College graduates who immigrated to the U.S. on student visas earn substantially more than their native-born counterparts, according to an analysis by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG).
The median salary for natural-born U.S. college graduates, as of 2023, is $87,000, while graduates who initially came to the U.S. on student visas earned a median of $115,000, the EIG’s analysis of the National Survey of College Graduates showed. The findings follow the Trump administration’s heightened scrutiny of foreign students amid concerns over national security and antisemitism on campuses.
India and China are the top two countries of origin for foreign-born graduates, with approximately 372,000 and 303,000 graduates working full-time in the U.S. as of 2023, respectively, according to the EIG. Indian graduates had a median income of $146,000, while Chinese graduates earned $125,000, well above the median income of their native-born counterparts.
Graduates who immigrate to the U.S. on a student visa are more likely to work in jobs performing research and development, or become entrepreneurs, the EIG found. Additionally, foreign-born graduates are twice as likely to hold a master’s degree and six times as likely to have a PhD compared to native-born graduates.
“The dramatic expansion of the OPT program over the last decade is largely not a function of abuse by either schools or students. Rather, it is a product of our inability to expand other work visas to keep up with demand or economic growth,” the report concludes. “The H-1B visa, for example, is now akin to ‘recruitment roulette,’ where workers face low odds of winning a visa regardless of their skills or how much an employer is willing to pay them.”
President Donald Trump instructed U.S. embassies and consulates in late May to pause new interviews for student visas amid plans for an expanded social media screening process. The administration further suspended Harvard University’s ability to admit foreign nationals.
However, following last week’s US-China trade talks in London, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that American universities would be allowed to continue accepting Chinese international students under the new agreement.
“Look, I’ve always been in favor of students coming in from other countries. That includes China. We have 500,000 Chinese students coming in, I’ve always been in favor of it,” Trump told Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese. “Does it mean that you have to watch people? Yeah, you have to watch students but you have to watch other people also.”
Recent college graduates are navigating a cooling job market. The unemployment rate for those aged 20 to 24 stands at 6.6% — the highest in over a decade outside the pandemic — compared to the national average of 4%, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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