More U.S. students head for Latin America

Despite President Donald Trump’s vows to build a wall with Mexico and deport huge numbers of Latin American immigrants, there is a little-known phenomenon that could have a positive impact on hemispheric relations in the long term: Growing numbers of U.S. students are choosing Latin American countries for their study-abroad programs.

While most U.S. students in these programs go to European countries, the percentage of students who pick Latin American destinations for credit-earning studies is rising fast. And among Americans who travel abroad for noncredit experiences — such as internships and volunteer work — Latin America already is the No. 1 destination.

The data come from the newly released Open Doors report by the New York-based Institute of International Education (IIE) and the U.S. State Department.

While the figures are from the 2016-17 academic year, which started during the U.S. presidential campaign but before the November 2016 elections, they reflect an ongoing trend that is likely to continue.

The number of U.S. youths studying abroad has more than tripled over the past two decades, to 325,339 students this year, the report says. Of that total, 53,000 went to Latin American and Caribbean countries, an almost 6 percent increase over the previous year.

The number of U.S. students going to Argentina rose by nearly 4 percent, to Mexico by 10 percent, and to Colombia by 25 percent. By comparison, the percentage of U.S. students going to Europe rose by an average of 3.5 percent.

Among the additional 23,000 Americans who went abroad for noncredit internships or volunteer work, more than 38 percent chose Latin American and Caribbean destinations, compared with 14 percent who went to Europe, and 10 percent to Asia, according to IIE data.

These figures are important because, in the long term, they are likely to help increase U.S. attention to Latin America. One of the reasons why Latin America has long ranked low among U.S. foreign-policy priorities has been that most U.S. policy makers have had little to no personal connections with the region.