The U.S. Foreign Student Program Is Becoming a Foreign Worker Program

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The U.S. Foreign Student Program Is Becoming a Foreign Worker Program
December 18, 202410:30 AM
INIR 2024/7
by
Jon Feere

The foreign student program in the United States, as defined in law, is for bona fide foreign students qualified “to pursue a full course of study” who seek “to enter the United States temporarily and solely for the purpose of pursuing such a course of study.” Yet the program is quickly transforming into a foreign worker program in direct conflict with congressional intent on account of employment programs created at the direct request of business lobbyists seeking increases in cheap, foreign labor. This is a phenomenon that seems to be occurring in many countries throughout the world.

Currently, there are 1,503,649 foreign students in the United States on either F-1 (academic) or M-1 (technical or vocational) visas, and a total of 539,382[ii] of them have obtained work authorization through some version of “practical training”. There are three types of practical training offered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The most popular is simply called Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows those on foreign student visas to work for up to a year after graduating from an academic institution. There are currently 276,452 foreign students with work authorization via OPT.

DHS also created the STEM OPT program, which allows for an additional two years of work authorization (for a total of three years) for foreign students who have completed degrees in a field that meets DHS’s definition of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. There are currently 122,101 foreign students with employment authorization to work under the STEM OPT program.

https://inirnet.org/article-written-for-inir/the_u_s_foreign_student_program_is_becoming_a_foreign_worker_program