Tag: travel ban

  • Nigerian student interest in the US falls by 50%

    Nigerian student interest in the US falls by 50%

    Search interest in America among Nigerians dropped immediately following the announcement of the US travel ban in December 2025, with levels more than half of what they were during a high point in August last year, according to Keystone Education Group data. 

    “We continue to see audiences responding very quickly to actions and announcements from the US government and Nigeria is no exception,” said Mark Bennett, Keystone’s VP of research & insight. 

    “These announcements don’t discourage Nigerians from studying abroad, but they will prompt them to look for opportunities elsewhere. Crucially, that doesn’t have to mean elsewhere in the big four,” added Bennett. 

    European destinations have absorbed the most Nigerian student interest pivoting away from the US, with France and Italy seeing search growth of 40% and 33% respectively during the same period.  

    China has also seen a 17% boost in interest from Nigerian students, while interest in Australia grew by 21%. 

    Previously, the challenge was navigating long wait times and backlogs. Now, there is no pathway at all

    Bimpe Femi-Oyewo

    On December 16, 2025, the administration announced the expansion of the US travel ban to cover nearly 40 nations, including Nigeria, America’s eighth largest sender of international students.  

    The African nation is now subject to partial travel restrictions, which includes barring Nigerian citizens from obtaining study visas for the US. 

    Speaking to The PIE News shortly after the announcement, founder of a Nigerian education consultancy Bimpe Femi-Oyewo said the level of uncertainty caused by the ban was “incredibly destabilising” for students and the institutions that admitted them. 

    “Previously, the challenge was navigating long wait times and backlogs. Now, there is no pathway at all,” she said – adding that she was encouraging students to consider alternative pathways in Europe and Canada.  

    What’s more, the ripple effects of the travel ban and other restrictive US policies are being felt beyond the directly impacted nations, with America’s reputation as an unwelcoming study destination growing globally. 

    This is evident in Keystone’s survey data, which found the proportion of students expressing low confidence in the ease of US visa and entry requirements increasing from 14% to 21% following the expanded travel ban. 

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  • Trump vows to “permanently pause” migration from “third world countries”

    Trump vows to “permanently pause” migration from “third world countries”

    The President made the statement in a Thanksgiving post on Truth Social, in which he said the measures would allow the “US system to fully recover”, while vowing to remove anyone who is not an “asset” to the country. 

    Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies to “noncitizens” in the US and deport any foreign national deemed a security risk or deemed to be “non-compatible with Western Civilisation”. 

    His remarks follow the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington DC on November 26, one of whom died the following day. The suspect in the shooting is an Afghan national who is said to have arrived in the US in September 2021. 

    Officials say the accused came to the country legally, under a program that offered immigration protections to Afghanistan nationals who worked with US forces and feared retribution from the Taliban.  

    No details of Trump’s immigration suspension plan or what would be considered a “third world” country have been released, and the State Department did not immediately respond to The PIE News’ request for comment. 

    Trump previously said after Wednesday’s shooting that the attack constituted an “act of terror”, and vowed to remove people “from any country who doesn’t belong here”. 

    Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation

    Donald Trump, US President

    As announced by USCIS director Joseph Edlow on Thursday: “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.” 

    In June 2025, the Trump administration imposed an all-out travel ban on 12 nations including Afghanistan, and a partial ban on a further seven, barring the entry of international scholars and students. Only Afghan nationals holding Special Immigration Visas were among the few exceptions to the policy.

    Those holding valid visas before the ban was announced were allowed to remain in the US, and in 2024/25 there were a total of 712 Afghan students studying at US institutions, according to Open Doors data.

    The countries currently impacted by the ban are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, whose nationals are obstructed from all types of travel to the US including immigrant and nonimmigrant visas.  

    Nationals of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela are subject to partial restrictions. 

    “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation”, Trump continued on Truth Social.  

    His presidency has seen a widespread crackdown on immigration, including the revocation of 80,000 non-immigrant visas, 10% of which were for international students.  

    The administration’s arrests, detentions and attempted deportations of international students for their pro-Palestinian advocacy have drawn widespread condemnation from within the US and globally, with a court ruling them illegal last month.  

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