The conventional wisdom has been that foreign students who come to the U.S. to study develop an appreciation for our finer qualities. If they go home (many never do) they are believed to go home as U.S. allies.
The evidence that there is little correlation between studying in the U.S. and liking the U.S. is becoming too strong to ignore. For example, see this Associated Press story about Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador and recent graduate student in Illinois. He is a strong supporter of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, leader of the anti-American movement in Latin America. Correa's recent years as a doctoral student at the University of Illinois apparently did not convince him of our benign goodness.
The implications of a reevaluation of foreign student policy are relatively clear. Spending U.S. tax dollars on subsidizing foreign students at U.S. universities may not be a good investment, unless the intent is to keep the graduate here as part of the "brain gain." Even this can be problematic, as we have found with several Chinese students who came here, studied, got technical work, and were later nailed by the FBI for espionage - sending secrets home.
The bottom line: at minimum, the policy of opening our doors to tens of thousands of foreign students should be reexamined by officials who, unlike universities, don't stand to gain (or lose) from their presence.
