Understanding Disparities in International Student Visa Applications to the United States

• In Event: 20862 - Section on International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 5: Migration and Education

Abstract

A recent FOIA request of the U.S. government made available data highlighting the rejection rates for F-1 student visas in the United States since 2015. The data suggest that rejection rates vary widely across countries for students that have already been accepted to U.S. colleges and universities. In particular, high rejection rates characterize countries in Africa and the Middle East while European countries have the lowest rates of rejection. This raises the possibility of discrimination in the review of student visa applications, according to factors such as race, religion, and economic circumstances. The current study uses multiple regression to determine what factors are predictive of rejections at the country level. We find evidence of economic discrimination, most notably that lower country-level GDP per capita predicts higher refusal rates, highlighting the possibility that applicants are turned down because of their personal, household, or country-level economic circumstances. However, we also find evidence of racial/religious discrimination. Specifically, controlling for a variety of economic, social, and political factors, in comparison to predominantly White countries, applications from predominantly Black, Muslim, Latinx, and Asian countries are 13, 8, 7, and 5.5 percentage points more likely to be rejected, respectively. Interaction analyses suggest that countries that are both predominantly Black and predominantly Muslim are even more likely to be rejected, by 26 percentage points compared to predominantly White countries. This has major implications for applicants from these countries as well as the future of higher education in the United States.

Authors

• Christopher Maggio, University of Illinois Chicago

• Meaghan L Tomasiewicz, University of Illinois Chicago