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Abstract
This article examines the geographic distribution of Optional Practical Training (OPT) employment by international student graduates of Missouri’s colleges and universities between 2007 and 2017. OPT is a temporary employment program that international students are eligible to apply for after graduating with a degree from a college or university in the United States. It offers twelve months of employment authorization, and students can work anywhere in the United States provided the work is related to their degree. OPT has seen remarkable growth over the past two decades, but employment has mainly concentrated in major urban centers. Based on more than 24,000 OPT employment addresses of Missouri graduates, this research shows that nearly 97 percent of Missouri’s OPT took place in metropolitan areas, most of which was out of state. Within Missouri, OPT employment was regional, with Missouri’s OPT students more likely to cross the country to work than to cross the state. Most local OPT work in college towns was located on campuses, rather than in the surrounding community. Indeed, the data show how Missouri’s smaller cities, towns, and rural areas—and their local economies—have all but missed out on the benefits of homegrown OPT employment.
本文研究了2007年至2017年美国密苏里州高等院校（大学、学院）国际毕业生的可选实习培训（OPT）就业分布。OPT是一项临时就业计划, 国际学生在美国高校毕业后有资格申请。它提供12个月的就业许可, 学生可以在美国任意地方从事与学位有关的工作。在过去20年中, OPT有显著增长, 但就业主要集中在大城市中心。根据密苏里州毕业生的24,000多个OPT就业地址, 本研究显示, 密苏里州近97%的OPT分布在大都市地区并且大多在密苏里州之外。在密苏里州内, OPT就业是区域性的, 密苏里州OPT学生更可能跨农村而不是跨州工作。大学城内的本地OPT工作, 大部分位于校园而不是周边社区。数据显示, 密苏里州的小城市、城镇和农村地区及其地方经济, 几乎错过了本地OPT就业的红利。
Este artículo examina la distribución geográfica del empleo del Entrenamiento Práctico Opcional (OPT) por parte de estudiantes internacionales posgraduados en las instituciones de educación superior y universidades de Missouri, entre 2007 y 2017. El OPT es un programa de empleo temporal al cual pueden aplicar los estudiantes internacionales después de graduarse en una carrera de educación superior en Estados Unidos. El programa ofrece una autorización de empleo para doce meses, y los estudiantes pueden trabajar en cualquier parte de los Estados Unidos, siempre que la naturaleza del empleo se relacione con los títulos obtenidos. El OPT ha registrado un notable crecimiento durante las pasadas dos décadas, aunque el empleo se ha concentrado principalmente en los mayores centros urbanos. A partir de más de 24.000 direcciones de empleo OPT de graduados de Missouri, esta investigación muestra que cerca del 97 por ciento del empleo OPT de Missouri se ubicó en áreas metropolitanas, en la mayoría de los casos por fuera del estado. Dentro de Missouri, el empleo OPT fue regional, siendo más probable que los estudiantes OPT de Missouri cruzaran el país para trabajar, que cruzar el estado. Por cierto, la mayor parte del trabajo OPT local en las ciudades universitarias se localizó en los campus, más que en la comunidad circundante. De hecho, los datos indican cómo las ciudades más pequeñas de Missouri, pueblos y áreas rurales –y sus economías locales– para nada han podido disfrutar de los beneficios del empleo OPT.
Acknowledgments
We thank the editors of The Professional Geographer, as well as the three anonymous reviewers, for their helpful comments and suggestions. In addition, James Kaemmerer thanks geographers Clayton Blodgett and Doug Hurt for their teaching and mentorship while at the University of Missouri.
Notes
1 This article also draws from the first author’s past professional experience as a university international student adviser.
2 As of this writing in summer 2021. In early 2021, however, the Biden administration sent to Congress the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which proposes, among other things, the possibility of making F-1 “dual-intent,” as well as potentially making STEM PhD students eligible to apply for permanent residency following graduation from a U.S. higher education institution (NAFSA Association of International Educators Citation2021).
3 OPT can technically begin before a student’s program ends in what is called, appropriately enough, precompletion OPT, but it is seldom used. Instead, postcompletion OPT is considered the primary authorization and covers the vast majority of participants.
4 Importantly, whereas students are welcome to start their own business while on regular postcompletion OPT, such entrepreneurialism is prohibited under the STEM Extension regulations, which require, among other things, that students be paid and “maintain a bona fide employer–employee relationship” (USCIS Citation2018). In other words, on the STEM Extension, you cannot be your own boss.
5 A caution is warranted here. Eligible students must first complete the regular twelve-month OPT before they can begin the OPT STEM Extension, which could happen in the middle of the calendar year. An analysis that fails to account for and disaggregate postcompletion and STEM Extension data risks counting some individual records twice in a given year.
6 For example, students could return to their home countries, start a new academic program, transfer to a new school, or change their visa status.
7 On-campus OPT is often done by graduate students who stay on to work in labs, serve as course instructors, or perform further research as a postdoc.
8 Among Indian students, males predominated across all top metro areas, whereas among Chinese students, in most metro areas, females outnumbered males.
9 After graduation, many tech-sector OPT students often end up working in tenuous, short-term contractor positions at small information technology firms that service the larger tech industry (Swaminathan Citation2017). The nature of these short-term contracts likely involves multiple employers over the course of an OPT year, which probably accounts for at least some of the disproportionately high employment address reporting in our Missouri OPT data—and likely the national OPT data, as well. More research on this is certainly needed.
10 Thanks to strong word of mouth, as well as active recruiting agents in India, students were reportedly attracted to the school’s new low-cost computer and data science graduate programs, which could be completed in only one year for around $12,000 (Redden Citation2017; Swaminathan Citation2017).
11 According to data published by SEVP, UCM’s Innovation Campus was ranked ninth nationally in the number of postcompletion OPT authorizations issued in 2017, with 1,572 authorizations. By 2019, though, postcompletion OPT authorizations had dropped to 225. With regard to OPT STEM Extension authorizations, UCM’s Innovation Campus peaked at fourth in the country in 2018 (ICE Citation2020c).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
James Kaemmerer
JAMES KAEMMERER is a PhD Student in the Department of Geography at Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include the internationalization of higher education, migration and mobility, geographies of access and opportunity, and regional and community development.
Matt Foulkes
MATT FOULKES is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include population geography, migration and mobility, poverty, and urban planning.