Who We Welcome confronts the growing instability that now shapes higher education in the U.S. Drawing on more than two decades of direct work in enrollment management, foreign credential evaluation, and institutional leadership, the author explains how the U.S. became a global destination for education and why that position can no longer be taken for granted. Policy volatility, weakened public confidence, and global competition are shifting conditions faster than many institutions are prepared to acknowledge.

The analysis traces the historical and structural forces that built the current system and shows how easily its strengths can be undermined when political signals turn inward. Through interviews conducted with former students recruited across twenty-years and several institutions, the book revisits the promises made to them by American higher education and examines which were honored and which fell short. The book gives voice to individuals who navigated uncertainty, separation, and shifting rules while studying in the U.S. Their stories reveal both the strain they endured and the remarkable contributions they now make in communities, industries, and research environments across the country and around the world.