Thread on that xenophobic "how do international students make you feel" survey circulated at British universities @UniversitiesUK - and what we can learn from it. This is an example of what it looked like: 1/ 
Thanks to a joint effort of women academics in particular, such as @cliodiaspora, @alexandrabulat and @JaneEMCallaghan the survey got pulled. Full story here: bbc.co.uk/news/education… 2/
Now apparently, "The committee defended the survey, saying it was "simply an attempt to ask students for their experiences" and "had the potential to show a very positive view of international students in the UK". and 3/
"The survey was part of work commissioned by former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, after the government came under pressure to remove international students from net migration targets." Let's break that down using Logic 1.01 4/
Suppose the survey showed: "Look, international students don't make our students feel uncomfortable!" How can we conclude from this, "Therefore, these student should not be considered immigrants"? What's the line of reasoning here? 5/
If people don't make the natives feel uncomfortable, does this mean they shouldn't be considered immigrants? Interesting definition. In any case, it's doubtful that the survey would've reached that conclusion given the line of questioning 6/
As international students don't walk around with identifying badges, the survey required respondents to make assumptions based on accents or skin colour. The fact that the HO doesn't even see now that's a wee bit problematic says a lot about them 7/
A large literature shows people have less empathy with people they see as the outgroup. This is one such study done among students. " like other emotions, empathy is influenced by social categorization processes." onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.13… 8/
And now they're asking students to think about and categorize their fellow students? See also this incident... theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/m… 9/
International students have been treated appallingly over the past years. Theresa May wrongly deported nearly 50,000 of them when she was Home Secretary 10/ independent.co.uk/student/news/t…
The post-study work visa, giving international students the opportunity to work for 2 years after their study is also axed, to meet net migration targets. We want your fees to subsidize our students and universities, but then off you go 11/ visabureau.com/uk/post-study-…
Even now, the HO is deporting thousands of international students wrongfully and without good grounds. ft.com/content/2ae9b7… 12/
The number of student overstayers has been wrongly estimated to 100,000 - thus contributing to the scary, overinflated net migration figures, whereas it's fewer than 5000 (these are ONS figures) 13/ theguardian.com/education/2017…
Oh by the way, when is the UK going to revise its net migration figures downward in the light of this? Like, downward with 95,000? Oh they won't? Probably because it's so convenient for political purposes to keep it artificially high? 14/
This survey ask in the Stalinist Hostile Environment of letting ordinary people spy on their fellow classmates, co-workers, tenants etc. "How do foreigners make you feel?" /15
Is it surprising we fail to see how the UK government would supposedly use this for good? I don't think so. Read more on this topic here janeemcallaghan.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/hom… /ends
