Higher Education as Soft Power Tool: Current State and Challenges of Immigration (Case of Benelux Countries)

The article examines Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg's use of higher education to strengthen their soft power. Authors apply an integrated methodology that includes the findings on the higher education/migration axis as well as the concept of soft power in order to inspect higher education policy as a tool for shaping a country's image. Similar cases of the Benelux countries are compared to highlight the difference in the three governments' approaches. Research is based on national and international statistics and the official documents, as well as university prestige ratings and soft power indices. Authors conclude that the three countries have achieved the goals set in the 2000s, namely to globalize the higher education systems of the Benelux countries. Their higher education policies were aimed at creating an image of innovative, dynamic states with strong economies. However, the most important objective was attraction of foreign students, which could bring economic benefits in shape of highly qualified workforce. The perspective of future developments in the internationalization of higher education in the region is mixed. Belgium and Luxembourg continue pursuing their strategy of increasing internationalization since the 2000s. Nevertheless, concerns are already being voiced in Belgium regarding housing issues in student cities and possible leakages of critical technologies to hostile countries. At the same time the Netherlands are shifting away from this strategy to prioritize Dutch students through reduction of the foreign students' share and adjustments to the higher education language policy. This change in policy is associated with deteriorating public attitudes towards migrants, which also applies to educational migrants.