Time,space,and precarity: (Geo)political dimensions of international student life

Abstract

This study examines how international students in U.S. higher education intersecting forms of temporal and spatial precarity shaped by immigration enforcement and institutional policies. Drawing on critical discourse analysis of interviews with 20 international graduate students and public narratives surrounding recent visa revocations, the research explores how algorithmic enforcement systems and overlapping temporal constraints produce distinctive vulnerabilities, and what strategies students develop to maintain academic progress within these constraints. The analysis reveals that international students experience temporally compressed academic timelines governed by visa durations and degree completion deadlines, while simultaneously being subjected to heightened surveillance through systems like SEVIS monitoring. Despite these structural vulnerabilities, students demonstrate agency through digital community building, strategic confrontation, and transnational mentorship networks. The findings challenge dominant framing of international students as apolitical learners, instead positioning them as politically situated subjects navigating complex power structures. This study contributes to precarity scholarship by extending its analysis beyond labor markets to educational mobility, documenting a critical historical moment when immigration enforcement is being restructured through automation and AI.