Immigration Article of the Day: Migrating Across the Color Line: Racial Barriers to Belonging for Foreign Students in US by Ming Hsu Chen

Migrating Across the Color Line: Racial Barriers to Belonging for Foreign Students in US by Ming Hsu Chen

Abstract

International students hail from hundreds of countries each year, but the vast majority come from Asian countries like India and China. The next largest sending countries are Latin American. Their experiences being racialized as double minorities set them on distinct trajectories. Navigating college involves multiple structures of belonging in a place far away from one's family and nation of birth. This paper examines how temporary visas shape the integration of Asian international students differently than that of Latin American and white international students in the U.S. Drawing on 60 interviews with international students from 25 countries, this article highlights how law, race, and global competition structure the transition from outsider to insider, with many students falling through the institutional gaps as they come of age.