Thread by @stevenmentor_

THREAD: Financial hardship for international students.

It is hard to imagine the incredible financial hardship that the international students who stayed in the United States are going through.

(1/n)

The international students who went back home are doing "relatively" well from a financial standpoint.

Most of them are living with their parents and their families can help support them with basic needs.

The ones who stayed, however, face a very different situation.

(2/n)

For an international student who stayed in the United States, they will have - at least - the following expenses:

- Groceries and basic supplies
- Housing

Other miscellaneous can come, but those are certainly the main expenses.

(3/n)

The problems most people see are the lack of available internships and on-campus employment ending with campus closures nationwide.

While these are important factors, we'd argue that many people are failing to see another crucial factor.

(4/n)

Depending on the student's nationality (and local currency), another crucial factor complicating their financial situation is the DEVALUATION OF CURRENCIES COMPARED TO THE DOLLAR.

(5/n)

To illustrate, below is a screenshot of the relative valuation of the #USD (American Dollar) vs. the #BRL (Brazilian Real)

In 1 year, the #USD went from being worth 3.95 #BRL to being worth almost 6 #BRL today.

(6/n)

To illustrate, imagine a that student has a monthly expense of $300 - say, their rent - and his family is helping him to cover this expense.

This expense, in a year, went from 1,170 #REL to almost 1,800 #REL.

(7/n)

The expense didn't change at all for the student (it stayed at $300), but it increased significantly for the family.

It is almost as if the student's family's money wasn't worth anything compared to the #AmericanDollar

(8/n)

What's worse, back to Brazilian Real example, the value has dropped significantly in the recent months (part due to #covid19)

Below you see that in 2020 only, the price of the #USD in #REL increased by 37%.

(9/n)

In other words, for ANY #Brazilian #InternationalStudent in the #UnitedStates that was covering expenses with money from home, EVERYTHING became 37% more expensive and nobody noticed.

(10/n)

The #BrazilianReal is probably the most extreme example of this in this year.

But as most international students receive funds from home, this is a struggle thousands of international students are facing right now.

(11/n)

If you are taking care of a group of international students currently (#DSO or #PDSO) please do some due-diligence on the student's local currency exchange rate with the American Dollar (#USD).

This is a serious issue.

(12/12).

@threadreaderapp compile