Election Day from International Students’ Perspectives

 

Election Day always brings anxieties – for Republicans, Democrats and everyone in between. International students at St. Edward’s University are no different.

Although foreigners could not vote in the U.S. presidential election, it does not mean they are not in tune with the presidential campaign and election. One thing the world had in common on Nov. 9 was the shock of realizing that reality television-star-turned-presidential-candidate Donald Trump had defeated career politician Hillary Clinton.

Brazil is home to the Amazon rainforest, so the country has strong feelings about climate change. As emphasized throughout the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Opening Ceremony this summer, the world needs to practice better preservation and conservation efforts. Memes about Trump’s behavior throughout the campaign were televised nationally.

Trump’s newly-appointed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Myron Ebell is a known anti-climate change believer. Ebell will have a hand in selecting the new EPA officials, and together they will shape climate-change discussion and environmental policy for the next four years.

Ebell has been vocal about denying environmental progress for the sake of fossil fuel profit. Among other controversies surrounding Trump, this could prove to be the most impactful – and Brazilians could face problems if the new American leadership withdraws the United States from the Paris Agreement to reduce the impact of climate change.

“I felt that I cared way more about what was going on in the elections than some American citizens,” Brazilian student Gabriel Calderaro said. “They just said, ‘Well if Trump wins, he cannot do anything overnight.’ – But the thing is he already did…”

 

In France, Trump’s victory was especially frightening because they too could face a similar fate in their upcoming elections.

“It scared us because we have a candidate that is kind of similar, in France,” French student Naïs Ohayon-Louisor said. “Her name is Marine Le Pen and she is very extremist and she says stuff that is sometimes not politically correct. So people are scared that if it happened in the U.S., it might happen in France, too.”

La Pen proudly congratulated Trump upon his victory, telling reporters that his election is not the end of the world, but rather the end of a world. La Pen said, “The Americans gave themselves a president of their choosing and not the one that the establishment wanted them to rubber-stamp.”

As a Parisian, Ohayon-Louisor says Trump’s offensive comments regarding France’s “No-Go Zones” are a lie. Muslims are not banned from certain areas of France, and the French regard Trump as a joke.

However, National Front party leader La Pen is predicted to win the primaries, and her platform consists of anti-immigration and anti-European Union stances. France will have their presidential elections in May.

In regards to U.S. politics, Saudi Arabian student Hindi Alotaibi said he is not fearful of being in this country because “Donald Trump will basically lead the country, and not individuals.” Similarly, he says that this is an individualized victory for Trump, and not for the citizens of the U.S.

Since the U.S. is an ally of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Alotaibi voices concern that Trump does not have experience with international politics, but says that his country tends to get along well with Republicans.

“They feel good about the Republican taking over, more than Donald Trump, because they have had a very good relationship with Republicans than Democrats for some reason,” Alotaibi said.

Meanwhile, in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, people were not necessarily intrigued by the U.S. presidential election. The biggest concern came after Trump was elected.

West African student Mohnda Marie Kassi said people were concerned about how the minority groups were going to cope with Trump’s win, and live peacefully.

The electoral college is also baffling, as Kassi said that her country uses popular vote to elect the president.

Kassi also emphasized that using popular vote can lead to frauds and falsified results easier than the electoral college. Nonetheless, she prefers the popular vote because it “reflects what the people actually want for their country.”

Across the board, Trump’s non-inclusive immigration laws scare a lot of international students who come to the United States to further their education.

“I hope that [this election] will not affect me in a big way because I am a legal immigrant,” Kassi said. “But there will come a point where I have to undocumented for a period of time here in the United States, and I’m just wondering how this is going to go. Are the already very tough policies about immigration going to change? Are they going to be worse?”