AMERICA CLOSES ITS DOORS.

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  • Additional Information
    • Subject Terms:
      INTERNATIONAL travel regulations; FOREIGN study; EDUCATIONAL exchanges; FOREIGN students; NATIONAL security; SECURITY management; COUNTERTERRORISM; EMIGRATION & immigration; PASSPORTS; INTERNATIONAL law; SAFE-conducts; REFUGEE passports; STUDENT passports; IMMIGRANTS
    • Subject Terms:
      THAILAND; INDONESIA; MALAYSIA; CHINA; UNITED States
    • Abstract:
      The article discusses how there have been many complaints from companies in China and other nations who are turned off by new, post-9/11 barriers to entering the United States. The American Chamber of Commerce in China issued a report saying that many Chinese no longer even bother trying to arrange business travel to America. A June survey of 734 U.S. companies estimated their worldwide losses because of visa delays and denials at $30 billion, just in the period between July 2002 and March 2004. The larger worry is that tightened security will scare off people who want to live, work or study in the United States, thereby undermining one of America's most important competitive advantages in the world economy: its status as the land of opportunity for talented immigrants. Last week the United States issued data showing that the post-9/11 rate of people granted permanent-resident status in the United States continued to fall through 2003, dropping 34 percent from 2002. The Department of Homeland Security, which puts out the data, admitted that this was "due primarily to security checks that affected application processing." It also noted that at the end of 2003 there was a backlog of 1.2 million "adjustment of status cases," or legal visitors who have applied for permanent residency. Despite a small recent rise in student visa numbers, some of the best and brightest appear to be going elsewhere. The Institute of International Education, which tracks foreign students in the United States, noted that enrollment was flat after years of steady growth, with significant declines in 13 of the top 20 sending countries, including Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Graduate programs suffered disproportionately--a report this year by the Council of Graduate Schools found that nine in 10 have seen a significant drop in international applications, particularly in areas like engineering and science.