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| Still from film "Memento" |
The order of this entry is chronologically backwards. The comments which come first are mine in response to an article published on-line today in Inside Higher Education. The article is an overview of the film, "Will Work For Words" which premiered last week at the Virginia Film Festival. There are several references to the film in prior blog entries. The film addresses the issues of giving international students work visas once they graduate. It has now, at last, become a national priority.
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Thank you so much for publishing this profile of "Will Work For Words". I was lucky enough to be a part of this film and watched how hard Julide worked to make her dream a reality. She made this film with absolutely no budget. She had no one except a few volunteers to help her. And yet the film is about as timely and important to education and the US economy as any film could be. Does this sound like hyperbole? It isn't.
Just watch the trailer.
You cannot hear anyone speak. Why? The people whose mouths move have no voice in American politics. Most are foreign nationals studying in the U.S. The title refers to the student's willingness to work for the words from the American people that will permit them to stay after their education ends.The best and the brightest from around the world want to stay here to create businesses, jobs, and opportunities. They want to save the US economy. And it gets even better. To do so would cost the American taxpayers nothing. In fact, their presence would add billions.
And the most powerful American has just spoken as clearly as anyone could on this issue.He is willing to speak so that these great people can help rescue the American Dream.
The words which follow are Barrack Obama's and they were just released in his immigration policy report:
Throughout our history the
United States has been enriched by a steady stream of hardworking and talented
people from all over the world. These generations of immigrants with unique and
important skills have helped make America the engine of the global economy. Yet
our existing policies provide limited avenues for talented and industrious
individuals to work and reside in the U.S. For example, each year, we provide
approximately 400,000 visas to foreign-born students seeking to enroll in U.S.
colleges and universities, but then force them to leave the country to compete
against us when they graduate. In addition, it is difficult for talented
entrepreneurs who wish to start companies and create jobs in the U.S. to enter
and remain in the country.
Mitt Romney said very much the same thing in the first debate.
It is not even a political issue. It is a matter of when.
A writer once said artists are the antennae of the race. Julide knew the issue and made art before it hit the headlines. It is what all great artists do. Guide us to our better selves.
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Have Degree, Will Work
November 13, 2012 - 3:00am
A
new student-directed documentary explores the difficulties
international students face in attempting to work in the United States
after they graduate. Students interviewed for the film describe
frustrations in finding employers willing to sponsor their visa
applications, long delays in visa processing times, and a general lack
of freedom: an inability to quit their jobs – or start their own
businesses – without losing the legal right to remain in the U.S.
“My heart belongs in the U.S. I feel like I’m an American,” one international student says in the film. “But at the same time I feel like America’s a bad parent.
“America adopts all these immigrants every year like they’re children, but [it doesn’t] parent them well. [It doesn’t] give them the resources they need to be successful, and the only resource that this American parent really needs to give its immigrants is an ability to be able to get citizenship quicker and to have independence to find jobs – the right jobs – and to start businesses.”
The 27-minute film, "Will Work for Words," premiered earlier this month at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville. The filmmaker, Ayşehan Jülide Etem, is an international student from Turkey: she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Virginia and is pursuing her Ph.D. in Italian Studies at Indiana University at Bloomington. She completed edits on the film during late nights at Indiana’s library this fall.
“As soon as I finished my schoolwork, I ran to the library and I started working on the film,” she says. “I have been in the library until 4 a.m., 5 a.m. But I really care about this issue. It’s a huge passion for me."
“There are so many international students and sometimes I feel like we don’t get appreciated in this country."
Higher education and business leaders have long lobbied for expanding opportunities for international students who wish to work in the U.S. after graduation. Other Western nations that compete with the U.S. to attract top graduate students have visa rules that make it easier for new Ph.D.s to stay, and many view America's stricter rules as placing the nation's universities at a competitive disadvantage.
A report released in June by the Partnership for a New American Economy – a coalition of business and municipal leaders focused on immigration reform – called for granting green cards to foreign students who have earned graduate degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, creating a new visa category for foreign entrepreneurs (a so-called “startup visa”) and raising or removing caps on the number of temporary, high-skilled H-1B visas awarded (currently set at 65,000 per year). An accompanying letter, signed by 166 American university presidents, notes that foreign students make up 45 percent of all graduate students in engineering, math, computer science and physical science -- and 52 percent of all Ph.D. recipients in these fields. “But after we have trained and educated these future job creators, our antiquated immigration laws turn them away to work for our competitors in other countries,” the letter states. “Low limits on visas leave immigrants with no way to stay or facing untenable delays for a permanent visa."
Etem, whose previous film, "Trolley," explored town-gown relations in Charlottesville, made "Will Work for Words" with friends who volunteered their help and with a budget of zero dollars. She made the choice to focus her camera on the mouths of her interviewees, rendering her sources essentially anonymous. In addition to international students and recent graduates, the film also features an immigration lawyer and an international education administrator (Parke Muth, the former director of international admission at Virginia). A Lady Liberty figure lurks throughout the film, the myth juxtaposed with the reality, Etem says.
“In this film, I really wanted to show the idea of hope,” she says. “I think everyone who watches this film can relate, simply because everyone in the film is talking about a dream. Everyone has a dream.”
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“My heart belongs in the U.S. I feel like I’m an American,” one international student says in the film. “But at the same time I feel like America’s a bad parent.
“America adopts all these immigrants every year like they’re children, but [it doesn’t] parent them well. [It doesn’t] give them the resources they need to be successful, and the only resource that this American parent really needs to give its immigrants is an ability to be able to get citizenship quicker and to have independence to find jobs – the right jobs – and to start businesses.”
The 27-minute film, "Will Work for Words," premiered earlier this month at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville. The filmmaker, Ayşehan Jülide Etem, is an international student from Turkey: she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Virginia and is pursuing her Ph.D. in Italian Studies at Indiana University at Bloomington. She completed edits on the film during late nights at Indiana’s library this fall.
“As soon as I finished my schoolwork, I ran to the library and I started working on the film,” she says. “I have been in the library until 4 a.m., 5 a.m. But I really care about this issue. It’s a huge passion for me."
“There are so many international students and sometimes I feel like we don’t get appreciated in this country."
Higher education and business leaders have long lobbied for expanding opportunities for international students who wish to work in the U.S. after graduation. Other Western nations that compete with the U.S. to attract top graduate students have visa rules that make it easier for new Ph.D.s to stay, and many view America's stricter rules as placing the nation's universities at a competitive disadvantage.
A report released in June by the Partnership for a New American Economy – a coalition of business and municipal leaders focused on immigration reform – called for granting green cards to foreign students who have earned graduate degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, creating a new visa category for foreign entrepreneurs (a so-called “startup visa”) and raising or removing caps on the number of temporary, high-skilled H-1B visas awarded (currently set at 65,000 per year). An accompanying letter, signed by 166 American university presidents, notes that foreign students make up 45 percent of all graduate students in engineering, math, computer science and physical science -- and 52 percent of all Ph.D. recipients in these fields. “But after we have trained and educated these future job creators, our antiquated immigration laws turn them away to work for our competitors in other countries,” the letter states. “Low limits on visas leave immigrants with no way to stay or facing untenable delays for a permanent visa."
Etem, whose previous film, "Trolley," explored town-gown relations in Charlottesville, made "Will Work for Words" with friends who volunteered their help and with a budget of zero dollars. She made the choice to focus her camera on the mouths of her interviewees, rendering her sources essentially anonymous. In addition to international students and recent graduates, the film also features an immigration lawyer and an international education administrator (Parke Muth, the former director of international admission at Virginia). A Lady Liberty figure lurks throughout the film, the myth juxtaposed with the reality, Etem says.
“In this film, I really wanted to show the idea of hope,” she says. “I think everyone who watches this film can relate, simply because everyone in the film is talking about a dream. Everyone has a dream.”
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