academic sweatshops? asian international graduate students in stem fields jenny j. lee associate...
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Academic Sweatshops? Asian International Graduate Students
in STEM fields
Jenny J. LeeAssociate Professor
Center for the Study of Higher EducationUniversity of Arizona
Global Scientific Flows
Grad students and Postdocs from Asia seeking positions in North America and Western Europe
Global Political Economy International students as economic and scientific
units of prestige
Global political economy shapes direction of scientific flows
Resources (Costs, fellowships funded by grants, scholarships)
Laboratories, equipment, knowledge
Language (English)
Immigration
International graduate students in US
2006 2007 2008 2009 20100
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
Non-STEMSTEM
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
International Graduate Student Top 20 Countries of Origin
All Majors
27%
25%8%5%
4%
12%
19%India
China
South Korea
Taiwan
Other Asians
Non-Asians
Other (Not Top 20, <.05%)
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
International Graduate Student Top 20 Countries of Origin
STEM Majors
39%
27%
4%3%
3%
8%
15%India
China
South Korea
Taiwan
Other Asians
Non-Asians
Other (Not Top 20, <.05%)
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
International Student Degrees
Associates
Bachelors
Masters
Doctorates
0% 10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
US
Int'l
Earned Doctorates in USNon-STEM (29,166)
82%
18%
USInt'l
STEM (43,564)
65%
35%
USInt'l
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
Earned Doctorates in US
US (45,019)
53%47% Other
STEM
International (16,711)
22%
78%
OtherSTEM
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
Earned Doctorates Computer Science
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 20090
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
USInternational
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
Earned Doctorates Physics
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 20090
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
USInternational
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
Earned Doctorates Engineering
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 20090
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
USInternational
National Science Board. 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Arlington VA: NSF (NSB 12-01).
Human side of educational migration
Selective resistance to particular migratory groups
Differing entrance requirements based on their country of origin
Differing experiences
Lee, Jenny J. & Charles Rice. (2007). Welcome to America? International student perceptions of discrimination and neo-racism. Higher Education, 53(3): 381-409.
Asian Stereotypes
Asians are good at math.
Asians are overachievers.
Asians are quiet and hardworking.
Asians all have heavy accents.
Asian females are "exotic", and eager to please.
Asians are traditional and unable to assimilate.
Asians all look the same.
Asians are athletically inferior.
In Educational Settings“Chinese work their socks off, they are constantly, all the time working hard.”
“Just getting out of China is a big deal”
“They are willing to remain [temporary employees] for years.”
“Asians tend to have more of a lot of technical training but don’t have the kind of theoretical training.”
“I think internationals are just used to longer work hours and just are motivated to work harder than most Americans.”
“I know some Chinese who literally spend day and night in the lab… they want to be there.”
Cantwell, Brendan & Jenny J. Lee (2010). Unseen workers in the academic factory: Perceptions of neo-racism among international postdocs in the US and UK. Harvard Education Review, 80(4): 490-517.
Neo-racism Racism to include stereotypes about one’s country
of origin.
Superiority of cultures and national order
Maintain racial hierarchies of oppression
Seemingly justifies the marginalization of particular groups in a globalizing world
Balibar, E. (1992). Is there a ‘neo-racism’? In E. Balibar & I. Wallerstein (Eds.), Race, nation, class: Ambiguous identities (pp.17-28). New York: Verso
Neo-racism as a global filter of migration
Differential experiences in US universities
Differential benefits and outcomes in US universities
Neo-racist systems act as switching devices, steering some migrants into some academic markets and denying access to others
Lee, Jenny J. & Brendan Cantwell. (2012). The Global Sorting Machine: An Examination of Neo-racism among International Students and Postdocs. In B. Pusser, et al. (Eds.), Universities and the public sphere: Knowledge creation and state building in the era of globalization. New York: Routledge, Taylor, and Francis.
Postdoctoral Findings Two-tiered postdocs: Theoretical and Technical
Shifting from specialized academic trainees to temporary scientific employees
Uneven expectations from faculty, “Better workers”
Differential tasks based on stereotypes
Unequal working conditions
Asia as a temporary labor market for scientific production
Study Population14 STEM Graduate Students
6 Male, 8 Female
4 MA, 10 PhD
Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, Pharmacy, Microbiology, Optical Sciences, Environmental Sciences
11 Asian, 3 Latin American
China (5), Philippines (2), India, Indonesia, Korea, Indonesia
Uninformed Aspirations
Majority aspire to become faculty but almost no professional guidance from advisor
“I advise myself” (Prasadini)
“He asked once” (Boying)
No teaching experience except to grading papers
“I applied to be a TA but didn’t get the job…maybe because of my English…Indians are better in language…Maybe its my problem.” (Yan)
Aspirations to become postdocs with limited awareness
Scholarly Isolationism
Limited supervision, left alone to work on projects
“My supervisor never talks to me but he talks to my advisor about me, ‘please be aware of what you are saying.’
“Since I’ve started this project, I haven’t had any practical results in terms of publications or conference papers…I complained to my advisor several times… [My supervisors] don’t push me at all” (Fujun)
“I felt like I had all the pressure to come up with the project.” (Prasadini)
Uneven Advisor Relationships
“They see us (international students) as second-class citizens.” (Monica)
“My advisor was testing me…if I get along with the people in the lab. I think she was looking for an ethical person.” (Juliana)
“My professor told me, ‘In other places in the world you have a hierarchical relationship between professor and students’ ” (Prasadini)
Uneven Advisor Relationships
“One of the main differences is the relationship between students and faculty. I don’t want to generalize but usually the people from Asia, they tend to be more humble to their advisor and faculties but the American students, they sometimes tend to behave like friends…It gives you more chance of having a more comfortable conversation.” (Saehan)
Adversarial Advisor Relationships
“The first time I met my professor, he said, ‘Chinese students are different from US students… US students are more likely to confront the professor so Chinese students are more quiet.’ That’s the stereotype he says he has; that’s his impression.” (Wuxin)
“He told me his was pissed when he heard I was working [outside the department]. He told me if I wanted to make money, not be a graduate student, to not even be in academia…I realized he was assigning me more responsibilities in the lab, like taking out the bromine waste, keeping the shelves clean, ordering the fridges, the waterbaths.” (Monica)
Adversarial Advisor Relationships
“[My advisor is] pushing me to do [a new project] so that he can say he got funding. This is something I have no interest in. If I do it its because I am his student and not because of anything else…He said if I don’t take the funding it would look bad on him. He puts me under a lot of pressure…I feel like the completely lies to you sometimes.” (Prasadini)
“It was difficult for me to get her to trust my results… It was hard. It was really frustrating… (crying)” (Juliana)
Unpaid Work HoursPaid 20 hours/week, often work 40+ hours/week
“I get paid to work 4-5 hours/day but I put in at least 8 hours/day” (Carlo)
“Sometimes I was required to work more than 30 hours per week and I felt if the same work were to be assigned to a domestic student, and he or she had to be convinced to do it, the advisor would have faced more difficulty…pressure to do overtime is greater than that for domestic students. (Srinivas)
DisengagementSometimes I want to confront the professor or ask questions but I’m thinking, I’m not so sure about this…I don’t know what the proper thing to say, so I say less. I’m afraid of saying something that is wrong. (Wuxin)
Sometimes we can’t express our exact idea. In class, when the professor asks some questions, we feel like we know the answers but we don’t know how to express ourselves. We want to point out the problems and we want to ask questions but we don’t know how to express so we just let it go. (Xiolin)
Diverted AspirationsLack of publication opportunities, lack of encouragement with faculty
Research positions misaligned with research interests
Changing aspirations into private sector
Unable to switch advisors due to funding, dissertation data, prolonged graduation, and “political” reasons
“Going through that process again with a new advisor, in a new lab…Regardless, there are some cultural things that are going to be difficult to overcome. I don’t want to go through this whole process again. It takes a lot of time.”
International NetworksAlmost all interviewees discussed receiving most professional advice from international friends over faculty
“Its hard to make friends with people from different countries. If you have one, you know its hard and cherish it a lot, especially with people from the US… They are more impersonal and contractual…From my perspective, they treat non-US students that way.” (Fujin)
Discussion Academic flows to the West but questionable
experiences upon entry Unproductive time in research positions
Uncertain and uninformed career paths
Restructuring of global scientific labor markets
