Erkan Acar
International students are often celebrated as symbols of diversity and global excellence in U.S. higher education, yet their experiences reveal a more precarious reality. This paper examines how they navigate the contradictions between institutional inclusion and systemic surveillance, shaped by visa status, accent, race, and national origin. Drawing on intersectionality, it explores how structures of immigration control, racialization, and linguistic expectations produce a form of hypervisibility one that demands cultural performance while enforcing compliance. Students from the Global South or with racialized accents often face heightened scrutiny and limited support, leading to emotional labor and self-censorship. By situating these experiences at the intersection of welcome and control, this paper calls for reimagining belonging and inclusion in higher education as issues of justice rather than adjustment.