Written by Andrea Six and Gracie Wachtel
Infographic by Ji Young Kim
Right now international students have three options upon graduating: pursue an additional degree, gain employment through “optical practice training” or return to their home country.
Through OPT a graduate will have one year to find a company to pay for their working visa – also known as an H1B work permit – and if they don’t find a company to file for that visa, they must leave the United States.
“There is a lot of pressure, time wise,” said Jessie Chen, a SCAD alumnus from Taiwan.
Chen, along with many other international students, chose to leave her home and study abroad because there were more opportunities. Out of the 8,329 SCAD students in Savannah, 1,439 of them are international students who must go through a visa process, and many feel as if they can’t return home.
“I had no option to go back to my country as there were not many opportunities in my field,” said Mehreen Bazm, a former SCAD student from Pakistan.
Despite her graduate degree in broadcast design, Bazm struggled to acquire a visa and find companies that would hire her.
“I always felt like some of my abilities were overlooked by companies because they felt that it would be a hassle to go through my employment H-1B visa,” said Bazm.
But before employees can even file for an H-1B, they have to fill out a labor condition application, or LCA, which assures equal pay between the immigrant and those working in the same field in that location.
“I lost my self esteem trying to prove why I am better than a person who does not need a visa,” said Bazm.
Regardless of her qualifications, Bazm’s opportunities were limited, forcing her to take on unpaid internships. While watching other workers with fewer skills get jobs that she was more certified for, she was forced to settle.
“Your first priority always ends up taking the lowest package so that you can have a working visa to stay in the country,” said Bazm.
A proposed immigration reform aims to create equal opportunity in the workforce for both citizens and those seeking citizenship by making working visas and green cards more easily accessible to students graduating from universities in the United States.
“We want to contribute to the economy,” said Chen.“Foreign workers won’t compete with local.”
This reform won’t just affect the international students seeking jobs in the United States, but also the economy overall.
“America is not keeping up with the global economy, and is experiencing a ‘reverse brain drain,’” said Amberle Byrne, the Senior International Student Adviser at SCAD. “We are educating foreign nationals and sending them away to benefit other countries that Americans would see as their competitors in the global market.”
This reform isn’t a stack of papers that should be pushed aside.
“Our domestic students should care about immigration reform, as these proposed changes will ultimately impact the future of the United States and their future career options,” said Byrne.
