1. Academic Sweatshops?
Asian International
Graduate Students
in STEM fields
Jenny J. Lee
Associate Professor
Center for the Study of Higher Education
University of Arizona
2. Global Scientific Flows
Grad students and Postdocs from Asia seeking
positions in North America and Western Europe
3. Global Political Economy
International students as economic and scientific
units of prestige
Global political economy shapes direction of
scientific flows
Resources (Costs, fellowships funded by grants,
scholarships)
Laboratories, equipment, knowledge
Language (English)
Immigration
4. International graduate
students in US
350000
300000
250000
200000
Non-STEM
150000 STEM
100000
50000
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
5. International Graduate Student
Top 20 Countries of Origin
All Majors
India
19% China
27%
South Korea
Taiwan
12%
Other Asians
Non-Asians
4% 5% 25%
8% Other (Not Top
20, <.05%)
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
6. International Graduate Student
Top 20 Countries of Origin
STEM Majors
India
15%
China
8% South Korea
39%
3% Taiwan
3%
Other Asians
5%
Non-Asians
27% Other (Not Top
20, <.05%)
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
7. International Student
Degrees
Doctorates
Masters
US
Bachelors Int'l
Associates
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
8. Earned Doctorates in US
Non-STEM (29,166) STEM (43,564)
18% 35%
US
US
Int'l
Int'l
65%
82%
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
9. Earned Doctorates in US
US (45,019) International (16,711)
22%
47% Other Other
STEM STEM
53%
78%
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
11. Earned Doctorates
1,200
Physics
1,000
800
600 US
International
400
200
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
12. Earned Doctorates
Engineering
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000 US
International
2,000
1,000
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
13. Human side of educational
migration
Selective resistance to particular migratory groups
Differing entrance requirements based on their
country of origin
Differing experiences
Lee, Jenny J. & Charles Rice. (2007).
Welcome to America? International student
perceptions of discrimination and neo-
racism. Higher Education, 53(3): 381-409.
14. Asian Stereotypes
Asians are good at math.
Asians are overachievers.
Asians are quiet and hardworking.
Asians all have heavy accents.
Asian females are "exotic", and eager to please.
Asians are traditional and unable to assimilate.
Asians all look the same.
Asians are athletically inferior.
15. In Educational Settings
“Chinese work their socks off, they are constantly, all the
time working hard.”
“Just getting out of China is a big deal”
“They are willing to remain [temporary employees] for
years.”
“Asians tend to have more of a lot of technical training but
don‟t have the kind of theoretical training.”
“I think internationals are just used to longer work hours and
just are motivated to work harder than most Americans.”
“I know some Chinese who literally spend day and night in
the lab… they want to be there.”
Cantwell, Brendan & Jenny J. Lee (2010). Unseen workers in the academic factory:
Perceptions of neo-racism among international postdocs in the US and UK.
Harvard Education Review, 80(4): 490-517.
16. Neo-racism
Racism to include stereotypes about one‟s country
of origin.
Superiority of cultures and national order
Maintain racial hierarchies of oppression
Seemingly justifies the marginalization of particular
groups in a globalizing world
Balibar, E. (1992). Is there a ‘neo-racism’? In E. Balibar & I. Wallerstein (Eds.),
Race, nation, class: Ambiguous identities (pp.17-28). New York: Verso
17. Neo-racism as a
global filter of migration
Differential experiences in US universities
Differential benefits and outcomes in US universities
Neo-racist systems act as switching
devices, steering some migrants into some
academic markets and denying access to others
Lee, Jenny J. & Brendan Cantwell. (2012). The Global Sorting Machine: An
Examination of Neo-racism among International Students and Postdocs. In B. Pusser,
et al. (Eds.), Universities and the public sphere: Knowledge creation and state
building in the era of globalization. New York: Routledge, Taylor, and Francis.
18. Postdoctoral Findings
Two-tiered postdocs: Theoretical and Technical
Shifting from specialized academic trainees to
temporary scientific employees
Uneven expectations from faculty, “Better workers”
Differential tasks based on stereotypes
Unequal working conditions
Asia as a temporary labor market for scientific
production
19. Study Population
14 STEM Graduate Students
6 Male, 8 Female
4 MA, 10 PhD
Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science,
Pharmacy, Microbiology, Optical Sciences,
Environmental Sciences
11 Asian, 3 Latin American
China (5), Philippines (2), India, Indonesia, Korea,
Indonesia
20. Uninformed Aspirations
Majority aspire to become faculty but almost no professional
guidance from advisor
“I advise myself” (Prasadini)
“He asked once” (Boying)
No teaching experience except to grading papers
“I applied to be a TA but didn‟t get the job…maybe because of
my English…Indians are better in language…Maybe its my
problem.” (Yan)
Aspirations to become postdocs with limited awareness
21. Scholarly Isolationism
Limited supervision, left alone to work on projects
“My supervisor never talks to me but he talks to my advisor
about me, „please be aware of what you are saying.‟
“Since I‟ve started this project, I haven‟t had any practical
results in terms of publications or conference papers…I
complained to my advisor several times… [My supervisors]
don‟t push me at all” (Fujun)
“I felt like I had all the pressure to come up with the project.”
(Prasadini)
22. Uneven Advisor
Relationships
“They see us (international students) as second-class
citizens.” (Monica)
“My advisor was testing me…if I get along with the
people in the lab. I think she was looking for an ethical
person.” (Juliana)
“My professor told me, „In other places in the world you
have a hierarchical relationship between professor and
students‟ ” (Prasadini)
23. Uneven Advisor
Relationships
“One of the main differences is the relationship
between students and faculty. I don‟t want to
generalize but usually the people from Asia, they
tend to be more humble to their advisor and
faculties but the American students, they
sometimes tend to behave like friends…It gives you
more chance of having a more comfortable
conversation.” (Saehan)
24. Adversarial Advisor
Relationships
“The first time I met my professor, he said, „Chinese students are
different from US students… US students are more likely to
confront the professor so Chinese students are more quiet.‟
That‟s the stereotype he says he has; that‟s his impression.”
(Wuxin)
“He told me his was pissed when he heard I was working
[outside the department]. He told me if I wanted to make money,
not be a graduate student, to not even be in academia…I
realized he was assigning me more responsibilities in the
lab, like taking out the bromine waste, keeping the shelves
clean, ordering the fridges, the waterbaths.” (Monica)
25. Adversarial Advisor
Relationships
“[My advisor is] pushing me to do [a new project] so that he
can say he got funding. This is something I have no interest
in. If I do it its because I am his student and not
because of anything else…He said if I don’t take the
funding it would look bad on him. He puts me under a
lot of pressure…I feel like the completely lies to you
sometimes.” (Prasadini)
“It was difficult for me to get her to trust my results… It was
hard. It was really frustrating… (crying)” (Juliana)
26. Unpaid Work Hours
Paid 20 hours/week, often work 40+ hours/week
“I get paid to work 4-5 hours/day but I put in at least 8
hours/day” (Carlo)
“Sometimes I was required to work more than 30 hours
per week and I felt if the same work were to be
assigned to a domestic student, and he or she had to
be convinced to do it, the advisor would have faced
more difficulty…pressure to do overtime is greater
than that for domestic students. (Srinivas)
27. Disengagement
Sometimes I want to confront the professor or ask
questions but I‟m thinking, I‟m not so sure about this…I
don‟t know what the proper thing to say, so I say less.
I’m afraid of saying something that is wrong.
(Wuxin)
Sometimes we can‟t express our exact idea. In class,
when the professor asks some questions, we feel like
we know the answers but we don‟t know how to
express ourselves. We want to point out the problems
and we want to ask questions but we don’t know how
to express so we just let it go. (Xiolin)
28. Diverted Aspirations
Lack of publication opportunities, lack of encouragement
with faculty
Research positions misaligned with research interests
Changing aspirations into private sector
Unable to switch advisors due to funding, dissertation
data, prolonged graduation, and “political” reasons
“Going through that process again with a new advisor, in a
new lab…Regardless, there are some cultural things that are
going to be difficult to overcome. I don’t want to go
through this whole process again. It takes a lot of time.”
29. International Networks
Almost all interviewees discussed receiving most
professional advice from international friends over
faculty
“Its hard to make friends with people from
different countries. If you have one, you know its
hard and cherish it a lot, especially with people from
the US… They are more impersonal and
contractual…From my perspective, they treat non-
US students that way.” (Fujin)
30. Discussion
Academic flows to the West but questionable
experiences upon entry
Unproductive time in research positions
Uncertain and uninformed career paths
Restructuring of global scientific labor markets
Governments, including the US and UK, tacitly encourage the emigration of postdocs and other academic workers through immigration policy that privileges universities ability to source skilled labor aboard when compared to industry. the US and UK continue as global leaders science production they increasingly rely on postdocs from abroad given domestic skill shortages (Ackers & Gill, 2005; Corey & Sabharwal, 2007). This trend can be understood critically through a world systems approach (Altbach, 2004); the contemporary global economy has further shaped academic flows with postdocs from Asia seeking postdoc positions in North America and Western Europe.In both the US and UK, strategies to attract postdocs are not met with corresponding strategies to provide employment security (Sachar, 2006; Tremblay, 2005). Universities are able to generate surplus of academic production through temporary postdoc labor without having to invest in long-term faculty hires (author, 2009). While host countries benefit from academic research produced by relatively cheap labor (compared to hiring full-time, permanent faculty) (Borjas, 2006), the international postdoc may not similarly benefit (Smith-Doerr, 2006; Stephan, 2005). International postdocs from developing countries may be particularly disadvantaged in their career trajectory if their home countries do not have the necessary equipment and labs to support their research. Academic capitalism suggests that colleges and universities across the world are becoming increasingly aligned with the market, often at the expense of the public good. According to Slaughter and Leslie (1997) and Slaughter and Rhoades (2004), entrepreneurial interests have superseded universities’ public responsibilities. Knowledge has become a commodity in the post-industrial economy. As university research productions and educational services are being developed and sold in the private marketplace, for-profit motives have increasingly dominated university functions and reshaped academic labor (Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004). As it relates to postdoctoral labor, the roles of postdocs are less as apprentices in training and more as temporary employees. The postdoctoral career trajectory then becomes the employment ends rather than an educational means towards the faculty career (author, 2009). According to academic capitalism, postdocs then become a captive market for research production that can be exploited to serve private interests.
Other than self-support (37%), RAs are the most prev- alent primary mechanism of financial support for all full- time S&E graduate students. In 2009, 27% of full-time S&E graduate students were supported primarily by RAs, 18% were supported primarily through TAs, and 12% relied pri- marily on fellowships or traineeships (table 2-4).
Foreign students earned 57% of all engineering doctorates, 54% of all computer science degrees, and 51% of physics doctoral degrees.
Unlike undocumented Mexicans, most of whom are quickly returned to their country after they are arrested, almost all non-Mexicans are charged and released in the United States if they do not have a criminal record and are not deemed a security threat. But like this day, few of the immigrants show up to face charges that they entered the country illegally.When their names are called, 98 percent of all undocumented aliens ordered to appear at Harlingen Immigration Court do not answer. They are weeks into their new lives in all corners of the United States.Patriot Act, SEVIS, SB 1070, DeportationThe no-show rate, the highest of those for all 53 immigration courts in the country, has deteriorated as undocumented, non-Mexican immigrants have been crossing the border in exponentially increasing numbers, many from known terrorist breeding grounds such as Pakistan.Nationwide, the failure-to-appear rate for fiscal 2005 stood at 36 percent on June 30, or 68,634 of the undocumented immigrants who had been arrested.
In the present study we extend neo-racism beyond the experiences of individual educational migrants to address how systems of neo-racism in part determines who has access to the goods generated by global research universities, particularly the private goods, as well as access to and authority in relation to positions associated with the production of knowledge for the public good. We argue that embedded within academic capitalism production systems, neo-racist systems act as switching devices, steering some migrants to global research universities into some markets and denying access to others. We demonstrate this point with empirical examples from a study on international students. We further argue that neo-racism sorts who is considered suitable to act as an intellectual and produce knowledge for the public good, and who is considered suitable to engage scientific knowledge work. We demonstrate this point with empirical examples from a study of international postdocs.
