Closed Borders and Closed Minds: Immigration Policy Changes after 9/11 and U.S. Higher Education

Amidst the spectacular losses of 9/11 and the tremendous ongoing ramifications of wars, security overhauls, loss of liberties and freedoms, as well as dire economic consequences, policy shifts affecting U.S. higher education have occurred quietly, largely unnoticed by the popular press or the American public, yet the implications for colleges and universities, and the public they serve, are dramatic and far-reaching. Despite the increasing interconnectedness of our world, evident in politics, economics and the environment, post 9/11 policy changes increasingly isolate U.S. higher education from the outside world, hampering academic freedom, stifling outside viewpoints, and consequently, allowing American hegemony an unchallenged stronghold. This paper will discuss the policy changes affecting nonimmigrant student visas, international research collaborations, and visiting scholar visas within the historical context of American higher education and within the current debate on immigration policy in the U.S. Implications for diversity, academic freedom, and the decreasing potential for diverging views and counter-perspectives within academia will be discussed.