For decades, international students came here with their own version of the American dream - to immerse themselves at the world's best universities and secure a place in the world's greatest economy.
Many still have that dream, but their journey no longer ends here.
Take Yaqiang Wang, who will graduate Sunday with a Ph.D in chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill. Yang spent four years in Chapel Hill labs, toiling on the intricacies of protein structures in cells. He has published five major papers in national science journals.
He has a promising future, but that future is likely in his homeland.
"Students came into America in '90s, and most of them chose to stay here," said Wang, who also serves as president of Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars. "But for us, who came here in 2000s, we see better career opportunities and more colorful life back home."
Yang is part of a surge of Chinese students who want a U.S. education they can take back home, where China's economic explosion offers opportunities once unfathomable.
Last year alone, U.S. colleges and universities experienced a 30 percent jump in enrollment of Chinese students, who make up 18 percent of all international students here. India and South Korea also send large numbers to the United States, while students here from other countries such as Japan and Mexico are on the decline.
Last year, nearly 128,000 Chinese students were enrolled in American universities. The increase is playing out in the Triangle, too. In the past five years at UNC-CH, the population of Chinese students has jumped 56 percent. This year alone, the number of Chinese students rose 23 percent at Duke University and 21 percent at N.C. State.
Also driving the increase is a surge in economic prosperity in China, giving more families the means to send their children to the U.S. to study. International students often pay the full cost of their education, unless they are recruited for doctoral programs.
U.S. just a pit stop
"We see a rising middle class in India and China," said Michael Bustle, director of the Office of International Services at N.C. State, which has more international students than any university in the state. "Even though percentage-wise it's not as great as our middle class, there are just so many people that even a small percentage increase equates to tens of thousands of new families who are able to send their children abroad."
Universities in Asia are growing but can't accommodate all who want higher education, Bustle said, which "is really pushed as a very important cultural, familial and governmental objective."
The ultimate goal, though, has shifted, said Vivek Wadhwa, director of research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke.
Six years ago, Wadhwa would ask international students whether they planned to stay in the U.S. Almost all raised their hands.
"Now when I do the same thing with my Duke students, they look at me funny, saying 'Professor, what do you mean?'" Wadhwa said. "It's like they don't understand what that concept means anymore. To them, staying in America means staying for two or three years, getting an American company on their résumé so it enhances their market value back home. It's no longer the ultimate destination where they expect to stay for the rest of their lives."
In 2009, Wadhwa published survey results that showed only 6 percent of Indian students and 10 percent of Chinese students wanted to stay in the U.S. permanently.
That "reverse brain drain," as he calls it, is a disaster for the U.S. He points out that 60 percent of U.S. doctoral engineering graduates are foreign nationals.
"We bring them here, we train them, we give them the best education in the world, then we give them experience in American companies," he said. "Then we say, 'OK, we don't want you anymore, go back home and compete with us.' ... Then we wonder why our economy is in a slump and why India and China are rising the way they are."
Students have seen their older friends gain a U.S. education and then return to China or India, where they join or build new companies and live cheaply. If they tried to remain here, they would find themselves waiting in line for a green card for years, perhaps decades.
Recruited back home
"Most people won't leave their home, their families, their friends, their culture that they are comfortable with and everything else for the rest of their life unless they are going to another country to get a better life," said Robert Locke, director of International Student and Scholar Services at UNC-CH. "The economy has a lot to do with it."
Increasingly, students are being recruited back to their native countries before they finish their studies. Some Chinese students say they are bombarded with emails from companies with enticements. Chinese high-technology companies come to the U.S. and hold job fairs, where they offer competitive salaries, start-up money and other benefits.
Bingfei Wang, who had a full scholarship in engineering at N.C. State University, quit his Ph.D. program after earning a master's degree. He went back to China, where his dream is to own a company someday.
"While I was studying in the U.S., I gradually found out I lacked the social connection and basic knowledge of U.S. commercial background, which will cast tremendous difficulties on my career," he said in an interview from China.
"I fully understand customers' behavior in China," he said.
But China has not changed enough to lure some students back.
Yin Li, a third-year Ph.D. student at UNC-CH's nursing school, has no desire to go home.
"The health care system is so different between China and America," Li said. "What I learned here cannot directly apply to China's situation. Many health care institutions are owned by the government and hard to get in."
When Li was in college in China, she began to take English language test prep classes to strengthen her chances of studying abroad. She had dreamed of coming here from a young age.
"The living environment is great, such as the air quality," she said. "I like the friendly working environment as well, like how people interact with each other."
For some, it's not a choice between home or the U.S.
Li-Chen Chin, director of Duke University's International House, which offers support and cultural programs to foreign students, said students today want to keep their options open. They might even consider moving to Europe, Canada or Australia.
"They're much more globally conscious," she said. "It's a worldwide competition."
