Linkages of Temporality, Spatiality, and Racial Positioning of Asian International Students in the U.S.

• In Event: Reframing Research, Identity, and Belonging in Global Higher Education for Asian International Students

Abstract

International students in the United States have experienced the effects from many of the global conflicts. During Trump’s first administration, international students and scholars experienced constantly and rapidly changing immigration policies, such as the Travel Bans, which left students and administrators rushing to adhere to new rules. We also saw a shift to conservative ideals being more visible, including anti-DEI and anti-CRT movements that affected so many in higher education. There was anti-Asian racist nativism mirroring the “Yellow Peril” of the early 19th century (Yao & George Mwangi, 2022). Within the second Trump administration, the quick imposition of executive orders included tariffs on multiple countries affecting the global economy (Horsley, 2025) and the sudden rescinding of international students and scholars’ visas (Gary & Gluckman, 2025). In recent weeks, there are continued global challenges, including leadership changes, military strife, and the growth of far-right movements in multiple governments (Henley, 2025). Most recently, Secretary of State Marco Rubio “aggressively revoke[d] visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields” (Rubio, 2025, para. 1). Consequently, international students, including those from Asia, are introduced to heightened anxiety and instability within global, national, regional, and institutional pressures, indicating unprecedented times in international education.

As such, Asian international students continue to be positioned in the “other,” particularly within contemporary anti-China rhetoric from the United States. Yet they also are simultaneously positioned as being important contributors to scientific knowledge and sources of economic riches (Yao & George Mwangi, 2022). Although many scholars may say that the current positioning of Asian international students is unprecedented, I argue that contemporary rhetoric related to Asian students is reminiscent of historical perspectives—and in fact, Asian international students’ positioning continue to manifest in similar and cyclical ways within temporality and spatiality. In this session, I use two framings to guide my emergent argument—that of an equity-driven framework for internationalization (George Mwangi & Yao, 2021) and affective futurity (Zembylas, 2025). The equity-driven framework posits that internationalization research, policy, and practices can be examined and enacted through four guiding principles: defining the sociohistorical context, understanding the contemporary forces of globalization, integrating equity-driven theoretical perspectives, and de/constructing internationalization. I also layer on theorizing by Zembylas (2025) about affective futurity to think about the future of higher education. Stated simply, affective futurity, as popularized by Coleman (2018), includes the importance of affect, or how things are felt, in the theorizing of the future which is an unrealized time. Specifically, “a central objective of studying affective futurity in higher education is to examine how power works affectively in intersecting positionalities—such as gender, race, class, disability—and how different imaginaries can bring better futures into being” (Zembylas, 2025, p. 2). As such, I advance an emergent theoretical argument that links temporality, spatiality, and racial positioning of Asian international students with an emphasis on equity-driven possibilities for higher education futures.

Author

• Christina W. Yao, University of South Carolina