, Venezuela there is a need to build in social capital; use of technology-driven platforms to enable peer to peer communication as a medium to share the information. On the policy front too, both Dr Erica Sarmiento and AmbSobhan agreed on the need to have a government to government collaboration to proffer assistance to the distressed students studying internationally.
Henceforth, despite the challenges faced by the international students in the host county and home country during COVID-19, “there is a considerable hope that the world will come back to its original place post-pandemic”. As Dr Pande remarked, again the trend will set the stage for future deliberation on the question on student migration.
Naziya Naweed, Research Scholar, Centre for West Asian Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, India.