MEMORANDUM

DATE:    January 17, 2025
TO:        The Trump-Vance Administration
FROM:  NAFSA: Association of International Educators

RE: U.S. Competitiveness, Economic Prosperity, and National Security Rely on Talent: Priorities for the Trump-Vance Administration

One of the biggest challenges confronting the United States is securing job and economic growth in the face of immense competition from other countries. Workers with global experience are essential to U.S. employers’ success in competing for consumers in a globalized marketplace. In order to stay ahead, we must ensure U.S. workers are prepared for the jobs of today and tomorrow. We must also ensure that employers are able to attract and retain the international workers needed to fill gaps in the domestic talent pool.

Global talent is an essential component of U.S. innovation, economic competitiveness, and national security. While this country is fortunate to have a large and dynamic workforce, the United States does not produce enough STEM workers to meet the workforce needs of the 21st-century knowledge economy. Research by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that the demand for STEM talent will continue to exceed the available supply in the domestic workforce for the foreseeable future. More than half of international students here pursue STEM fields of study. To ensure the United States remains the global leader in innovation, technology, and scientific advances, we must invest in growing the domestic talent pool while continuing to attract and retain the world’s best and brightest talent. The outcome will be of vital importance not only to American innovation, national security, economic growth, and global competitiveness, but also to foreign policy and diplomacy. 

We stand ready to work with the Trump-Vance administration to advance the following policy priorities: 

Ensure the Global Competency of U.S. College Graduates

U.S. colleges and universities must provide American students with meaningful international education experiences. Study abroad is a learning opportunity that enables students to develop critical skills needed to compete in today's global economy.

Increasing access to international experiences like study abroad will be essential to ensuring that U.S. students gain the skills, knowledge, and experiences necessary to sustain America’s global economic leadership and tackle the many global challenges and crises we face. Unfortunately, only 10 percent of college students graduate with a study abroad experience on their transcript, meaning 90 percent enter the workforce lacking the global skills, knowledge, and experiences that would position them for success.

NAFSA urges the Trump-Vance administration to:

  • prioritize the global competency of U.S. students in our education system 
  • support policies that increase the number of U.S. college students who pursue study abroad before graduation; and
  • sufficiently fund established U.S. government international education programs that contribute to increasing global knowledge and growing study abroad participation.

Attract and Retain the Best and Brightest International Talent

The U.S. higher education system is unrivaled in its size, strength, and contributions to scientific advancements. Unsurprisingly, this system attracts the best and brightest to our shores. We know President Trump understands the value of the contributions that international students make to the United States and we are grateful he said this about international students: “What I want to do, and what I will do is—you graduate from a college, I think you should <get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country.”

President Trump’s words are backed by results. A quarter of the billion-dollar start-up companies in the United States have a founder who first came here as an international student. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, advisers to President Trump who have been named to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, both have ties to international education—Musk as a former international student and Ramaswamy as the child of a former international student.

International students and scholars are assets to academic and scientific innovation, economic vitality, national security, and global leadership, as evidenced by the following statistics:

  • During the 2023–24 academic year, international students and their families contributed nearly $44 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 378,000 jobs. 
  • Research published in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper found that an increase of 150 international students in a graduating cohort led to one additional start-up within five years, a rate eight to nine times higher than that of their U.S.-born peers.
  • About a third of the above-referenced increase in start-ups was generated by international students’ entrepreneurialism “spilling over” to their U.S.-born peers, who also founded and cofounded firms.

While international student enrollment has largely recovered from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 1.1 million studying at U.S. colleges and universities during the 2023–24 academic year, a Fall 2024 international student enrollment snapshot survey showed a 5 percent decline in new enrollments. The United States is also facing a domestic college-age population decline, with this demographic shrinking up to 15 percent over the next five to ten years. This is concerning for the future of U.S. higher education and economic competitiveness, and we cannot be complacent.

If we do not proactively attract international talent, the talent will go elsewhere, to the detriment of the U.S. businesses that rely on their contributions. If we choose to move in the direction of our English-speaking competitors, which are putting limits on international students, we risk harming our national and economic security while also depriving our students and higher education institutions of the knowledge and experience international students and scholars contribute to U.S. campuses and communities. Instead, we should choose to set a new competitive standard.

NAFSA urges the Trump-Vance administration to: 

  • Improve government efficiency by: 
    • reducing visa backlogs, providing predictable visa processing, and decreasing the high denial rate of student and scholar visa applicants, especially for those coming from countries with growing college-age populations; and
    • enhancing the reliability and predictability of immigration filings submitted by international students and scholars to include maintaining duration of status for international students to ensure they may complete their studies without burdening USCIS with extension of status requests. 
  • Provide for “dual intent” and pathways to employment, including a direct path to a green card for international students graduating from U.S. colleges and universities who want to remain and contribute to the U.S. economy, as proposed by President Trump. 
  • Adopt recommendations made last year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in their report International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment, such as: 
    • overseeing the coordination of a whole-of-government talent strategy, including national talent recruitment and retention approaches for international researchers at all levels of experience, to be implemented by federal departments and agencies; and 
    • establishing easily navigable pathways to permanent residency and citizenship for qualified foreign-born STEM talent. 

January 2025