Elaborating Policy Pervasion: Personal and Organizational Immigration Policy Impacts

Resumen

The term policy pervasion describes the influence of visa and study permit policies on the lives of international students, based on findings for students studying in Australia, Canada, and the United States. This conceptual article works to elaborate and expand on the concept of policy pervasion in two complementary ways. The first section explores the manifestation of policy pervasion in different national contexts and draws on news, literature, and the author’s own international student support experiences to refine the concept of policy pervasion as a crucial component of the international student experience globally. The second section introduces the idea of “organizational policy pervasion,” wherein the activities, processes, or decisions of higher education institutions are impacted by policy pervasion considerations. From there, the article proposes a tool for guiding or instigating responses that constitute a caring, productive, and student-centered organizational policy pervasion. The article concludes with an outline of potentially fruitful future research paths related to (organizational) policy pervasion, as well as clarification of the theoretical and practical utility of both forms of policy pervasion.