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US job-market problems for international scholars?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'm an international student recently admitted to a top 10 PhD program in the US that was also my top choice. One thing I've been wondering when trying to make my decision is whether the US job market is extra tough for international scholars.

I know that there's a fair amount of international scholars working in US institutions. But my personal sense from going over faculty lists is that the ratio of international faculty over faculty is much lower than the ratio of international graduate students over graduate students.

I'm sure a lot of that difference can be attributed international students willingly going back to their home country, perhaps wanting to pursue an academic career there. Some of it can be attributed to the ratio of international graduate students over graduate students increasing over the years.

But what I'm wondering is whether there are issues that uniquely or disproportionately affect international students in the US job market. For instance, is having an understandable but very noticeable accent a disadvantage? Do hiring committees worry that international scholars might become homesick and quit?

These are very good questions. However, I am not particularly well-positioned to provide answers.

Do any readers have any helpful insights to share?

Posted in ,

12 responses to “US job-market problems for international scholars?”

  1. ben

    Congrats on your admission!
    Of course discrimination and xenophobia are a thing, both within grad school and on the job market, and international people might have various reasonable concerns about working in the US right now.
    However, I’m not sure I follow the concern about the job market. First, doing your PhD in the US doesn’t commit you to being exclusively on the US job market. A top-10 PhD from the US will be well-regarded for academic jobs in most of the world. Second, US hiring committees for professorships may indeed worry about retention, but presumably having already lived several years in the US would help to mitigate this concern. If you want to work permanently in the US then doing your PhD there seems like the best way to boost your chances.

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  2. Be careful

    Non American seasoned post-doc in the US here. Based on my experience, several universities do not sponsor visas for TT or even VAP positions. So the pool of jobs available to those who are not US citizens (or who do not have a green card) is more restricted. I would seriously keep this in mind (I am speaking from the perspective of a person who will probably be out of the profession soon, at least in part, because of this).

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  3. Tenured now

    Congrats on your acceptance!
    Some US universities do have hostile and absurd policies (like requiring that an undergraduate approve that every hired candidate can “speak passable English”) or formal or informal financial practices about hiring (like whether international candidates can be hired for short-term jobs like VAPs because of visa sponsorship funding issues) that affect international applicants more. But at least in my experience in philosophy, hiring departments know that the bullshit policies are bullshit and work around them, and the financial policies as far as I know don’t have much/any effect on TT or other permanent jobs.
    One thing that I am confident of is that you will do much better on the US job market with a PhD from a top 10 US program than with most international PhDs – and this matters a lot, I think, given what a huge percentage of total academic jobs in Philosophy are in the US. I suspect that you will also do better on the international market taken as a whole with a PhD from the US (a number of my international grad students have cited this as their reason for getting a PhD here even with plans to return to their home countries afterwards), although I do think there are some exceptions for places where academic hiring is based very significantly on networking.
    So even if there are some disadvantages for international applicants on the US market overall, I think they are pretty minor – and that a PhD from a top US program would probably still put you in a better position on the market overall than alternative Philosophy PhD programs.

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  4. visa applier

    As far as I am aware, the major difficulty is the cost and risk involved in sponsoring non-US permanent residents for jobs, more so than e.g. speaking with a non-American accent or fear of flight risk. Sponsoring a non-US national for a H-1B involves an added expense of several thousand dollars, necessitates a job market assessment where you are expected to prove no American citizen is equally qualified for the role, and involves significant risk, given there’s only a ~50% chance your applicant wins the lottery. And the other pathways, e.g. by way of an O-1 visa, require ‘exceptional ability’, and can be a difficult bar to meet for junior scholars. This isn’t to say either is impossible–both happen all the time. But there is a substantial amount of risk & cost for departments to deal with, and so I believe there is implicit bias towards permanent residents (Green Card holders) and citizens on basically practical grounds, particularly at less-well-resourced departments.

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  5. Outsider

    here’s n=1 from an international student. I have never got an overt sense that my candidacy was affected by my international status.
    In the past two years, I have been a finalist for four TT jobs, three in the US and one in the UK (where I would also have been an international hire). The UK position went to someone who, as far as I know, is not from the UK. At least one job in the US, too, I lost out to someone who, again as far as I know, is not from the US (the school was also a flagship state school). I’ll further add the caveat that the three US jobs were all based in ‘blue’ states, which might also help things.
    In the end, it’s a sad tautology that we cannot control what we cannot control. Will being an intl. student count against you in certain circumstances? I’d say so. thus, my two cents: (a) you must believe, as I continue to do, that doing good work will be recognized as such. Philosophy might not be a perfect meritocracy, but if you continue to do good work in good journals, these things won’t go unnoticed by some people; (b) in your teaching statements and your pedagogy, think about how you can leverage your intl. status as something of a plus, not a minus; not something overtly, per se, but, e.g., that you can relate to people who are outsiders.

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  6. Outsider, again

    also re: accent. Unfortunately, of course, in the US not all accents are treated equal.
    For example, if you have a British accent, it will for whatever reason be considered a plus. for others, like German or Italian, it may well be neutral. Others – for example, like an accent from East Asian countries – unfortunately, even as times are changing, some people will not know that they are literally taking you less seriously than others. It’s unfortunate, but I think that is still a possibility, esp. among the older members of our profession.
    If this problem is true of you, then it means just going into the profession with a more sober sense of what’s to be expected. Practice a lot, and practice often. I think the worst thing to do would be to clam up instead and never say anything. Nobody likes being thought a fool, but grad seminars are moments to fail. No one will remember what you said in week 4 of a seminar. Listen to podcasts. Talk to other people outside the philosophy department and get immersed in the culture. you have at least five years! It’s amazing how much you can change just by sheer osmosis. All best!

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  7. Daniel Weltman

    To reiterate what Tenured now has said, a PhD from a top 10 US place will be very useful in many job markets, not just the US. So unless you’re choosing between e.g. US and doing a PhD in a some insular market like France or Germany in order to get a job in that particular place, your chances internationally will probably be better with your US PhD than if you chose some other school just for the sake of not being in the US.
    To put it more concretely, I am not in the US but most of the people working in my department have PhDs from the US.

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  8. German perspective

    Looking from Germany, I do get the sense that not having spent years as a PhD or postdoc networking here can be a disadvantage, when trying to move or return to Germany after years doing a PhD or postdoc abroad. This doesn’t mean it would be impossible to get a foothold in the German philosophy market, I’ve seen people do it. And the situation might be very different in other countries. But it is something to consider regarding the backup plan of returning to one’s home country after doing a PhD in the US.

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  9. Derek Bowman

    I would just like to raise a note of caution that this entire discussion is based on the premise that the experience of international students on the academic job market in 5 years will resemble current trends.
    The U.S. now has a federal government that is actively hostile to immigration and to higher education. This will likely affect the experience of international students during their studies in the U.S., their attempts to find employment in the U.S. following their studies, and the perception of U.S. degrees abroad.
    I don’t know any way to predict what and how bad those effects will be, but I think you can be sure that they will be very different from the status quo and recent past.

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  10. Less bias than other things I know

    With all the caveats above, I want to however emphasize the good news that the hiring process (within departments) is among the least racist practice in my experience of 10+ in the US. I say this as someone who encounter implicit and explicit bias all the time.
    The change of ratio you observe is probably mostly due to a combination of the following factors: 1. better, more stable opportunities outside US, and willingness to leave 2. performance and cultural fit (some inter students may perform less well due to speaking less good English and/or is less skilled at getting along than an average US student) 3. visa&immigration hurdles
    Not try to dismiss racism in hiring. But want to acknowledge the good things if they seem true to me.

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  11. Bill V.

    No doubt you will encounter various problems as an international candidate, including those mentioned above by others. But plenty of international candidates are hired into tenure-track jobs in the US (I’m one, though it was 25 years ago). Starting from a top ten department will probably help. Strategizing carefully about developing an AOS and
    a couple of AOCs that are highly desirable, getting a couple of publications, graduating on time, and getting some good teaching experience along the way will all make a bigger difference than international status itself.
    BTW, you’ll make getting an immigration visa harder if you let yourself fall out of status or violate any of the rules associated with your student visa.
    I am amazed to have to add the caveat that this advice should be good, barring the collapse of the US or its higher ed institutions. Those are possibilities for the first time ever, though I still believe/hope those worst case scenarios won’t come about.

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  12. Amanda

    There is already a lot of great advice and insights in the comment section. I just want to add that depending on your country of origin and birth, the visa process can be very difficult in the US and that is worth considering. I was an international student in an American top ranked program, I had a postdoc in the UK, and now a TT position in a R1 in the US.
    When you are a student, you will be on a F-1 visa, which is issued by the school (I-20), and you will need to get a visa from your local USA consulate. Depending on your country of origin, this could be a very easy process or very time-consuming and expensive. Canadians, for example, are visa exempt and can show up at the border to enter the US. If you are from India, you might have to wait months for a US consulate appointment.
    Travel while on the F-1 can be tricky given the current immigration upheavals in the US. Again, depending on which country you are from and their relationship to the US, you may be stranded in the US during your studies. When I was in grad school, someone in my cohort missed their father’s funeral in Iran because of the first Trump travel ban.
    When you get a job offer in the US, you will be sponsored for a H1-B visa, typically 3 years that can be renewed once. Universities are not subject to the H1-B cap thankfully. During your time on the H1-B, you can apply for a green card. You can get a green card through marriage to a US citizen, the easiest route. Or by EB or O visa categories. Depending on your country of origin, this could be very hard. People who were born in China or India are subject to very long waits — you could be waiting for 6+ years for a green card. It is also important to note that the academic requirements for a successful EB or O visa could be more demanding than tenure. You have to demonstrate that you are a leader in your field and that you are an exceptional talent that the US should retain. Thankfully, most R1 universities in the US will have immigrant lawyers to help you navigate this. However, some R2s do not (I had an offer from a US R2 that explicitly said that they will sponsor me for a H1-B but not for a green card).
    While you are in the US, you will need to be careful to maintain your status – never over stay your visa, even by 1 day.
    This is a lot. And often I wonder if this is all worth it to stay in a country that is quickly turning anti-immigrant. But American universities, especially the top-ranked ones, are still among the best intellectual centers in the world. A TT job in the US is pretty sweet – despite having to navigate the crazy immigration system.
    I had a very brief stint in the UK. The visa system in the UK is difficult in different ways. But employment-based visas and permanent residency are much easier. If you are a citizen/born in India or China, I think it would be easier to immigrate to the UK than the US for an advanced job. You won’t be subject to caps or backlogs (just Google EB-1 backlog).
    Good luck!

    Reply

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