At the Center for Immigration Studies, David North says foreign students who are too poor to have cars can't be contributing to the U.S. economy:

For several decades in the last century many foreign leaders, particularly from Europe’s former colonies, had been educated in America and were friendly to the United States. That was and is a purely good thing.

Further, at the university level, it is helpful to U.S. students to have non-U.S. students in their classes — particularly in the fields of the arts, the humanities, and the social sciences. It makes for a more cosmopolitan experience for the Americans involved. Unfortunately, most foreign students, particularly at the graduate level, are studying science, mathematics, and engineering, fields where the students’ overseas backgrounds are of lesser value.

But foreign students as a plus for the American economy, like soy beans grown in Iowa and exported to China? That’s an argument that does not stand up under examination.

Straw man argument? Not exactly: He's responding to the annual "Open Doors" report from the Institute of International Education, which states: "International students contribute approximately $14.5 billion dollars to the U.S. economy, through their expenditure on tuition and living expenses."

North says that figure's wrong: See what you think of his proof. Still, I'm not sure how important the balance-of-payments argument is among the universities that want to attract more foreign students. The main attraction is that they pay full tuition, isn't it?