The world has been buzzing lately with the news of Joe Biden winning against his opponent Donald Trump for the title as 46th President of the United States of America. Speaking of the election, is how international education has become impacted in recent years in America, and how it may change when Joe Biden officially steps foot in the White House. This leads to the last four years of international education and how the numbers suggest that there has been a decline in international students coming to USA to get an education and an increase in other countries around the world.

It began before Donald Trump became President but seemed to decline further once he took office. The President began to ensure policies and rhetoric from his campaign, and within his first few months in office he exacerbated the problems. Trump had tried to implement closing its boarders, implementing a travel ban, and creating an anti-immigration rhetoric. This had impacted students worldwide because they became hesitant to study in a country that lacked safety and security to students from certain countries, specifically students from Muslim practicing countries. This ultimately led to numbers being impacted country-wide for institutions who rely on international students to keep them afloat. In fact, studies have shown from the academic years of 2017-2018, that international student numbers were down 6.6% and then 2% the following year. Those numbers are concerning since the statistics for the United States of America show that international students contributed around $45 billion dollars in 2018, even with the enrollment numbers being lower than previous years. International students are pouring billions of dollars into the American economy each year, while also bringing staggering diversity to campuses. Above all, it became evident that during Trump’s time in office, there were many policies and rhetoric put in place that made many of us grimace because the results could have been even more catastrophic than they already were. 

It can sometimes be a struggle to anyone outside the government to understand why certain policies are put into place. However, this election that took place in November 2020, may give international students hope to achieve their dreams of studying in the USA, and colleges and universities hope in getting their numbers back up and diversifying their campuses. Decisions made by the government make the country look, to outsiders, like a very unwelcoming place. That is why Joe Biden has created a “walk-back” laundry list of things he wanted to turn around that were set in place by Donald Trump. He wants America to go back to being the place where dreams can be achieved, without having restrictions to individuals because of where they are from. If he will achieve this, we will find out within the next four years how the international numbers have been affected and if the policies Donald Trump put in place during his time in the White House, was actually the issue.

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