British universities aren’t just teaching—they’re a pipeline, a gateway for hundreds of thousands to turn a student visa into permanent residency. That’s what Alp Mehmet revealed in the Spectator: over half a million foreigners have stayed in Britain via the student visa route since 2022. In 2023 alone, nearly half of all new visas went to international students and their families, many of whom never leave. And the UK is far from alone—universities across the West are increasingly serving as a backdoor to permanent residency.
This transformation didn’t happen by accident. Decades ago, as an immigration officer, Mehmet saw early signs of visa abuse—students gaming the system to stay indefinitely. But the real shift came under Theresa May’s government, which launched an ambitious International Education Strategy in 2019, aiming to lure 600,000 international students by 2030.
That target, as Mehmet notes, was met in just one year, thanks to a policy that allows foreign students to remain for two years after completing any program—whether a top-tier PhD or a short-term course. Universities, hungry for tuition revenue, jumped at the chance, rolling out dubious programs designed more for visa eligibility than for learning. Dependents—spouses and children—flood in alongside, granted work and schooling rights at the British taxpayer’s expense. Today, student visas account for nearly half of all UK entries, with postgraduates and their families swelling the tide.
But as noted, this isn’t just a British scandal—it’s a Western one.
[RELATED: Japan’s Push for More International Students Faces Growing Scrutiny]
From Europe and Canada to Australia and the United States, Western universities have become cogs in a global migration machine, fueled by a seductive yet flawed mantra: more immigrants equal more growth.
Joel Kotkin, a fellow at Chapman University and author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, punctures the myth of migration as an economic cure-all. Far from igniting prosperity, mass migration across the West has ushered in stagnation, eroding living standards and deepening reliance on welfare.
In the U.S., the influx of international students—led by Indian nationals, the largest group—fuels a tech industry eager for cheap labor. These students slip effortlessly into H-1B work permits, elbowing out American graduates who watch their career prospects evaporate. As I wrote in “Why Are U.S. Lawmakers Lobbying for Foreign Students? IDK, Because Rep. Ross Wouldn’t Tell Me,” this pipeline funnels foreign workers into jobs that could—and should—go to homegrown talent.
The system’s cheerleaders—politicians, corporate moguls, and university bureaucrats—dress up their motives in grand promises, hailing international students as the torchbearers of diversity, innovation, and a fix for aging populations. Left-wing critics are quick to pounce, branding any dissent as xenophobia, especially when Indian immigrants are in the spotlight. Writing for UnHerd, Richard Hanania pins hostility toward Indian nationals on right-wing extremists, arguing that conservatives have no case against their influx aside from bigotry—since Indian nationals, unlike Chinese nationals, he says, pose no national security threat. As always, a few bigots lurk in the shadows, but labeling opposition to this wave of migration as “racism” is a cheap dodge that aims to obscure the fact that the H-1B system shafts native-born workers, letting foreign nationals, whatever their national origin, tilt the economic playing field. If there’s prejudice here, it’s not from Americans—it’s from a system rigged against its own talent.
Western governments seem finally to be waking up, however.
As Gregory Brown notes in his Minding the World column, “The West Is Giving International Students a Colder Welcome.” In Canada, study permit approvals plummeted nearly 50 percent in 2024, with stricter caps planned for 2025. Australia has tightened its rules, replacing a lax “Genuine Temporary Entrant” test with a tougher “Genuine Student” standard and increasing English-language requirements. Britain is also cracking down, barring most students from bringing dependents and scrutinizing its post-study “Graduate Route.” Even in Japan, anti-international student sentiment is on the rise. In the U.S., student visa issuances are declining, and a proposed $100,000 fee on H-1B visas has led people to expect that the foreign student-to-worker pipeline will be disrupted. (However, I think the $100,000 fee is unlikely to make much difference. Employers can still hire H-1B workers through loopholes, pay below-market wages, or simply absorb the one-time cost over the six-year visa, leaving the fundamental incentives of the program intact.)
Brown frames the West’s shift as a loss—a dimming of its global appeal, a blow to universities reliant on foreign tuition. But I think a different perspective is warranted.
This “colder welcome” is no tragedy; it’s a long-overdue reckoning. For too long, western universities have peddled degrees as golden tickets to residency, reaping profits while domestic graduates—like those on Mackinac Island, as I detailed in “Mackinac Island’s Workforce Offers a Preview of the Grim Job Market Facing American College Grads”—face a job market rigged against them.
By tightening the reins, Western governments aren’t just protecting their economies—they’re reclaiming their institutions for the citizens they’re meant to serve. Foreign nationals may be facing a colder welcome, but it could yield a warmer future for the West’s own. I, for one, hope the West has the resolve to stay on this path.
Keep up with Jared Gould on X, and dive deeper into global higher education through our Minding the World column.
Author’s Note: This article comes from my weekly “Top of Mind” email, which usually goes out to subscribers on Thursdays. It’s a bit delayed this week, as I was away on vacation.
Image by mortotion on Adobe; Asset ID# 26492838
