Higher Ed & Risk Management: Student recruitment v. immigration control

In some sense, this story reminds me of the days when the US Department of Agriculture subsidized tobacco farmers while the Department of Health and Human Services and the Surgeon General railed against cigarettes.

In Europe, governments seek to attract foreign students for their Euros, while also enacting measures to discourage immigration.

http://chronicle.com/article/In-Europe-Anti-Immigration/132193/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Of course, these two policies are not irreconcilable.  For many years, Chinese students couldn't get F-1 visas to study in the US, because the vast majority of them disappeared into the population or found other ways to avoid returning to China.  One can certainly make a credible argument that both host and sending countries benefit when the student, having gotten a great education, returns home to make a contribution to her/his country's development.  It's just that these two policies in juxtaposition can be a PR nightmare.