Many Chinese students flock to the US for green cards or greener pastures.
But they may end up university cash cows in those pastures, ready to be milked
as needed to fill the yawning budget gaps at US schools.
More than 157, 000
students from China were enrolled in US colleges in the 2010-11 academic year,
maintaining their title as the largest source of overseas students in the US,
the Institute of International Education reported in November. They make up
nearly one in five of foreign students there. And the US embassy in Beijing
recently announced a looser visa policy, making it easier for Chinese students
to come to the land of opportunity.
But their booming presence is met with
ballooning payments. Chinese students in the US are bracing for financial shock
among hefty tuition, exorbitant rents, growing transport costs, and other
clustering expenses. The University of Washington (UW), for instance, charges
international students three times as much as in-state ones.
At a time when
state funding is being trimmed and social donations are plummeting in the throes
of an economic contraction, cash-strapped institutes of higher education are
happier than ever before to bank on foreigners' deep pockets.
China remains
the No.1 holder of US debt, but "This is a way of getting some of that money
back" as Philip A. Ballinger, the dean of admissions at UW, was quoted as saying
by the New York Times earlier this month.
Another issue is that job openings
for foreign students, for all their pecuniary tributes to the local economy, are
scare all over the US. Flipping burgers, slinging hash browns and washing
endless piles of dirty dishes are how most Chinese students moonlight on US
soil, making ends meet.
Ma tried futilely to land a job in his field there.
"Workplaces are bad, such as factory," he said.
Things are not much better back in China. Gone are the good old days when a
foreign diploma was lauded as a career-boosting tool and haigui (overseas
returnees) were highly sought-after in the job market.
Nowadays returned
students, with their mystique stripped away, are stuck with starting monthly
salaries as low as 3, 000 yuan ($476), tying that of domestic undergraduates.
"The cost-benefit ratio is dismally off-balance," sighed Ma.