03 October 2001

Most Arab Students Continue Studies in the United States

By Jane A. Morse
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Most Arab students in the United States have decided to stay, despite initial fears of retaliation generated by the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to embassy and other officials.

Middle Eastern embassy officials say that of the hundreds of students who have decided to return home, almost all intend to return to their studies in the United States after a brief "cooling off" period.

While exact figures are hard to come by, the Institute of International Education (IIE), a private U.S. organization that handles most educational exchanges, reports that 28,968 students from Arab states were enrolled in American universities during the 1999-2000 academic year.

The Saudi Arabian government attracted American press attention when it agreed to provide round trip tickets to students wishing to return home for a few months in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the United States. According to a Saudi Embassy official in Washington, D.C., the decision to do so was mostly based on requests from parents back home who are concerned about their children.

IIE figures indicate 5,156 Saudi students are in the United States. Over 300 Saudi students have said they wish to return home, according to the Saudi official. He said the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. has received no complaints to date from students who have personally experienced physical attacks, although some have reported "verbal assaults."

In a telephone interview September 28, the Saudi official told The Washington File that Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz has declined to pull his own children out of schools they are currently attending in the United States.

In a September 17 press release, Prince Bandar "refuted exaggerated reports about cases of violence against Saudi nationals" and reiterated that Saudi citizens are being provided with "all possible facilities and assistance." (see: http://www.saudiembassy.net/press_release/01-spa/09-17-Bandar.htm)

The government of Kuwait has granted its students plane tickets to return home, but only 200 of the more than 3000 Kuwaiti students in the United States have taken the offer, according to Noida Ashton, academic advisor to the cultural counselor at the Embassy of Kuwait in Washington, D.C.

"We encouraged them to remain," she told The Washington File September 28, "and only those that specifically wanted to return home, and with parental approval, went."

She acknowledged that there were "a number of minor incidents" of harassment soon after the September 11 attacks. "But the universities were very cooperative with us and tried to help as much as they could. We haven't had any major issues at all."

All of the Kuwaiti students leaving for home have processed their documents (I-20) in a manner that will enable them to return to their universities, Ms. Ashton said. "We've sent letters to the universities to that regard, and they've been very cooperative. All of this is going quite smoothly; it's not a rush to leave," she said.

Yahya Al-Kiyumi, cultural attach��for the Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman to the United States in Washington, D.C. reported that of the approximately 600 to 700 Omani students in the United States, 38 have decided to leave.

In a phone interview September 28, Mr. Al-Kiyumi said that most of those going home "cited the reason that they are not feeling comfortable, and they were unable to concentrate on their studies. None of them has been exposed to any act of harassment or violence." He acknowledged, however, that some said that they witnessed acts of harassment against other Middle Eastern students.

Except for one female student who is transferring to a college in another country where she has relatives, all of the students who are temporarily leaving the United States have pre-registered at their colleges and universities to resume their studies when the next semester begins in January, Mr. Al-Kiyumi said.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has 2,539 students in the United States according to IIE estimates. According to the UAE Embassy, which handles more than 600 students on government scholarships, only a few have decided to return home. An embassy official who handles student affairs, but who did not wish to be named, said the largest single group of students -- 5 or 6 -- decided to temporarily leave their studies at the University of Arkansas.

"I think it doesn't have anything to do with the location of the State (of Arkansas) or the State itself," the official told The Washington File during a phone interview September 28. "I just think that we have so many students there and they are in close contact with each other. It's just contagious: One person decided to leave, and then the rest decided to leave, too."

AMIDEAST, a private, nonprofit organization currently administering scholarship programs for about 250 Arab students, has received no complaints so far, according to Ambassador William A. Rugh, AMIDEAST's director.

"None of them have had any problems of harassment and none of them has gone home," he told The Washington File during a September 28 interview. His impression, he said, garnered from conversations with parents and students, is that "they're feeling a bit better although they're still anxious.... There is a general anxiety over what is going to happen next."

Ambassador Rugh said that many universities are taking steps on campus to reduce fear among foreign students. AMIDEAST maintains communications with its students and provides advice on how to deal with the situations they may encounter on campus, he said. In addition, a colloquium is being planned for the Washington area so that Arab and American students can discuss Arab-American relations in the context of recent events in the United States, the Ambassador said.

The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice is collecting nationwide, through local offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), reports of civil rights violations against people of Middle Eastern descent and referring them to appropriate federal authorities. According to Dan Nelson, a spokesman for the Justice Department, currently 100 cases are under active investigation. He told The Washington File in an October 3 interview that there is no separate data for how many of these cases might involve foreign students.

Under U.S. Federal laws, it is illegal to discriminate in any way against a person because of that person's birthplace, ancestry, culture or language. A booklet describing these laws -- "Federal Protections Against National Origin Discrimination" -- is available in Arabic, English and 11 other languages on the Department of Justice's web site: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/nordwg.html

According to the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, each year approximately 250,000 foreign students worldwide receive student visas to undertake educational programs in the United States.

For the most part, the criteria for visas do not vary based on the nationality of the applicant, according to Consular Affairs. There are, however, some restrictions on the sorts of visas that may be granted to people from countries such as Libya, Iraq, and North Korea.