An Exploratory Survey of Post-Graduation Employment Location Preferences Among International Students in Missouri, USA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32674/jcihe.v16i3.5834Keywords:
Curricular Practical Training (CPT), internal migration, international students, Optional Practical Training (OPT), post-graduation employmentAbstract
This study examined the post-graduation employment location preferences of international students preparing to participate in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program in the United States. An exploratory survey asked international students in their final semesters at three midwestern public universities to indicate their employment location preferences via an online text- and map-based questionnaire. Two main questions guided the research: 1) Do international students hold employment location preferences prior to graduation? and 2) Where in the United States do international students applying for OPT prefer to work? Results indicated the affirmative and that preference geographies extend well beyond the state in which the students earned their degrees. In applying for OPT, participants in this study signaled their intent to remain in-country. As such, the scale of analysis shifts from traditional country-to-country migration flows of international students to the internal movements within the host country in anticipation of post-graduation employment.
References
Agbonlahor, O., & Ampaw, F. (2021). Understanding Country Differences: Predicting the Effect of Financial and Labor Market Conditions on International Doctoral Recipients’ First Labor Market Destination. Journal of International Students, 11(2), 459–483. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v11i2.1420
Alberts, H. C., & Hazen, H. D. (2005). “There are always two voices…”: International students’ intentions to stay in the United States or return to their home countries. International migration, 43(3), 131–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2005.00328.x
Beine, M., Peri, G., & Raux, M. (2022). International College Students' Impact on the US Skilled Labor Supply. National Bureau of Economic Research. (No. w30431). https://doi.org/10.3386/w30431
Berger, D., Yale-Loehr, S., Rand, D., Rodriguez, L., Milliken, L., Duehning, K., Kludt, M., Goldman, J., & Serotte, M. (2021, May 20). Unleashing international entrepreneurs to help the U.S. economy recover from the pandemic. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/research/unleashing-international-entrepreneurs-to-help-the-u-s-economy-recover-from-the-pandemic/
Farrugia, C. (2016). Employment opportunity as a driver of student mobility. International Higher Education, 85, 12–13. https://doi.org/10.6017/ihe.2016.85.9237
Findlay, A., Prazeres, L., McCollum, D., & Packwood, H. (2017). ‘It was always the plan’: international study as ‘learning to migrate’. Area, 49(2), 192–199. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12315
Findlay, A., Packwood, H., McCollum, D., Nightingale, G., & Tindal, S. (2018). Fees, flows and imaginaries: Exploring the destination choices arising from intra-national student mobility. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 16(2), 162–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2017.1412822
Fiore, A. M., Niehm, L. S., Hurst, J. L., Son, J., Sadachar, A., Russell, D. W., Swenson, D., & Seeger, C. (2015). Will they stay or will they go? Community features important in migration decisions of recent university graduates. Economic Development Quarterly, 29(1), 23–37.
Geddie, K. (2013). The transnational ties that bind: relationship considerations for graduating international science and engineering research students. Population, Space and Place, 19(2), 196–208. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.1751
Gesing, P., & Glass, C. (2019). STEM student mobility intentions post-graduation and the role of reverse push-pull factors. International Journal of Educational Development, 65, 227–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.08.008
Grimm, A. (2019). Studying to stay: Understanding graduate visa policy content and context in the United States and Australia. International Migration, 57(5), 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12561
Glass, C. R. (2018). International students’ sense of belonging-locality, relationships, and power. Peer Review, 20(1), 27–30.
Harrington, J. R., Muñoz, J., Curs, B. R., & Ehlert, M. (2016). Examining the impact of a highly targeted state administered merit aid program on brain drain: Evidence from a regression discontinuity analysis of Missouri’s Bright Flight program. Research in Higher Education, 57(4), 423–447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-015-9392-9
Han, X., Stocking, G., Gebbie, M. A., & Appelbaum, R. P. (2015). Will they stay or will they go? International graduate students and their decisions to stay or leave the US upon graduation. PloS one, 10(3), e0118183. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118183
Hazen, H. D., & Alberts, H. C. (2006). Visitors or immigrants? International students in the United States. Population, Space and Place, 12(3), 201–216. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.409
Iqbal, K., Peng, H., Hafeez, M., Hashim Khan, N., Ahmad, K., & Iqbal, Z. (2019). Should I stay or should I go? Foreign-student intent in China. Human Systems Management, 38(3), 197–208. https://www.doi.org/10.3233/hsm-180472
Istad, F., Varpahovskis, E., Miezan, E., & Ayhan, K. J. (2021). Global Korea Scholarship students: Intention to stay in the host country to work or study after graduation. Politics & Policy, 49, 1323–1342. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12436
Kaemmerer, J., & Foulkes, M. (2022). Where do international students work after graduation? Optional practical training and the new geography of jobs. The Professional Geographer, 74(3), 403–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2021.2014908
Lee, J. (2022). When the world is your oyster: international students in the UK and their aspirations for onward mobility after graduation. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 20(3), 277–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2021.1904209
Lee, J. J., & Rice, C. (2007). Welcome to America? International student perceptions of discrimination. Higher education, 53(3), 381–409. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-005-4508-3
Massey, D. S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A., & Taylor, J. E. (1993). Theories of international migration: A review and appraisal. Population and development review, 19(3), 431–466. https://doi.org/10.2307/2938462
Mulvey, B. (2022). Global Inequality, Mobility Regimes and Transnational Capital: The Post-Graduation Plans of African Student Migrants. Sociology, 56(3), 413–429. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211037574
Musumba, M., Jin, Y. H., & Mjelde, J. W. (2011). Factors influencing career location preferences of international graduate students in the United States. Education Economics, 19(5), 501–517. https://doi.org/10.1080/09645290903102902
Netierman, E., Harrison, L., Freeman, A., Shoyele, G., Esses, V., & Covell, C. (2022). Should I Stay or Should I Go? International Students’ Decision-Making About Staying in Canada. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(1), 43–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-021-00825-1
Niu, Y., Xu, X., Zhu, Y., & Hunter-Johnson, Y. (2022). Exploring Self-perceived Employability and Its Determinants Among International Students in the United States. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 14(1), 6–22. https://doi.org/10.32674/jcihe.v14i1.3027
Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. (2020). International student and U.S. higher education enrollment, 1948/49–2019/20. Institute of International Education (IIE). https://opendoorsdata.org/
Prazeres, L. (2013). International and intra‐national student mobility: Trends, motivations and identity. Geography Compass, 7(11), 804–820. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12080
Popadiuk, N. E., & Arthur, N. M. (2014). Key relationships for international student university-to-work transitions. Journal of Career Development, 41(2), 122–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845313481851
Ruiz, N. G., & Budiman, A. (2018). Number of Foreign College Students Staying and Working in US after Graduation Surges. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2018/05/10/number-of-foreign-college-students-staying-and-working-in-u-s-after-graduation-surges/
Sato, Y., Bista, K., & Matsuzuka, Y. (2022). COVID-19 Pandemic’s Impact on International Students in Japan and the United States: Comparative Study From National and Institutional Context. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 14(3b). https://doi.org/10.32674/jcihe.v14i3b.3832
Sjoquist, D. L., & Winters, J. V. (2012). Building the stock of college-educated labor revisited. Journal of Human Resources, 47(1), 270–285. https://www.doi.org/10.3368/jhr.47.1.270
Somerville, K., & Walsworth, S. (2015). Information sources and knowledge transfer to future migrants: A study of university students in India. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 24(1), 28–50. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0117196814565184
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. (2022, June 3). Optional Practical Training Extension
for STEM Students (STEM OPT). Retrieved January 4, 2023, from https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/students-and-exchange-visitors/optional-practical-training-extension-for-stem-students-stem-opt
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (2019). Curricular Practical Training. Washington, D.C. Retrieved July 1, 2022, from https://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Fact%20sheet/2019/CurricularPracticalTraining.pdf
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (2022). SEVP Portal Student User Guide. Washington, D.C. Retrieved January 4, 2023, from https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/assets/SEVP%20Portal%20Student%20User%20Guide.pdf
Wu, C., & Wilkes, R. (2017). International students’ post-graduation migration plans and the search for home. Geoforum, 80, 123–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.01.015
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The findings, interpretations, conclusions, and views expressed in Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education (JCIHE) are entirely those of the authors and should not be attributed in any manner to CIES, HESIG, or the sponsoring universities of the Editorial Staff. These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License. Readers are free to copy, display, and distribute articles that appear in JCIHE as long as the work is attributed to the author(s) and JCIHE, it is distributed for non-commercial purposes only, and no alteration or transformation is made in the work. All other uses must be approved by the author(s) or JCIHE. By submitting a manuscript, authors agree to transfer without charge the following rights to JCIHE upon acceptance of the manuscript: first worldwide serial publication rights and the right for JCIHE to grant permissions as its editors judge appropriate for the redistribution of the article, its abstract, and metadata associated with the article in professional indexing and reference services.
