Refugees and the audit culture of international higher education in the United States

Abstract

AbstractRefugees overcome high barriers to survive, resettle in the United States, and thrive in their new communities. On account of the protracted nature of modern conflicts, refugees are now often displaced for a decade or more, while living in refugee camps or in urban settings, prior to being resettled to a country of ultimate destination. Some refugees obtain education during their displacement, including college and graduate education and professional credentialing. Upon resettlement to the United States, many refugees lack or cannot obtain the needed “official copies” of their credentialing documents (transcripts, diplomas, syllabi, etc.), and for many of these highly skilled and professionally qualified individuals, their continued education or professional work is thwarted by the vetting process designed to review international students. This article argues that the bureaucratic culture and practices—or “audit culture”—of the internationalization of higher education in the United States is a major and unnecessary barrier to the access and success of higher education for refugees, to the integration of refugees into the professional workforce, and to the flourishing of the refugee community as a whole. The article (1) introduces the contexts of refugee displacement, resettlement, and education in the United States; (2) develops a semiotic framework to analyze the bureaucratic practices involved in vetting refugees’ credentials, (3) documents the audit culture of the internationalization of higher education which is the context in which the education credentials of refugees are evaluated; (4) illustrates with a set of brief life‐histories of refuges in Wisconsin how this audit culture operates as a barrier to their higher education and professional success; and (5) argues that refugees (and others with refugee background) are deserving of special consideration by postsecondary institutions in the United States.