International Student Activism and the Politics of Higher Education

Book excerpt: From international tuition hikes and discriminatory immigration policies to racially motivated violence and geopolitical tensions, international students encounter numerous political issues while studying abroad. Yet it is often assumed that international students are politically passive and disengaged rather than actively contributing to the political life of higher education institutions and the host country more generally. The present book challenges this assumption by bringing together the work of scholars from various fields of study to examine international student activism, advocacy, and political engagement in higher education settings. Drawing upon different research approaches, this book showcases scholarship exploring the multifaceted ways in which international students engage with the “political” as well how the policy environments and socio-political atmospheres in both host and home countries shape these experiences. Far from being passive bystanders, international students have exercised their political agency through diverse forms of collective action over the past century, and this edited collection calls for a renewed focus on the political dimensions of the international student experience.