A panel discussion was jointly conducted on 18th August 2020 by Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism [GRFDT] and The Centre for Research on North America (CISAN), UNAM on the topic ‘Student Migration During and Post COVID-19: Latin America and Asia’ explaining the innumerable problems spiralling for international students amidst this global health pandemic.
Ambassador Nahida Sobhan is the first female diplomat from Bangladesh in the Middle East. She has also served as the Director General of the UN Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is currently serving as the Jordanian Ambassador since January 1, 2020.
In this webinar as an eminent panelist, she discussed the importance of student migration in Latin America and Asia in the international migration discourse and how we often forget to incorporate these regional perspectives while discussing the challenges of student migrations.
In the global scenario,
“We have neglected international students and their subsequent problems from large international negotiations like GFMD and the inclusion of migration in the 2030 sustainable development agenda.”: Ambassador Nahida Sobhan.
Hence, there is a severe need to address this issue and take necessary steps in the right direction to resolve this problem.
Perspective of Bangladesh
Ambassador Sobhan mentioned that according to UNESCO statistics in 2017, out of the massive 170 million population of Bangladesh, there were more than 60,000 people who went abroad for tertiary education. With the COVID-19 emergency hitting the world, Bangladesh was inflicted with a massive challenge of streamlining repatriation. Moreover, being a country whose population is expected to multiply by 3 times its current size by 2025, Bangladesh is one of the top countries projected to have a major stake in global education. Hence, it is imperative that Dhaka drives an initiative in enhancing migration governance, especially student migration.
“We can either perceive the challenge of international students as an obstacle or on the flipside, a long term investment that will help both countries of origin and destination to enhance ‘Brain gain’ and not ‘Brain drain’” : Ambassador Nahida Sobhan.
Contrasting perspectives
While discussing the issues of international students during and post COVID-19, Ambassador Sobhan stresses the importance of perceiving International students as “the glass half full and not empty” in the conflicting debate of whether international students are a liability or an asset.
She believes that international students will be instrumental in closing the gap between developing and developed countries and the exposure of the international educational environment will be significant in “making the international students a part of global citizenship”.
A Way forward
Ambassador Sobhan is of the opinion that COVID-19 has further aggravated the already existing problems that envelop student migrants abroad. They are distraught by basic questions like whether courses will be continued? can students return home? and if yes then can they ever go back to complete their education?
Amongst such grave uncertainties, the mental health of international students is a domain that universities and host communities must seriously look after. Moreover, the complexities in registration of international courses especially for new students is something that must be simplified as the significance of student migration in taking the world ahead cannot be stressed enough.
Therefore, she concludes her talk by saying that we must address student migration and more so in these troubled times by analysing existing migration policies and making them more student sensitive. International students are human capital in the making and we must continue to provide suitable educational standards to them. New mechanisms need to be introduced seeing the dire situation and countries must indeed come together to address the difficulties and challenges that will follow migration governance post COVID-19, especially student migration in the years to come.
Ujjwala Lakhanpal is a final year student of International Relations and Economics at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar. Her areas of interest include Conflict Studies, Asian Geopolitics, International Migrations and the Middle East. Ujjwala is also fond of History, Culture and Religion and you will often find her constructing travel plans to explore the same. Twitter Id- UjjwalaLakhanpal @UjjwalaLp