Students face many challenges when they choose to study abroad rather than in their home country. They face increased costs, adjustment to a new culture, language, and educational system, and being away from their family and friends at a time of life when such ties are vitally important. They should not, however, face mortal danger as a consequence of their decision to study abroad.
Yet, sometimes this is indeed the case. Attacks on Saudis and other students studying in foreign countries make one wonder whether these students have become a specific target for violence. The assault on a student and his family in Birmingham, England, is a case in point, but other examples abound. When one considers the brave stance that students are taking already by studying in a foreign country, and the potential for enrichment and cross-cultural communication that their efforts represent, these attacks seem all the more heartbreaking.
Stop for a moment to consider the world we would have if students’ crossing national boundaries became an obsolete custom. Within a single generation, our strongest minds would have had their perspectives and possibilities sharply narrowed. We would collectively lose much of our opportunity to share ideas with scholars around the globe. Our own research and thinking would become circumscribed to a degree that international conferences alone would not be able to ameliorate.
The fact is that international students are sort of cultural ambassadors; even when they seem concerned exclusively with their own career, they are in fact busily forming connections, alliances and understandings on a global scale, at their own risk and cost. Failing to protect foreign students from attacks is therefore more than a humanitarian failure; it is a loss to scholarship and to cross-cultural understanding. The exchange of ideas has always, since ancient times, been a measure of the intellectual and innovative vitality of a country. Currently, for example, one historical theory holds that the “Dark Ages” were not, in fact, dark — merely unknown to us. And the evidence that was cited was the fact that the city of Rome, in the midst of that period, had active trade relationships with dozens of other states. A culture that has strong and vital ties with others must, itself, be vital. However, the very ability to communicate cross-culturally is not inherent, but something that must be nurtured and protected.
Studying abroad means voluntarily stepping forward to augment your country’s intellectual and diplomatic capacity. Host countries bear all the obligations of any good host would have. Strengthening resources available for international students and cracking down hard on those who commit crimes against them is very important. The problem is systemic, so the solution must be the same. For example, the fact that international education is so expensive means that some students end up living in high-crime neighborhoods to which they are unaccustomed. Students may also not know where to turn to for help if they feel afraid or intimidated.
Remedying such practical matters is an accessible first step. By making the world safer for international students, we are doing much more than helping those individual students — not that that would be unjustified. We are laying systemic foundations for the continued flourishing of education and thought that transcends boundaries.
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