A Chance to Help Ourselves Won’t Hurt Others

International students who come to the United Sates to study often have a difficult time because U.S. law prevents them from working off-campus.

Some of these students want to work to help their sponsors or supporters while studying in this country. If sponsors have financial problems, the students may have trouble continuing their education. They also want to work to gain experience. But the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is very strict in issuing work permits. I believe the INS should make it easier for international students who really want to work to obtain this document.

I am an international student studying at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. Before coming to the United States, I earned a mechanical engineering degree from a university of technology in Vietnam, my native country. While working there, I found out that I needed to learn more about electronics and computer technology. With the encouragement of my family, I left Vietnam in May 1997 to study in the United States.

After more than a year, my financial situation is strained. I want to go to a graduate school, but I can only afford a community college. My mother has just retired, and my brother, who has gone to medical school in Vietnam, now needs more financial support. In addition, Vietnam is confronting the hardship of the Asian economic crisis. I need to work to help my parents and myself, so I can continue to study what I intended.

The INS refuses international students a work permit, reasoning that they should be concentrating on their studies while in the U.S.. If allowed to work, students might follow the attractions of money and give up their education. In addition, working international students could have a negative effect on U.S. employment. Also, because the United States is strong economically, with many opportunities, people from other countries could abuse the study-abroad program to enter the country, even though they were not students.

The INS has its reasons for not issuing work permits, but I believe they should be made available to international students who are doing well in school and who need to help their families support them.

Tuition for an international student is about 10 times what it is for California residents. Parents whose children are studying here find it difficult to pay the expenses.

Studying and working can make a student a better student now and a better employee later. Students come to the United States because they want to gain knowledge and real living experiences to better their lives. Without these experiences, they will not realize their goals from study abroad.

I believe there is a way for the INS to be more easy-going with work permits and still avoid abuses. It could reduce the duration of the permit and require students to have good grades (a C or better) in school. To further prevent abuse, the INS could check on working students more often, to make sure they were studying well.

Right now, students from Thailand, South Korea and other places are allowed to work full-time because of the Asian economic crisis. Why, then, can’t students from China and Vietnam? These countries are either already suffering or will suffer this economic hardship too.

When students work, they still have to pay taxes, insurance and their expenses. They cannot harm the U.S. economy; they may even contribute to its health. Giving international students the right to work could, with the right controls, prove beneficial for all.