International relations are reciprocal — skyrocketing visa fees may eventually hurt U.S. working class and thus may not be a thoughtful solution ... why not tax tobacco companies and other trans-national tycoons more?

Ed, at 7:50 am EST on February 12, 2007

Visa fee, tax, and foreigners

The person who talks about raising visa fees does not know that it is already too much. He should note that too much is drawn from foreigners seeking visa to the US before the decision to deny or grant visa is made. One has to pay while making the application as application fee. The American consuls in foreign embassies and their counterparts in the INS/USCIS within the American soil consider themselves the czars of destiny of these so-called third worlders “dying” to get a piece of the perfect (!) american pie. But because no american citizen has to go through this hassle, it is never really raised in the american media. This article tries to raise it very mildly with respect to a few well-known cases and there is already some resistance.As the article mentions, scholars (AAUP mostly) need to stop their complacency and complicity and take a more pro-active approach so that visa procedure is more transparent and the involved bureaucracy more accountable.

foreign traveller, at 9:25 am EST on February 12, 2007

Stop the Nonsense and issue Visas

To the Foreign Traveler…

Amen Amen Amen. You really hit it right on the nose. “American consuls in foreign embassies and their counterparts in the INS/USCIS within the American soil consider themselves the czars of destiny of these so-called third worlders “dying” to get a piece of the perfect (!) American pie.” They really think and behave as they are actually GODS of destiny.

And this is exactly what King Bush, ops, sorry, President Bush policy is all about. It is about taking us here in America 300 years backward and throwing all our freedom rights and our constitution and what America really stands for down the drain. We are America and we are the symbol of freedom, tolerance, justice, forgiveness, and equality. Let us all protect and support these values. Let us stop the nonsense and stop hiding behind a phantom called “Anti-Terrorism”.

I am very impressed with the article. Thank you Mr. Knight for bringing it up.

NSA, Assistant Prof. at SSCT, at 10:20 am EST on February 12, 2007

Another Side Of This Issue

I am certainly no fan of Bush administration policies vis-a-vis the so-called “war” against terrorism, but (1) including Mr. Knight’s essay in InsideHigherEd proves little beyond the fact that IHE must be running out of material and has begun to rehash its rehash of old stuff and (2) there is a lot more to this issue than who happens to be the object of an AAUP law suit this week.

Not that anyone should be proud of how his visa was handled, but how many times must we hear the same ol’/same ol’ about Professor Ramadan? Of course everyone who had a hand in that situation is either a paranoid dork or is using available leverage to “mold” the character of the academy. So sue them , Mr. Knight, and let’s move on.

And in that other case, and quite independent of the substance of the situation, who would expect an American administration – Republican or Democrat – to exhibit a rational reaction to anything related to Cuba? Cut me some slack!

That said, here are two examples illustrating why it may make sense for us to have somewhat restrictive government policies regarding the influx of foreign “scholars” into the United States.

First, three years ago a small business school in the Lower Shenandoah Valley — in conjunction with its aspirations to develop a Chinese connection — created a business education program for Chinese business people who would come to the U.S. take a few mini-courses, tour several business environments, go back to China, and put their newly acquired knowledge to work. Some time later the process would be repeated ... and repeated ... and eventually the school would carve out its niche in international education in China (so-called globalization).

The first cohort of thirteen Chinese business people struggled through the visa process (the school’s timing left a great deal to be desired) and arrived on campus for their first two-week experience. Everything seemed to be progressing wonderfully until the thirteen were delivered to Kennedy International Airport in New York and only two boarded the plane back to China. And the rest ... well your guess is as good as anyone’s. But you may be certain that not all of the illegal aliens residing in the U.S. are Hispanic.

Second, there is – at least from my personal perspective – the “problem” of so many of these young scholars in mathematics staying here in the U.S. I certainly believe that if they want to stay, we should welcome them with open arms. The idea of limiting the participation of these scholars is a throwback to an earlier, protectionist era,”

In the process of job-hunting in recent years, however, I have waaaay more on-line visits to departments of mathematics, statistics, and statistics and management science (operations management) than you can shake a stick at. I can pick faculties like the two in the URLs below almost at random. Take a quick look at the two lists of faculty (you can get a sense of national origin by checking where they got their undergraduate degrees) and tell me what it says about the influx of scholars in mathematics and science education into the United States.

http://www.siue.edu/MATH/faculty.html

http://admin.business.uconn.edu/p.../preview/previewPage.aspx?pageid=204

And, of course, this is all in the face of the fact that the mathematics departments of universities in the U.S. are producing an over-abundance of Ph.D.s.

There is one of Mr. Knight’s points with which I would like to take issue. He wrote, “These visa decisions also teach the wrong lessons to foreign scholars. Barred from entering the country without explanation or for reasons that defy common sense, they are left with the impression that our government fears ideas almost as much as it fears bombs. That may be a false impression, but the administration has only itself to blame for decisions that encourage this kind of thinking.”

I’m afraid, Mr. Knight, you have been sitting in your office in Washington far too long. The next time you’re strolling across the Mall, just blink your eyes and, when you open them, you’ll surely see an instance of our government fearing ideas more than almost anything. Blink again ... same thing. And again ... same thing. Good grief, just read the Spellings’ Commission Report ... or sit in on any of the myriad faculty meetings taking place this week at universities across the land ... or check your own organization’s web-site. That will surely convince you that there’s a deadly fear of ideas in this country ... PERIOD. You don’t have to turn a foreign scholar’s visa application into a Catch-22 nightmare to demonstrate that.

Frizbane Manley, at 4:16 pm EST on February 12, 2007

This is just the ongoing national psychosis that is still working its way out of the attack of 9/11/2001. The mental wagons are circled, the current administration dreams it is living out the end times via the Book of Revelations, and things are just a bit loopy here in the Land of the Free.

I work trying to get University students in here to study on visas and they seem all to be treated as terrorists until proven otherwise. I can only hope the world is patient with us for the next 2 years until we can get someone more sensible in the White House. Jeb Bush need not apply.

Neal, at 10:45 am EST on February 15, 2007