特朗普对中国留学生的最新威胁，使学术交流和学费面临风险
【中美创新时报2025 年 6 月 2 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）外国出生的学生占马萨诸塞州高等教育入学人数的近 18%，比全国任何地方都多。联邦政府将“强行”吊销中国学生的签证，将使学术交流和学费面临风险。《波士顿环球报》记者布鲁克·豪瑟和迪蒂·科利对此作了下述报道。
波士顿大学国际关系学教授叶敏不禁想起了一句中国名言：“心安处，便是我家。”
她曾是来自中国温州的留学生，现在在波士顿感觉就像在家一样，在美国也受到了热烈的欢迎，她已经在美国生活了20多年。
但周三，美国实际上已不再欢迎中国留学生。根据最新统计，美国约有27.7万名中国留学生。美国国务卿马可·卢比奥宣布，联邦政府将“强行”吊销中国学生的签证，“包括与中国共产党有关系或在关键领域学习的学生”。
尽管新政策的具体内容尚不明确，但叶认为卢比奥“拒绝”中国学生是“一个强烈的信号，表明我们想要回到 70 年代”，即在“科学、技术和教育领域的全球合作”尚未实现之前。
她观察到：“主流观点似乎是，美国拥有丰富的资源和尖端技术，国际学生来美国是为了自己的国家‘窃取’这些资源和技术。”
但事实并非如此，她说： 国际学生来美国是因为美国大学在培养个性和创新方面享誉全球。
“这种环境就像我们呼吸的空气——常常被忽视，但对于那些从未体验过的人来说却无比珍贵。”
波士顿指标最近的一项研究发现，外国出生的学生占马萨诸塞州高等教育入学人数的近 18%，高于全国任何地方。
根据国际教育工作者协会 (NAFSA) 的数据，从波士顿到伯克希尔，这些学生支持了 39 亿美元的经济活动和超过 35,000 个就业岗位。
虽然印度和其他国家 也向美国输送了大量留学生，但中美学术交流与始于吉米·卡特时期、直至最近蓬勃发展的软实力外交史尤其难以割裂。2022年，马萨诸塞州约有2.1万名中国学生，占所有国际学生的近30%。
“中国是世界上最强大的国家之一，所以你希望两国之间尽可能多地建立联系和依赖，”哈佛大学前预算官员、现任美国大学与学院管理委员会协会融资专家拉里·拉德说道。“当你制造纯粹的对抗时，对任何人都没有好处。”
签证被吊销的学生必须前往美国驻外领事馆才能返回美国。移民律师丹·伯杰表示，这个过程需要时间。一旦签证被吊销，美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）就可以将该学生驱逐出境。塔夫茨大学学生鲁梅莎·奥兹图尔克（Rümeysa Öztürk）就遭遇了这种情况，她于今年3月被移民局逮捕。
“这种情况可能不会发生在很多人身上，”伯杰说，“但这确实令人担忧。”
卢比奥承诺撤销中国学生签证，此前美国已下令暂停全球签证面试，而特朗普政府则推出新的申请人审查制度。这些威胁不仅震动了那些依靠国际学生提升学术水平和学费的高校，也让那些依赖国际学生的社区感到不安。
由于中国学生人数减少，哈佛大学、东北大学和波士顿大学的新生数量可能会大幅减少，这些大学计划9月份入学的本科新生中，至少有十分之一来自美国以外。伯克利音乐学院等规模较小、外国学生入学人数较多的院校，如果失去支付全额学费的学生，可能会面临预算紧张的局面。
许多国际本科生支付全额学费就读美国大学，这使得学校能够为国内学生提供更广泛的经济援助。
拉德表示，虽然像哈佛这样的大学可以用更多能够支付高额学费的美国学生取代国际本科生，但在研究生阶段，这种情况不太可能发生。马萨诸塞州大约一半的国际学生正在攻读硕士学位。拉德补充说，对于那些没有哈佛那样品牌影响力的大学来说，失去这些学生的财务影响“无论是短期还是长期”，都将更加严重。
“如果中国学生现在不得不离开，[他们就读的大学]，包括哈佛大学，都会在经济上受到打击，因为学费至少会停发到秋季，”拉德说，而且这些损失会波及到他们所在的社区。“这些学生会花钱，”从购买商品和服务到租房。
以马萨诸塞大学旗舰校区所在地阿默斯特为例，该市有5000多名国际学生和学者。 阿默斯特镇经理保罗·博克尔曼表示，中国学生或许需要支付全额学费，“但这对我们来说并不重要。” 真正重要的是：“他们经常租房、外出就餐和参加文化活动。他们对经济产生了重大影响。”
这种影响在夏季尤为明显，“因为大多数校园都会空出来，”博克尔曼说。“很多国际学生一年12个月都在这里，他们在经济低迷时期帮助维持着我们当地的经济。”
现在，很多事情都悬而未决。周四，一名联邦法官暂时阻止了白宫禁止外国出生学生就读哈佛大学的举措，目前法律纠纷仍在继续。但学生签证面试通常会在接下来的几周内进行，目前尚不清楚是否会被彻底取消。
“至少，这意味着延误，”伯杰说。“总的来说，这将加剧对吸引国际学生就读美国高等教育项目的寒蝉效应。”
波士顿大学高等教育学教授玛丽·丘吉尔表示，通常每年约有 90% 的延期入学申请都是因为学生遇到签证问题，她预计，随着特朗普政府的表态，这一数字还会增加。
“如果学生在秋季开学前拿不到签证，很多人会申请延期，”丘吉尔说。“‘我能改到一月份来吗？’……这样一来，基本上会有成千上万的人不会搬到这里来，也不会在这里生活。”
东北大学发言人雷娜塔·纽尔表示，该校正在制定“应急计划，以应对学习可能受到影响的学生”。萨福克大学发言人格雷格·加特林表示，该校今年夏天将为不愿冒险离开美国的国际学生提供住宿，其中包括该校50名中国学生中的一部分。
麻省理工学院在一份声明中表示，该校正在“努力确保签证审查程序……不会以赶走那些有助于确保我们国家竞争力和繁荣的人才的方式实施”。
曼荷莲学院以其悠久的历史和对国际学生的吸引力而自豪，目前该校全日制学生中国际学生占比近21%，其中包括每年约60名中国学生。目前，学院管理人员已敦促国际学生尽快预约签证。
今年秋季，曼荷莲学院预计将迎来约140名国际新生，其中超过三分之一已经拿到了签证。“所以这是件好事，”政治学教授兼麦卡洛克全球倡议中心主任卡维塔·科里说道。然而，由于签证方面存在诸多混乱，“我们对自己的证件产生了很大的怀疑和疑虑：‘我有签证，但我真的能入境吗？’”
一位21岁的曼荷莲学院中国学生担心自己的签证被吊销， 并要求匿名。她今年夏天将留在南哈德利。如果签证被吊销，她会立即拿到推荐信，申请欧洲或香港的学校。
如果这一计划没有成功，她可能会休息几年，“等到本届政府任期结束，同时在中国工作，”她说。
“但这肯定会对情感造成毁灭性打击。”
题图：2025年5月30日，星期五，波士顿大学国际关系学教授叶敏在波士顿大学弗雷德里克·S·帕迪全球研究学院拍摄肖像照。图片来源：《波士顿环球报》布雷特·菲尔普斯
附原英文报道：
With Trump’s latest threat against Chinese international students, academic exchange and tuition dollars are at risk
Foreign-born students make up almost 18 percent of postsecondary enrollment in Massachusetts, more than anywhere in the country
By Brooke Hauser and Diti Kohli Globe Staff,Updated June 2, 2025, 5:00 a.m.
Min Ye, a professor of international relations at Boston University, sits for a portrait at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies on Friday, May 30, 2025, in Boston.Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe
Min Ye, a professor of international relations at Boston University, finds herself thinking of a line from a famous Chinese poem: “Where the heart is at peace, there is my home.”
A former international student from Wenzhou, China, she now feels at home in Boston and mostly welcome in the United States, where she has lived for more than 20 years.
But on Wednesday, the US effectively pulled the welcome mat out from under the Chinese international students here, some 277,000 by most recent count. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the federal government would “aggressively” revoke visas of Chinese students, “including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”
Although specifics of the new policy are still unclear, Ye sees Rubio’s “rejection” of Chinese students as “a strong signal that we want to go back to the ’70s,” she said, before “the whole global collaboration in science, technology, and education.”
“The dominant narrative seems to be that the US possesses abundant resources and cutting-edge technologies, and that international students come to ‘steal’ them for their home countries,” she observed.
But that’s not true, she said: International students come because American universities are world-renowned for nurturing individuality and innovation.
“This environment is like the air we breathe — often unnoticed, but incredibly precious to those who have never experienced it.”
Foreign-born students make up almost 18 percent of postsecondary enrollment in Massachusetts, more than anywhere in the country, Boston Indicators found in a recent study.
From Boston to the Berkshires, those students support $3.9 billion in economic activity and more than 35,000 jobs, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
While India and other countries also send large numbers of students here, it’s particularly difficult to separate the US-China academic exchange from the story of soft-power diplomacy that began under Jimmy Carter and flourished until recently. In 2022, there were around 21,000 Chinese students in Massachusetts — nearly 30 percent of all international students.
“China is one of the most powerful nations in the world, so you want to have as many relationships and dependencies between the two countries as possible,” said Larry Ladd, a former budget officer at Harvard and now a financing expert at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. “When you create pure antagonism, it’s not good for anybody.”
Students who had their visas revoked would have to go to a US consulate abroad to return here, a process that immigration attorney Dan Berger said takes time. Once a visa is revoked, US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement can put the student into deportation proceedings, which is what happened to Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was arrested by immigration authorities in March.
“It may not happen to many,” said Berger, “but it is a real concern.”
Rubio’s promised revocation of visas for Chinese students comes on the heels of US orders to halt visa interviews around the world while the Trump administration rolls out new vetting of applicants. The combined threats have shaken colleges and universities that depend on international students for both their academic prowess and tuition dollars, and unsettled communities that count on their business.
With fewer students from China, Harvard, Northeastern, and Boston University could see a notable reduction in their incoming classes, where at least a tenth of freshmen undergraduates planning to arrive in September are from outside the US. Smaller colleges with high numbers of foreign-born enrollment, such as Berklee College of Music, could face budgetary constraints if they lose students who pay the full tuition price.
Many international undergraduate students pay full tuition to attend US colleges, which allows schools to provide more expansive financial aid to domestic students.
Ladd said while universities such as Harvard could replace international undergraduates with more US students who can pay top-dollar, that’s less likely at the graduate school level. Roughly half of international students in Massachusetts are pursuing master’s degrees. For colleges without the same brand power as Harvard, Ladd added, the financial impact of losing those students would be “much more severe, short term and long term.”
“If Chinese students had to leave right now, [the universities they attend] would be hurt financially, including Harvard, because the tuition would stop, at least for the fall,” Ladd said, and the losses would ripple through their local communities. “Those students spend money,” from buying goods and services to renting apartments.
Take Amherst, home to the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts, with more than 5,000 international students and scholars. Chinese students may pay full tuition, said Amherst town manager Paul Bockelman, “not that that matters to us.” What does matter: “They’re often renting units and going out to dinner and participating in cultural activities. They have a major economic impact.”
That impact is especially felt during summer, “when most of the campuses vacate,” said Bockelman. “A lot of the international students are here 12 months a year, and they’re helping to sustain our local economy during the slower times.”
Now, much is up in the air. On Thursday, a federal judge blocked the White House’s move to ban foreign-born enrollment at Harvard, for now, while the legal fight proceeds. But interviews for student visas typically take place over the next several weeks, and it’s unclear if they will be canceled entirely.
“At the very least, this will mean delays,” said Berger. “Overall, this will add to the chilling effect on attracting international students to US higher education programs.”
Mary Churchill, a professor of higher education at Boston University, said roughly 90 percent of deferrals in a typical year are from students with visa troubles, and she expects that number to increase with the Trump administration’s posturing.
“When students can’t get their visa before the fall starts, many will request a deferral,” Churchill said. “ ‘Can I come in January instead?’ … You will basically have thousands of people not moving here and living here.”
Renata Nyul, a spokesperson for Northeastern University, said the college is setting up “contingency plans for those who might experience disruptions to their learning.” Suffolk University is providing housing this summer for international students who don’t want to risk leaving the country, including some of its 50 Chinese students, spokesperson Greg Gatlin said.
MIT said it is “fighting to ensure the “visa vetting process … is not implemented in a way that drives away the very talent that helps ensure our nation’s competitiveness and prosperity,” according to a statement.
Mount Holyoke College takes prides in a long history of attracting international students, now nearly 21 percent of full-time enrollment, including about 60 Chinese students each year. So far, administrators have urged international students to secure their visa appointments as soon as possible.
This fall Mount Holyoke is expecting about 140 international first-years, and more than one third have their visas already, “so that’s a good thing,” said Kavita Khory, a professor of politics and director of the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives. With all the confusion around visas, however, “we’re creating a significant level of skepticism and doubt about our own documents: ‘I have a visa, but will I actually be able to come in?’ ”
One 21-year-old Chinese student at Mount Holyoke, who is afraid of her visa being revoked and asked not to be named, is staying in South Hadley for the summer. If it were revoked, she would immediately get letters of recommendation and apply to schools in Europe or Hong Kong.
And, if that didn’t pan out, she’d likely take a few gap years “and wait it out until the end of this administration and work in China meanwhile,” she said.
“It would definitely be emotionally devastating, though.”
