I'm White and I'm a Lady: Experiences with U.S. Visas for Higher Education

• In Event: 469 - Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Immigration Policies and Practices

Abstract

While the field of immigration studies has scholarship that addresses a variety of issues ranging from theories of international migration, adaptation of immigrants, and economic, social, and political responses to immigration, there has been little examination of an initial aspect of the immigration process: the visa for higher education which is the focus of this paper. We analyze whether and how highly skilled immigrants perceive prejudice or discrimination during the U.S. visa application process and how they may differ by gender, nationality, and social economic status. Drawing on qualitative interviews with twenty-six international students at a large research-I university in the U.S., we examine experiences during the students’ most recent visa application process. We discern four main themes in our data: The “Good” Immigrant, Influence of Culture; Navigating/Negotiating Visa Approval; and The Merit-Based “Golden Ticket.” Our analysis show that participants utilize the term ‘culture’ to describe all experiences including that which is subtly discriminatory. The definitions of culture went beyond racial, ethnic, and national boundaries and also included religion, language, gender, social economic status, and political beliefs. The diverse ways interviewees interpreted their cultural backgrounds indicates how racial and ethnic categories are culturally defined and how these definitions and expectations may change across national borders. These categories may not always be explicit to the interviewee, and are instead imbedded in descriptions of what are considered normal customs of exchange in each interviewee’s country of origin.

Author

• Jenean Cox, Purdue University