As with coffee and Yemen, there was no previous association in my mind between Yemen and China until I've met a few Yemenis who have studied in China. That association gained more details during this horrific global spread of the Covid-19 as I read Supreme Council continues to follow up on evacuation arrangements for Yemeni students in China (Feb 6) and later, UAE evacuates Yemeni students from China (Feb 20).
This got me curious how people in war-ravaged countries like Yemen manage to continue their education despite the odds, particularly those who were able to get out and study in another country, in this case China. I do not know the individual stories of the 187 Yemeni students evacuated from Wuhan. From where I'm sitting, I can only look up online and learn a little bit more in terms of numbers.
I was not able to find stats on Yemeni students abroad in any functioning Yemeni government website for education or foreign affairs but found some Chinese gov't data on international students in China. The latest that I can find is this Statistical report on international students in China for 2018 which gives a total of "492,185 international students from 196 countries/areas pursuing their studies in 1,004 higher education institutions in China’s 31 provinces/autonomous regions/provincial-level municipalities..." It's hard to tell how many of this almost half a million students are from Yemen since Yemen is lumped into the continent of Asia. There is a table of number of students by country of origin but only the top 15 countries are given.
Poking around some more, I found this data on Inbound International Students to China, 2011-2016 which shows that for 2016, the number of students from Yemen was 3,247 out of the total 442,389. That's less than 1% of the total but the increasing numbers from 2011 to 2016 for Yemen is quite interesting considering that the country's ongoing war is now into its sixth year. See my chart of the data below:
I found this study Leaving Home: Yemeni Students Discuss Study Abroad Migration whose author interviewed Yemeni students (all males) in Guangdong province of China about their decisions to leave Yemen to study abroad. The conclusion notes how "tribulations brought about by war and financial devastation have been catalysts for personal growth" for the participants and how they are "highly motivated toward economic success, and that this drive comes from older male family members in whom participants exhibit a great deal of pride and affection." I guess we can say the same for any group in similar circumstances but to me this highlights a fundamental difficulty in fighting for principles that require a level of detachment from personal, family or tribal ties. I see this especially as the author of the study continues to note the participants' detachment from the humanitarian toll going on in their country. But maybe, I, who considers herself a humanitarian, do the same. What really drives me to keep waiting for a visa to go work in Yemen? Or, as I started writing this post amidst the fear of a Covid-19 pandemic, how much attachment and detachment do we cultivate in our lives to truly be engaged, involved and caring about the issues of our times?
This got me curious how people in war-ravaged countries like Yemen manage to continue their education despite the odds, particularly those who were able to get out and study in another country, in this case China. I do not know the individual stories of the 187 Yemeni students evacuated from Wuhan. From where I'm sitting, I can only look up online and learn a little bit more in terms of numbers.
I was not able to find stats on Yemeni students abroad in any functioning Yemeni government website for education or foreign affairs but found some Chinese gov't data on international students in China. The latest that I can find is this Statistical report on international students in China for 2018 which gives a total of "492,185 international students from 196 countries/areas pursuing their studies in 1,004 higher education institutions in China’s 31 provinces/autonomous regions/provincial-level municipalities..." It's hard to tell how many of this almost half a million students are from Yemen since Yemen is lumped into the continent of Asia. There is a table of number of students by country of origin but only the top 15 countries are given.
Poking around some more, I found this data on Inbound International Students to China, 2011-2016 which shows that for 2016, the number of students from Yemen was 3,247 out of the total 442,389. That's less than 1% of the total but the increasing numbers from 2011 to 2016 for Yemen is quite interesting considering that the country's ongoing war is now into its sixth year. See my chart of the data below:
I found this study Leaving Home: Yemeni Students Discuss Study Abroad Migration whose author interviewed Yemeni students (all males) in Guangdong province of China about their decisions to leave Yemen to study abroad. The conclusion notes how "tribulations brought about by war and financial devastation have been catalysts for personal growth" for the participants and how they are "highly motivated toward economic success, and that this drive comes from older male family members in whom participants exhibit a great deal of pride and affection." I guess we can say the same for any group in similar circumstances but to me this highlights a fundamental difficulty in fighting for principles that require a level of detachment from personal, family or tribal ties. I see this especially as the author of the study continues to note the participants' detachment from the humanitarian toll going on in their country. But maybe, I, who considers herself a humanitarian, do the same. What really drives me to keep waiting for a visa to go work in Yemen? Or, as I started writing this post amidst the fear of a Covid-19 pandemic, how much attachment and detachment do we cultivate in our lives to truly be engaged, involved and caring about the issues of our times?
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