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The Trump administration has recently revoked the visas of more than 1,300 foreign college students — detaining some — and launched immigration enforcement actions on college campuses across the country. This has raised concerns among the more than 1.1 million international students studying at U.S. universities.
Headlines are filled with perspectives from immigration and civil rights experts, but one aspect of the story often goes overlooked: the tremendous economic impact international students have on local communities.
Although the actual impact on enrollment won’t be known until the next academic year, interest from foreign students in pursuing graduate-level education in the U.S. fell sharply in the early days of the Trump administration, one analysis showed.
If these global scholars stay home, that’s bad economic news for cities and towns across the United States.
A $44 Billion Economic Impact
Higher education is America’s 10th-largest export, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. (Yes, even though students are coming into the U.S. for their education, economists consider it an export.)
Last year, U.S. colleges and universities attracted international students from 217 nations and territories, including one student from the island nation of Niue in the South Pacific. Their economic contributions added up to more than the value of U.S. telecommunications, computer and information services exports combined.
While the national impact is impressive, the effects at the local level are even more important. After all, nearly every city across the U.S. has at least one institution of higher learning.
The average international student brings a wallet stuffed with about $29,000 to spend on everything from tuition to pizza. As these students rent apartments, buy books and order DoorDash delivery to fuel all-nighters, they’re pumping money into the local community.
This money translates into American jobs. On average, a new job is created for every four international students enrolled in a U.S. college or university. In the 2023-24 academic year, about 378,175 jobs were created. And that’s just counting jobs that are directly supported by international students, such as local business hiring to staff retail shops and restaurants. If you count those jobs indirectly supported by international students, such as employees at a distribution center, the number is even higher.
A Boon to Local Economies
In any of the 50 largest American cities, you’ll find at least one college or university with international students on campus. For these communities, global learners bring a most welcome financial aid package.
Consider Boston. Greater Boston hosts more than 50 colleges and universities, including Boston University, where I teach multinational finance and trade. The city’s economic gains from the more than 63,000 international students attending these schools are huge: about $3 billion.
Prestigious private schools are a draw, but hands down the biggest pull for international students are state universities and colleges. Of the nation’s top schools enrolling these students last year, 29 were state colleges and universities, attracting over 251,300 students.
In the top three of those public institutions alone – Arizona State University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of California, Berkeley – international students contributed nearly $1.7 billion, supporting over 16,800 jobs. Expand that to the top 10 – the University of California system takes four of those spots – and the numbers pop up to $4.68 billion and 47,136 jobs.
Bringing the World to Mankato
Yet international students aren’t just boosting the economies of major university towns. Consider Mankato, a small city of 45,000 about 80 miles from Minneapolis that hosts a Minnesota State University campus. In the 2023-24 academic year, about 1,716 international students called Mankato their home away from home.
Those students brought an infusion of $45.9 million into that community, supporting around 190 jobs. There are dozens of similar campuses in cities and towns like Mankato across the country. It adds up quickly.
In addition to private and public universities, community colleges attract thousands of global scholars. Although their international enrollment declined during Covid-19, community colleges are resurgent, attracting some 59,315 international students in 2024, with China, Vietnam and Nepal leading the countries-of-origin list.
Generating about $2 billion and supporting 8,472 jobs, they have a major economic impact – particularly in Texas, California and Florida, where the majority of these students come to learn.
Texas leads the nation with the three community colleges with the largest international enrollment: Houston Community College, Lone Star College and Dallas College. Of the $256.7 million and 1,096 jobs international students brought into those institutions, Lone Star led the pack with $102.3 million and 438 jobs, nearly one job created for every two international students – double the national average.
Due to changing demographics, American colleges enroll 2.3 million fewer domestic students than they did a decade ago – a decline of 10.7%. Colleges and universities are increasingly looking to international students to fill the gap. What’s more, universities tend to see international students as subsidizing domestic students, particularly since international students are generally ineligible for need-blind admissions.
Moreover, the vast majority of international students are funded by family or foreign sponsors. Few require student aid packages. In fact, less than 20% of all international students receive grant funding from a federal source, and most of that goes to postgraduates doing advanced research. If you look at undergraduate exchange students alone, just 0.1% receive any sort of public funding.
One thing’s for sure: Whether they’re attending small-town community colleges or the Ivies in big cities, international students bring a “high degree” of economic impact with them.
This is an updated version of a story originally published Aug. 13, 2024.
