Constructing a Timeline of the Historical Development of International Student Employment in the United States

Keywords: international students, employment mobility, practical training
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

My research focuses on international student employment mobility in the United States—that is, where international students work and why. Employment includes work done during students’ studies (Curricular Practical Training or CPT) and work done after students graduate (Optional Practical Training or OPT). Both CPT and OPT have seen massive increases in participation in recent decades, but scholarship, particularly by geographers, has not kept pace. Importantly, a comprehensive contextualization of the historical development of international student employment in the United States has been largely absent from the academic literature. This poster showcases the early stages of an on-going research agenda about how international students have worked as they studied at America’s higher education institutions over the past 170+ years.