RC 01 - NOV 10

It is in this context that international students have come to be
prized commodities. Typically, in the post World War II era,
international students would head towards the United States as the
traditional destination, a trend continuing till early 2000s. As the
global race for skill heated up and states embarked on aggressive
recruitment strategies, this scenario started shifting. Between 2001
and 2003, the inflow of foreign students increased by more than 36% in
the United Kingdom, 30% in France, and 13% in Australia. During the
same period, however, the number of incoming foreign students declined
by 26% in the United States. Over the last decade, fast track entry
systems in many OECD countries – not all of them traditional
destination countries for international students – have further
dispersed the global student traffic. Concerted efforts are being made
on behalf of states to retain them as future skilled professionals.

Contemporary western economies are so dominated by discourses of
mobile knowledge, talent and entrepreneurial innovation that
anthropologist Aiwah Ong wrote how national citizenship in many of
these countries is giving way to a contingent citizenship based on
meritocracy. And yet, as many scholars of postwar western nationalism
and citizenship practices have pointed out, while skilled
professionals are welcome, by no means are they parts of 'traditional
ethnos or demos'. Their welcome is always contingent and conditional
upon a range of socioeconomic and political factors that are driven by
both domestic and international power relations. It is important to
keep in mind that many of the aforementioned states used to have
exclusionary immigration and citizenship policies till, at least the
1960s, when, due to domestic labour needs and shifting postcolonial
hierarchies of nation states, their 'gates' finally started opening up
to professionals from the global South. While rising discourses of
global knowledge economy would subsequently invest many such
professionals with a form of honorary membership in states they were
historically and conceptually excluded from, a gap between their
formal passage of entry and their political membership will prove
tenacious.

Take, for example, the case of Canada. The high skilled labour market
in Canada has been a site dominated by discourses of skills and merit
typical to a globalized knowledge economy. This reached a crescendo in
early 2000s, when, following the publication of the 1st National
Innovation Strategy, Canada actively started planning to partake in
the global race for talent. In the following decade, riding on the
tide of a research and development led global economy dictated by
innovators and entrepreneurs in science, technology, engineering and
medicine (STEM), the Canadian government introduced a series of
policies to stake a claim in the global talent pool. One among these
policies is the Canadian Experience Class – an immigration program
offering expedited residency to international students and high
skilled temporary workers on the basis of their local Canadian
experience (following Australia).

Establishing Canadian experience as a precondition for recruitment as
skilled immigrant is a well thought-out response to the global race
for skill. Not surprisingly, the Canadian government has recently
published its first International Education Strategy (tellingly fore
worded by the Ministry of International Trade and Finance).
International education has been declared one among the 22 priority
areas for revenue generation and the recruitment of international
students has been intensified across Canadian post secondary
institutions. The government recently also published the following
statistics on the amount of revenue generated by students from top six
countries and regions. These countries/regions are also identified as
emerging markets in Canada's Global Market Action Plan.

Q.55
According to the passage, the situation of immigration policies in the
West changed after 1960 when
a Western countries began to invite both skilled and unskilled
people from the East.
b the Occident began to invite people from the Orient without any
socio-economic and political motive.
c Western countries faced labour unrest.
d the exclusionary immigration policies gave way to an inclusive one.



Q 56
The author defines international students as "prized commodities". Why
does the author consider international students as "prized"?
a International students bring foreign exchange with them.
b International students bring high levels of skill and talent.
c International students are often responsible for inclusion of
different linguistic influences in a country.
d International students make a country truly globalized.


Q.57
It can be inferred that when the author refers to "contingent
citizenship based on meritocracy", he means
a citizenship granted to meritorious students.
b citizenship granted to people who excelled in vocational subjects.
c citizenship granted to skilled people.
d citizenship granted to people coming from disadvantaged
socio-economic background.


Q.58
Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as a reason for the
introduction of policies favouring conferring of citizenship status,
in Canada?
a A resurgent global economy influenced by radical new changes in
the fields of science, medicine and technology
b To attract all international students from over the world
c To attract educated young people
d A vibrant economy marked by innovations in Social Sciencesdet