The US is cracking down hard on the international student community. The United States administration is doing everything it can to send a strong message to overseas students, including deporting them, canceling their SEVIS records, and revoking their study visas.

In the most recent move, the United States recently directed all of its embassies and consulates around the world to cease scheduling student visa interviews.

To a foreign student, the current environment doesn’t seem to be welcoming. The ongoing uncertainty around the crackdown on international students could discourage top students from coming to America. If US sees a fall in the number of international students, it can have a fallout on the US economy.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan was critical of the fact that politics is influencing US universities, which in turn influence the economy. Rajan warned about the long-term risks to the US economy if politics erodes the pipeline of international students to American universities.

Rajan also cautioned that restricting access to international students may have an effect on employment creation, pointing out that firms such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google employ thousands of people, in part because of talent pipelines connected to immigration.

US remains the most popular destination for international students to pursue their career goals. The United States is the world’s largest host of international students, attracting elite talent from all over the world. In 2024, over 1.1 million international students pursued their higher education in the United States.

International students pursue academic degrees in the United States because of the quality of its higher education system, notably in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Students and scholars offer innovation and global perspectives to colleges and universities in the United States, and these institutions profit from them.

Adding Value to Economy

Over the years, international students have made a considerable contribution to the United States economy. NAFSA’s latest analysis finds that international students studying at U.S. colleges and universities contributed $43.8 billion and supported 378,175 jobs to the U.S. economy during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Under US immigration rules, international graduates can work in America after completing their studies through the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme. The OPT program assists American firms in attracting skilled individuals while also allowing students to stay and contribute to the US economy.

A key finding from NAFSA’s economic research established that for every three international students, one U.S. job is created. Overall spending by international students has also seen a marked increase. The economic contributions by international students during their studies increased for the second year in a row in 2024. Their activity was measured at $2.0 billion (up 33 percent, almost double last year’s growth), and they supported more than 8,400 jobs (up 28 percent compared to last year’s 8.6 percent increase).

The five states that saw the largest amount of economic activity were California, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, and Illinois—the same top five as last year. Twelve states broke the $1 billion mark, and international student spending in those 12 states combined to generate 57 percent of the total dollar contribution to the U.S. economy.

Bringing Talent to America

Over half of the international students who come to the United States study in STEM fields. This includes studying in cutting-edge programs and labs, contributing to innovation in key industries that benefit the U.S.’s role as a leader in science and technology. An additional 15% of all students study business and management, which is critical to the global banking and finance sectors

According to a 2016 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine research, the outlook for long-term economic growth in the United States would be significantly dimmed without the contributions of highly educated immigrants, who produce valuable inventions and productivity. Forty-three percent of America’s Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children, and the CEOs of Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Google are all immigrants who came to the U.S. for their education.