Nairobi — Hundreds of unsponsored Kenyan students studying in the US are to drop out of college, if the authorities there go ahead and implement proposed tough new immigration rules on foreign students.

Students from Kenya, many of them from poor backgrounds, will not be able to work off campus to raise their tuition fees.

If arrested, the students face deportation. And their employers could also face fines of up to $2,500.

Students are permitted to work on campus for up to twenty hours a week during the school year and up to forty hours per week during school holidays.

What this means is that the unsponsored students' continued stay in the US is under real threat. They just can't survive because on campus jobs don't pay much.

And waiting to work during the holidays to raise money for upkeep means they'll have to beg or starve and be ejected from their accommodation for non-payment of rent.

INS authorisation can be granted for off campus employment, but the students are required to work in their fields of study.

Foreign students' economic impact on the US is considerable -at least as far as pre-September 11 statistics are concerned. According to Open Doors 2001, a report on international educational exchange, educational services was ranked as the nation's fifth largest service sector export in 2000.

Foreign students play an important role in the US economy on a national level by contributing more than 11 billion dollars to the US economy through tuition and cost of living expenses, and in some cases, expenses associated with a spouse or other dependants that have come to the US with them.

Foreign students draw from a variety of sources of funding for their US study. Over two-thirds (66 per cent) of foreign students report that personal and family funds are the primary source of funding for their studies in the US.

It is in this category that nearly 90 per cent of Kenyan believed to be studying in the US fall.

More than 80 per cent of international undergraduates (80.7 per cent) fund their studies through personal sources.

Tragically, and even before these new radical rules are implemented, most Kenyans who left the country to pursue undergraduate studies in the United States as unsponsored students have been unable to pay. "They are in huge arrears at my college," says June Noronha of College of St Catherine Minnesota.

"Many of them have dropped out of college to work. But my real worry now is with the new INS international student regulations. Many of them, I'm afraid, will have to return home."

Making it even increasingly difficult for the Kenyans is another new requirement that unsponsored students pay a tuition fees deposit -usually a huge sum- before they are sent the I-20 forms, says Noronha, who is President of the Association of International Educator's (Nafsa).

"The trouble is that many of these students never tell their parents back home they have dropped out of college," Noronha, a Kenyan of Goan origin whose parents live in Nairobi, told me in a telephone interview from Minnesota.

Struggling with the huge fees burden, many of these Kenyans have become perpetual students. "I know of some who have been in college for 10 years studying for an undergraduate degree," says Noronha who went to High school at Pangani Girls.

"The system here has been deeply sympathetic to their plight because, to be honest, Kenyans are known to be bright, conscientious, and hardworking students.

"The trend has been that they drop in and out of college over the years, usually staying away several months doing all sorts of odd jobs before they return with enough money to pay." Drop out rates among male Kenyan students, Noronha says, is higher than that of the females. The latter also tend to attract more sympathy and support than their social counterparts.

However, not all the US academic institutions are as sympathetic and responsive. Some students have been clearly hard-pressed to explain how their ability-to-pay status -thanks to the fraudulent bank statements and alleged secure financial backgrounds they present on enrolment-suddenly changed to a can't-pay-won't-pay situation. "These are the students who simply disappear into the US odd jobs market," says Noronha, a lecturer at College of St. Catherine. "But, aware that their immigration status might be very shaky if they abandoned studies, they seek to retain a semblance of studentship.

"To do this, they move out of the bigger more prestigious colleges, to smaller, cheaper community colleges, sometimes with the disastrous consequence of enrolling for courses that don't suit their academic aspirations, if they had any at all."

Prof Kinuthia Macharia of American University, Tenleytown, says the absence of a sponsor is clearly evident when questions begin to be asked about the ability of the student to pay. "Students desperate to come here can improvise links and sponsors. Yet, what really exists is a little money, usually Sh300,000 or slightly more, raised through harambee," a traditional fund raising system that they are already proposing to ban in Kenya.

By US standards, says Prof Macharia, a Sociology lecturer, "that is money barely enough to last a student one semester after paying their college tuition fees".

"Many young people who come here may be having only US$1000 or less by the time they arrive. If they're lucky, they may pay for one semester, and after that have nothing to pay," he notes.

"Unfortunately, there is also the myth that when you go to America, it is easy to get a job and people quote cases here and there. Also, there is very little truth being told back home about the situation here. This makes it difficult for prospective students to prepare for the difficulties they eventually run into.

"They get deeply shocked themselves when they come here. What they expected of America is not exactly what it is," Prof Macharia, who has lived in the US for over 16 years, says when asked why no one tells the truth to anyone back home.

"Since people at home have high expectations of you, there is no reason to dampen their spirits, is there?" Consequently, no student reports that they have dropped out of college for non-payment of fees and are now full time in the job market - illegally.

However, at masters degree level, the possibility of getting funding broadens. It also provides the Kenyan student, says Noronha, with a "perfect excuse" to prolong their stay in the United States.