An article by Esin Dunbay
My article on mobility in higher education explored how racial capitalism became more solidified in higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, I pick up on the stereotypes about students from Asia and analyse it against the backdrop of student mobility.
As mentioned here, visa processes and application requirements have become more time-consuming and stricter for certain nationalities during the pandemic. Kate, a Chinese informant, says that her friends from different countries in Asia have suffered from lengthy, stressful application procedures only to have it denied eventually. In some cases, like in China, embassies have stopped accepting applications from students completely.
The information regarding which nationalities are suffering from visa denials (European Commission, 2020) and travel restrictions (IATA, 2020) into Euro-American zones shows an evident pattern. As Vestergaard (2020) expands on in her interview with a Chinese student on the discrimination he experienced based on stereotyping (Hall, 1997), certain nationalities have become the embodiment or the physical representation of the pandemic. In this case, the embodiment refers to a cluster of countries in Asia, morphing into one infectious ball of danger that threatens the safety of Euro-American zones. Kate notes that most non-Asian people cannot tell the difference between different Asian ethnicities, adding further to the embodiment and broad-stroke stereotyping of and discrimination towards many “Chinese-passing” groups.
Let’s shift the focus to Italy, which had a rapid increase in active cases in March. While China and other countries were put under scrutiny, there were either no travel restrictions or some incredibly lenient measures for the Italians despite the high infection rates. Nadia, an admissions coordinator at KU Leuven, reports that incoming and outgoing student mobility for Euro-zone nationals within Europe has not been impacted as heavily compared to those who are from outside Europe. Even in Belgium, which has the highest number of active cases in Europe at the moment (WHO, December 2020), students have not suffered from any mobility restrictions, and Belgian nationals face no travel restrictions.
While mobility freedom within the EU undeniably plays a role in this case, it also raises the question of why there are still strict restrictions in place as to the mobility of incoming students from outside Europe when cases in Europe are currently significantly higher than a number of the countries outside the continent. Some of the countries which initially had a high number of cases but have steadied, like China, make up the majority of international students in both the US and the EU (IIE, 2019). In the summer, the US has announced that international students with online courses would have to leave the country (BBC, 2020) and Germany has stopped issuing student visas (Deutsche Welle, 2020). The US has the highest number of active cases in the world, and Germany is in the top five in Europe (WHO, 2020).
Reviewing this situation in reverse, except for a few countries that kept their borders shut from the beginning of the pandemic such as Vietnam and New Zealand (WHO, 2020), there are no mobility restrictions for Euro-American nationals in non-Euro-American countries. Gramsci’s (1971) conceptualisation of power hegemony is prevalent in this hierarchy of passports as it relates to student mobility: a Euro-American national who may be coming from a “restricted zone” will only need to quarantine for 10-14 days and perhaps be required to get tested, but a local from the same zone will not even be admitted into the country because they are “dangerous bodies” that need to be contained and disciplined so that they do not contaminate the “good citizens” in Europe willing to adapt to the circumstances of the pandemic (Enria, 2017).
References:
BBC. Foreign students in US: Trump administration drops deportation plans. (2020, July 14). Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53410285
Deutsche Welle (DW). Foreign students on online courses denied visas to Germany. (2020, August 14) Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-foreign-students-on-online-courses-are-denied-visas-to-germany/a-54567800
Enria, L. (2017). What crisis produces: Dangerous bodies, Ebola heroes and resistance in Sierra Leone (No. 53). Bath Papers in International Development and Wellbeing.
European Council. Coronavirus: Commission presents practical guidance on implementing the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU. (2020, March 30). Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_543
Gramsci, A., & Hoare, Q. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks (p. 276). London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Hall, S. (1997). The spectacle of ‘the other’. Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices.
IATA. COVID-19 Travel Regulations Map. (n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php
IIE. Number of International Students in the United States Hits All-Time High. (2019, November 18). Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://www.iie.org/Why-IIE/Announcements/2019/11/Number-of-International-Students-in-the-United-States-Hits-All-Time-High
Vestergaard, M. (2020), In conversation with Dashan Xu – on COVID-19 stereotyping and being a Chinese philosopher in Belgium, https://raceandthepandemic.wixsite.com/home/post/in-conversation-with-dashan-xu-on-covid-19-stereotyping-and-being-a-chinese-philosopher-in-belgium
WHO. WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard. (n.d.). Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://covid19.who.int/table