Exploring pathways of international students after their student visas – implications for policy and research

• In Event: Higher Education Policy at the Intersection of Immigration, Funding, and Lifelong Learning

Proposal

Introduction and background
Until recently, most countries did not view international students as future permanent residents or citizens. It is different now as many governments view international students as valuable assets for their educational and economic sectors (Hawthorne, 2018; Kerr 2019). In many ways, higher education institutions (HEIs) are one of the primary gatekeepers for a nation-state’s highly skilled immigration (Kerr, 2019). However, many countries immigration policies regularly pose as an obstacle for international students to remain in country after graduation (Choudaha & van Mol, 2022; Sá & Sabzalieva, 2018). While the numbers of international students have grown rapidly globally, there is little empirical evidence on what happens to international students, in terms of their visa status, after they initially enroll.

This study tracks and examines the visa (residence permit) status of international students after they enroll. It is set in Finland, a wealthy, non-Anglophone Western country with a steadily growing international student population. Beginning in the late 1980s, Finland opted to establish English language educational programs for international students instead of building a system requiring language studies in the country’s official languages (Finnish or Swedish; Jokila, 2020). This decision normalized the use of English as the main language of instruction for international students, primarily through international degree programs (IDPs; Saarinen, 2020). This normalization of English made studying in Finland an attractive option for international students (Saarinen, 2020).

Theoretical & Empirical approach
Studying abroad, previously positioned as a temporary endeavor, is now seen as a form of labor migration (Robertson, 2013; Tremblay, 2005). This shift occurred in the broader context of a globalized knowledge economy and the global race for skilled workers (Robertson, 2013; Kerr, 2019). It is a dynamic process where an individual student’s agency is simultaneously constrained and enabled by external factors such as government or institutional policy, family considerations, and labor market opportunities (Mosneaga & Winther, 2013). It is a staggered process where individuals arrive on student visas and remain on temporary visas until they fulfil criteria for permanent residency, replacing previous models of permanent migration with a fixed entry (Robertson, 2013).

Our empirical strategy is straightforward. We began by identifying international students from their initial acceptance of an offer of admission into an IDP. We then identified which students receive a student residence permit (visa) and which were rejected from the Migri data. Next, we tracked (followed) the visa status of international students for five (5) years. We chose five years as the standard time-to-degree for students to complete a bachelor (three years) or masters (two years) degree. By law, international students are allowed to stay for up to two years after graduation on a student graduation visa allowing them to look for employment. Thus, the five years would cover students’ expected time from graduation through their post-graduation student visa status. We conducted descriptive statistics on four time points (initial acceptance of an offer of admission into a IDP, graduation, two years after graduation, and end of five year period) followed by a series of regression (OLS) models at similar time points (graduation, two years after graduation, end of five years) to identify factors affecting changes in an international students’ visa status (ex: degree type, field of study, nationality, gender, age, etc.).

Our principal data source is on international student applicants from The Finnish National Agency for Education (Opetushallitus), who administers the Student Selection Register. This includes data on all applications, admittances, acceptances, and related information on IDPs and HEIs in Finland. We use the Finnish Immigration Service’s (Migri) registry for the residence permits (from a student’s initial application to subsequent visa applications and changes) to track international students visa status in Finland. We augment our data with data from the FOLK Basic data module, containing residency information; a national data registry managed by Statistics Finland. These data are connected across the three registries into a singular database where individual students are matched by their Finnish social security number (henkilötunnus). We constrain our sample to data of initial application from the 2015-2019 time period for varied reasons. First, the application to IDPs prior was varied amongst HEIs and programs (common application came in 2015). Second, COVID affected applications and visa starting with the 2020 entering cohort.

Preliminary Findings
We found over the five years (2015-2019) a total of 68,904 students applied for IDP with 18,301 students being admitted, 16,077 students accepting an offer of admission, and 11,577 students enrolling. In terms of demographics, we see the sample becoming more female, younger, coming from Europe or North America, and coming from wealthier (measured by World Bank country index) countries as the sample progresses from applicants, to admitted, to accepted, to enrolled.

We have matched all visas applications and statuses (accepted or rejected) to all students in the sample. From here, we identified four student groups. First (leavers) are students who have left Finland (two sets, before graduation and after graduation). Second (students) are students who stayed in Finland for the entire five years but are still on a student visa (three sets, original IDP, new degree program, and graduates looking for work). Third (family or politics) are students who transition to another type of visa such as family (i.e. married a Finnish national) or sought special status (asylum or relief from persecution in home country). The last group (workers) are students who transitioned to a work visa (due to permanent or long-term work contract).

We are currently still finalizing our OLS models and expect our results by the end of October. We intend to conclude our analysis by discussing the policy (political and educational) implications of our models and how various factors influence international students to end up as workers. This is extremely important as the global trend is one of most nation-states seeking to keep their international graduates in country for economic development purposes (Riaño et al., 2018) as they often trained for the host labor market (Ziguras and Law, 2006) and do not require a lengthy or complex process to recognize their qualifications (Robertson, 2013).

Author

• Charles Mathies, Old Dominion University