As noncitizens, international students are unable to participate in elections. However, there is still a lesson to be learned from them as they hold the perspective of a globalized lens and experiences with governments in different parts of the world.
We asked six international students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln what they thought about the 2024 election. International students make up about 1,650 of the near 24,000 students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Here’s what they had to say about their view on the election.
Meet the students:
Swarnima Kain, a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Philosophy from New Delhi, India, is president of the UNL Young Democrats club. Though she is unable to vote, Kain said she uses the outlet to contribute in other ways.
“My voice can make a difference,” she said. “Even if I don’t have the right to vote, I can encourage other people to vote because I think if we are standing up for the position we care about, we can elect the candidates who align with us most.”
If she were able to vote, Kain said she would side with Harris because of a preference for Democratic policies and a concern about the state of international relations beneath Former President Donald Trump’s presidency.
Ding Xu, a second year PhD student in political science from China with a research interest in psychology. Xu chose to come to the United States because “it’s probably the most powerful country in the world.”
Though he describes himself as a liberal person, Xu doesn’t like either of the candidates, nor does he trust the Democratic Party.
“I just feel like Democrats are not good enough to implement those ideas they want to advocate for,” he said. “What they say is different from what they do.”
He said he’d like to see the party step away from attacking the Republican Party and instead focus on appealing to the public through policy plans.
Aditya Ghalsasi is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Political Science from India with research interests in nuclear deterrence and foreign policy. He hopes to incorporate his background in engineering to serve his political career interests.
If given the opportunity to vote, he said he would choose Harris.
Samay Bhojwani is a freshman computer science major from India. He said he would likely not vote in this presidential election because he believes both candidates are incompetent.
“I feel like we need more young people in politics. We just have a bunch of old people everywhere,” he said.
Ashley Sarai Martinez is a sophomore economics major from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. She said she is undecided on who she’d vote for, but would be interested in someone who aligns with the Populist party, which focuses on the general public’s interests over the elite or powerful.
Their impressions on U.S. politics
“Politics in America is definitely chaotic,” Xu said. “I think that’s really related to America’s personality, because you guys really like expressing yourselves, and starting in high school, you have a debate culture.”
Xu said he thinks the limited options for candidates adds to the partisanship.
“You only have two options, so both sides are very polarized, and I feel like Americans are living two different realities,” he said.
Xu said he’s noticed a wide gender gap in which candidate individuals support in this election, saying he’s noticed a lot of men, even internationally, like Trump’s “traditional masculine character.”
He also said he believes the United States is struggling with democratic backsliding, citing Trump supporters as an example for it moving more towards authoritarianism.
“I think neither side really respects democratic norms,” Xu said. “I think it’s not a right-wing only issue.”
Ghalsasi said he does not believe the electoral college represents “the will of the people,” as a representative democracy should.
He also said he thinks the divisions between state and federal government seem ambiguous and problematic, especially when they are divided politically.
Though the events on Jan. 6, 2021, concerned Ghalsasi, he said he does not feel informed enough to know if democracy is at risk because he’s only ever lived in a democracy.
How U.S. politics and media coverage compare to their home countries
U.S. politics are very different from China, Xu said, because China does not have country-wide elections. Without the option of representation, Xu said people hold less value in opposing viewpoints.
“In America, so many people break up their friendships and their relationships with their family members because they have different political views,” he said. “We just don’t talk about politics, and we don’t think it’s an issue.”
Ghalsasi said business and media polarization is not unique to the U.S.
“People take their news because people have their own biases,” he said. “It is completely fine, but … are we able to find the middle ground? Because the same news can be interpreted in two, three different ways.”
Ghalsasi said he believes that Trump was “battling the U.S.’s interests” in his presidency rather than “undermining democracy.”
Kain said partisan media is a good thing because it provides unique perspectives on both sides and gives consumers choice.
“We do have issues with the right to speech back in my country, but in America, you have freedom of speech, you can be more vocal,” Kain said. “Looking at a lot of news channels, people speak their mind. People do choose where they want to be. They want to be a liberal or conservative. They are very clear on that. I really like that.”
Kain said that in India, journalists work to support whoever is in office at the time rather than hold them accountable.
“Not getting to know both of the sides will make me lean towards one side more, and having both the perspectives can make me think a lot and choose where to go.”
Xu said the media is a large reason for the poor state of U.S. democracy.
“People are just living in their comfort zones, and they’re living in comfort groups that share similar views with them,” he said.
How they will be most affected by this election
The unified answer among the six students was that immigration policy will impact them the most, since it could affect their student visas.
“It will affect the international students way too much,” Kain said, adding how international students had many issues with visa processing when Trump was in office.
“We are legal immigrants. We should be given every opportunity to come here and work here, and the more smooth the process is, the easier it will be for the government to keep a check on us,” she said. “And at the end of the day, we are contributing to their economy, so it benefits them at the end of the day.”
Ghalasisi said he believes his immigration status should be handled differently from border and national security issues.
“If I were in government, I would push back against having people come into my own country without a particular document,” Ghalsasi said. “This is worldwide … It’s just a national security risk.”
Xu said he cares about issues geared towards equality and immigration given his identity. He said if he were to decide to stay in the U.S. and eventually become a citizen, he thinks he would care less about immigration issues once they no longer apply to him.
However, Xu said he thinks what will impact him most is not the policies, but the winner’s rhetoric. He said he is specifically worried about Trump’s anti-foreign people rhetoric.
“He just likes to beat all types of minorities, including women, and I think his rhetoric will have a very negative impact,” Xu said. “And I think once people grow up in those types of environments, they hear the leader say the same thing, like this, again, again. I think there will be an increase of hatred within the society.”
Ghalsasi said he does not feel affected by immigrant rhetoric and policy because his process was relatively smooth, but he knows others have had a harder time due to the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Martinez said she believes the government should learn to present immigration policy without a stigma around it.
Issues they would care about if they could vote
Martinez said she feels conflicted between economic and social issues. Because both candidates have worked in office already, she said it seems as though candidates have focused more on their past performances rather than selling a plan for the future.
As a student, Martinez said that while social issues matter to her due to her racial and gender identities, she would put aside social issues for economic policies that would better benefit her in her career development.
Ghalsasi said he is most interested in international issues, such as access to healthcare, emerging technologies, trade, the China-Russia competition and the Middle East conflict. But above all, he said he believes this election could depend on climate change.
Xu said he values social issues over economical issues.
If Bhojwani could vote, he would value the economy, as well as any policy with a focus on unity.
What they think are the most important parts of the election
Ghalsasi said he thinks voting in favor of perceptions of candidates over the policies behind them is dangerous.
“We have the choice and the power to elect a government. So we should be educated enough and knowledgeable to understand how politics works, and I do not see that is the case when it comes to democratic societies, because we tend to rely more upon people and the amount of information that they throw at us and not analyze or study or research the issue in depth,” Ghalsasi said.
Xu said he doesn’t believe the presidential race is as important as people make it seem.
“I think America should focus more on state and local elections, because that’s what matters most to them,” Xu said.
Kain echoed this, saying that voters should not completely count out their vote if they dislike the presidential candidates.
“If the people don’t want to vote for president, local elections are something they’re definitely interested in,” she said.
Kain said that at the end of the day, she will always choose policies over personality because that’s what will directly impact her.
“You have a superpower, which you can use and really sway an election from someone who doesn’t align with you and for someone who does,” she said.
Xu said that while the president is important, he doubts how much things can change by that one person.
Xu said he thinks the presidential race is similar to how people follow celebrity dramas, like Taylor Swift.
“Presidents do a lot of things, but it doesn’t matter that much because there are so many levels of governments,” he said. “I just feel like people put too much energy and too much hate and emotions into presidential elections, and they could care about other elections and a lot of things outside politics.”
Xu said he believes people in the U.S. take democracy for granted and don’t really understand it the way those coming from countries that are not democracies do.
Ghalsasi emphasized the importance of the legislature in this election.
Martinez said she thinks it’s very important that citizens use their right to vote.
“Voting kind of represents that you want to be part of a country that’s leading towards democracy,” she said. “There’s countries that don’t have that privilege of just being able to choose a leader.”
This post was originally published on here
