The disappearing American grad student

I don’t know that much. But pick any terrible country, then look at the majority of their students studying abroad. The majority of students are good people that is not issue. The issue is the financing.

 

I see the implication that wealthy upper class in a country may go to a foreign school because they can afford it. I do not understand the implication of the money laundering. If I pay for my child to go to University in a foreign land. I do have to pay for it and it does not matter to the university where the money came from but it still would to the authorities. The Idea of laundering the money would mean that I would have to get a portion back to show it as legitimate income. That does not happen when you pay for an education. Yes, maybe your child gets paid well because of the education but you are seeing none of the return and it is slow(meaning if you pay $100,000 for four years it may take 10-20 years to realize the actual return and then it's still your kid getting the money, not you).

 

The return on investment is faster if the fancy degree helps in installing the kiddo in a key position in some governmental structure, expanding the family's ability to loot and plunder public riches. Happens all the time. Also helpful if the kid gets an entry in the western country's elite circles, with the potential to help promote the cabal's interests and earn gratitude of the home despot.

None of these is "money laundering" though. And note typically applies to STEM.

 

STEM fields, yes. STEM grad school, not so much, as I believe the article suggests (I'm paywalled out). There is little economic sense to go for a full-time grad degree in Computer Science for a citizen, for example.
I was a TA and a visa student. I had many, many peers in my department. Second largest, much smaller, group was American students in the Cybersecurity Master's program on the government scholarship. As far as I can say, PhD program in Physics was even more international, and so was one in Maths.

 

The New York Times paywall is a soft one. You can get around most (but not all) soft paywalls, including this one, by simply opening a link with a right-click in a private window.