Chinese students studying Michigan represented more than a fifth of the state’s total international student population in 2023-24, according to federal data.
They are the second subgroup that studies in the state, according to a Open door report Funded by the US State Department, spending part of a person estimated at $ 1.455 billion each year.
Now, some of these students could soon face visa revocations, after an ad by the State Department which promised to “aggressively revoke” the visas for international students in China.
Future candidates who wish to study in the universities of Michigan could also see an in -depth exam before being approved.
The leaders of the Trump administration, such as the spokesperson for the State Department, Tammy Bruce, linked the announcement to an “exploitation of American universities by the Chinese Communist Party (CCC)”. She said the announcement aims to counter the CCP’s “influence and malignant actions”.
However, some Michigan education leaders and immigration defenders call for more clarity.
They say that not knowing how many students could be affected will signify complications for the colleges of Michigan which provide for international dollars in schooling.
If a large number of students are affected, they say it will mean fewer dollars in the economy of Michigan and a decreased talent basin.
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On Wednesday, May 28, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio published a statement by a paragraph promising to revoke Chinese student visas.
“Under the leadership of President Trump, the US State Department will work with the Ministry of Internal Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those who have links with the Chinese Communist Party or study in critical fields.”
The Rubio declaration also said that the State Department would revise the visa criteria to improve the examination of future applications of the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.
In a May 29 of press informationBruce said that the Trump administration will not tolerate “the CCC exploitation of American universities or theft of American research, intellectual property or technologies to develop its military power, carry out a collection of information or repress the votes of the opposition”.
Bruce did not share the percentage of Chinese students likely to deal with revocations of visas nationwide. She did not respond if the figures would be greater than during the first term of Trump, when the officials canceled the visas of more than 1,000 students Chinese graduates, citing links with military universities.
She has not provided many details on critical study areas would be examined.
“In this case, when we think of critical areas, which is obviously a very specific sentence, we think of national security,” she said, “the nature of the way we keep America in security and more prosperous. And it is important to have … a wide basis because it could mean something different for many people. ”
When asked if the entire Chinese international student population in the United States took place to worry, Bruce replied that “I think that all those who are here on a visa must recognize – certainly as what they have seen in the past few months – that America takes their visa seriously, that verification is not a unique process.”
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Dan Hurley, CEO of Michigan Association of State Universities (Masu), said that the lack of clarity around the announcement so far concerned the 15 public universities of Michigan, for which the masu is pressure.
He said that there should be more information shared in the critical fields that will be assigned, as well as a calendar, so that universities can prepare.
“There is already a very rigorous verification system in place for all international student applications,” he said. “It is not as if nothing had been done, and the system has worked very well over the years.”
Hurley said he thought that whatever the number of visas that are ultimately dismissed, the announcement will however have a “scary effect” for Chinese students.
“I think they are going to stay at home or look elsewhere,” he said, “and it is a loss for our domestic economy, for the economy of Michigan, for communities with public universities, really all the colleges and universities of four years of the state.”
Ruby Robinson, a lawyer principal director of Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC), believes that the effect on higher education in Michigan could be “extraordinary and devastating”, given the broad nature of the announcement and the uncertainty it provokes for students.
“You are using a bulldozer to assign something that a scalpel could do,” he said.
Nationally, there was a little finished 277,000 Chinese international students Study in American colleges and universities in 2023-24.
Michigan had the eighth higher of international students overall – 38,123. Among these, 22.7% were students from China.
According to these estimates, just over 8,600 Chinese students studied in Michigan last year.
This is the second highest subgroup behind India students, which represented 38.1% of the international student population.
Hurley said that this includes more than 6,000 Chinese students enrolled in the 15 public universities in the state.
These international students spend great on higher education and bring a lot of talents with them, said Hurley.
Last year, the Open Doors report estimated $ 1.455 billion in Michigan.
This includes tuition fees and costs to Michigan higher education institutions, at a time when the population of state university students is in a decline.
“Since we are one of the main states of the country in terms of expected decrease in resident high school graduates, this will add one more pinch to the registration pipeline,” said Hurley.
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At the University of Michigan, for example, tuition fees and costs for first -year / student international students in the second year are estimated At just over $ 60,000 and are closer to $ 65,000 for junior / senior students.
This is added to around $ 15,000 for subsistence costs, as well as thousands spent on transport and course equipment, which means that each international student should spend between $ 80,000 and $ 84,000 per year.
Much of this is spent in Michigan communities, said Hurley, in housing, food, entertainment and retail.
The University of Michigan records the greatest number of state international students, with 11,766.
He was followed by the University of Trine – Detroit Regional at 6,615; Michigan State University at 5,081; Central Michigan University at 1,930 and Wayne State University at 1,703.
International school rates, which are generally much higher than those paid by students in the state, provide additional income to higher education institutions and help subsidize the price of tuition fees to residents, Hurley said.
The potential loss of some of these tuition fees is just one more factor that institutional leaders have to face.
“This is certainly a very turbulent period for our campus higher education leaders,” he said.
In addition to spending, international students also conduct research in major research universities in Michigan, fill the educational assistant positions and, in many cases, remain after graduation to fill highly qualified state jobs, often in STEM fields.
Visas revocations could affect students who would otherwise remain in Michigan and participate in the workforce.
“They bring a lot of innovation to the ecosystem,” he said, “in particular in some of our high-level industries in Michigan and certainly in southeast Michigan, (with) advanced manufacturing, all types of engineering, automation, health sciences.”
Hurley has said that now, higher education institutions are probably doing a lot of planning and anticipation of awareness -raising efforts to other countries with large populations of international students in Michigan, such as India.
Although a revocation of the visa alone does not necessarily mean that a student is immediately expelled, Robinson said that he put the students in a much more difficult position if he wishes to leave the country and come back.
In the end, Robinson said that two students’ circumstances are not the same. He recommended that students with immigration issues have conversations with professionals in the right of confidence.
Hurley said the Masu was monitoring the potential proceedings that arise accordingly.
The recent announcement of Rubio is one of the many international students that the Trump administration has made in recent months.
In April, Michigan international students in more than half a dozen universities had been dismissed, especially at Michigan UniversityMichigan State University, Grand Valley State University and Saginaw Valley State University. Later in the same month, the federal government announced that it restored legal status for affected people.
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Last week, Trump’s administration also announced that it would expand social media verification for foreign student candidates. The State Department ordered American embassies to stop in planning new interviews on student visas in the meantime.
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