Trump’s attack on Harvard will not make America great again

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The writer is a professor at Harvard University and the former head of the Economic Counselors at the White House

I believe in staying in a lane unit myself on economic arguments and analysis, where I have some experience or at least a comparative advantage. There is a lot to say about economic madness to try the Trump administration in The impact of more than 6500 students at Harvard University -About a quarter of our student body. But the real reason because I was very shocked, sad, angry and confused is personal.

During my second year at Harvard University, I lived with two of my close friends, a Canadian and South Africa. Through them and many other international friends, they faced new ideas and new views – and I simply did not enjoy. Some remained in the United States and became doctors, academics, journalists and businessmen. Others returned to the house, but they have always made a connection with them the country and all it provided.

After graduation, the tables turned, and I was a foreign student at the London College of Economics. I did not stay in the United Kingdom – although my tuition payments did – but I felt strongly towards our own relationship. When the UK government asked me after years of heads a committee to help them renew the policy of digital competition, these good intentions returned, and this opportunity jumped.

I went back to do a PhD in economics at Harvard University. Most of my regiment were foreign citizens in the United States on visas. Harvard is in itself as an American and the Americans accept primarily – only about 15 percent of foreign university students. However, when it comes to a doctorate program, Harvard is looking for the most prominent potential scientists from anywhere they live – and it is not surprising that with nearly 96 percent of the world’s population outside the United States, many come from abroad.

Most of my international colleagues remain and are now working in US Supreme Research departments. Others went to other leading universities around the world, governments and international organizations. The global ties that made them benefited from me – and the United States – when I served in the White House Barack Obama. Knowing people in the French Treasury and England Bank was useful during the euro and Brexit crisis.

Now I went back to Harvard teaching. One of my students is a village in India that has never moved her family on a plane before leaving. Another came from a small Italian town that did not send anyone to an American university. Others are refugees from the war -torn countries. Last month, at a teaching staff with a group of university students, half of the students who attended internationally were internationally. Many will return home after graduation, where they will apply what they have learned. Others remain and contribute here.

So, when I think about what the Trump administration is doing, I think about these hundreds of friends, students and colleagues. But even if you have put these feelings aside, the economic cost is enormous. The United States is the world leader in higher education. Certificates grant institutions employ 4 million people, workers, support staff to administrators and faculty. The United States receives up to 50 billion dollars annually from 1 million foreign students – which is considered an export.

Many foreign students not only pay while they are here; They remain and add to our working power, increase productivity and become innovators, founders and intellectual leaders. Without students and international immigrants, we may not have not President Endra Noy as the CEO of Pepsico, Jensen Huang, who co-founded NVIDIA, Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai as Microsoft and Google-or even Elon Musk.

America’s strength never came from drawing only on the talents of the small percentage of the world’s population who live here – but from attracting the best from anywhere. The breakthroughs that we take are often tracked from modern medicine to the Internet – to global cooperation in universities, including Harvard University.

President Trump’s move has already been temporarily banned by the judge. I hope that the courts will show that it is illegal to make comprehensive comprehensive changes based on a demand for bad faith about anti -Semitism to carry out a punishment that no college or Jewish students I know, including me.

I am a great fan of openness to trade and capital flows. However, openness to ideas and people is more important. Harvard, like other universities, is an example of this openness. No wonder Trump targets us. For America and the world, these sharp measures must be stopped.