Global Social Injustice and Higher Education: Ideological Barriers to Access for ARES

• In Event: Approaches to Equity-Driven Internationalization Scholarship in Higher Education

Abstract

Purpose
I highlight structural and ideological impediments to access for a theoretical population overlooked by higher education scholarship: Asymmetrically Represented Education Seekers (ARES) [Viggiano, 2020]. ARES are potential international students from low socio-economic status backgrounds, low-income countries, or under-represented lower middle-income countries that wish to study at an institution of higher education in the Minority World (Viggiano, 2020).

I employ the Equity-Driven Internationalization Lens (Mwangi & Yao, in press) to reveal that it is our inability to include ARES in the equity conversation that perpetuates global social injustice (Viggiano, 2020).

Perspective and Approach
I discuss my body of scholarly research and Critical Internationalization Studies literature through the Equity-Driven Internationalization Lens (Mwangi & Yao, in press). This lens highlights that the a-historical nature of modern justice frames has led to global injustice. I problematize the focus on neoliberalism alone without rooting this neoliberalism in the foundation of colonialism (Viggiano, 2020). The power lines by which we discriminate today are very similar to those that were constructed during the conquest of the Americas (Mignolo, 2007). Although the current individuals within these privileged countries may not have been involved in the direct colonization of other countries, their continued reliance on these borders to restrict and bestow rights is an example of the ways in which those who have inherited power continue to directly benefit from the inequity created by colonization (Stein, 2016). In maintaining exclusive systems justified on the based on these borders, the historical advantage of colonizers and those aligned with colonizers is preserved (Stein, 2016).
It is through recognition of historical reality that we can justify US (and perhaps broadly High-GDP country) institutional involvement in international student access initiatives (Viggiano, 2020). In accordance with Young (2006), given that we participate in, and benefit from, a system that has created the conditions by which injustice is perpetuated, we therefore have a responsibility to mediate this injustice (Viggiano, 2020). Responsibility can only be discharged through collective action (Young, 2006). As such, access for ARES is a global social justice issue that is of relevance to all scholars and practitioners of higher education (Viggiano, 2020).
Results and Significance
Ontological and ideological impediments of scholars and practitioners infringe on their ability to recognize ARES in their pursuit of social justice (Viggiano, 2020). In alignment with Western abyssal thinking (de Sousa Santos, 2007), through global education those in power legitimize discriminatory perspectives that erase the category of ARES from conversation (Viggiano, 2020).
As such, these barriers in thinking produce functional barriers to access for ARES (Viggiano, 2020). For example, the International Access Paradox identified at US community colleges (Viggiano et al, 2018). Barriers are exacerbated by neoliberalism (Viggiano, 2919; 2020). I discuss evidence of this in the organized response to the Trump travel bans of 2017 (Yao & Viggiano, 2019) and the COVID policies of 2020.

Author

• Tiffany Viggiano, University of California - Riverside