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New WP: “University as a Melting Pot: Long-term Effects of Internationalization” Debates on international students often focus on capacity constraints, funding, or competition. In the paper, I show that the main effects of internationalization on natives are not academic or economic, but social.

I study the impact of exposure to international students in the first year of a bachelor’s program in the Netherlands. I exploit idiosyncratic cohort-to-cohort variation in the share of international students within programs. I use linked admin and survey data on one million students over 30 years.

Here is what I found: Social integration increases  Exposure to international students makes native students: - More likely to cohabit with a non-native 15 years later, - More likely to marry a non-native 15 years later.

Many of these relationships are formed outside the university, indicating genuine preference shifts rather than simple “meeting opportunities.”

Attitudes become more open and international  Native students exposed to more international peers report: - Greater satisfaction with learning about other cultures, - More positive attitudes towards migration and European integration, - Less agreement with anti-immigration neighborhood sentiments.

Effects on attitudes are sizable and comparable to those found in the contact hypothesis literature. Exposure also makes native students more internationally mobile: they become more likely to emigrate later in life.

Effects depend on context Social-integration gains are largest in: - Non-STEM fields, - Larger programs, - Programs with more gender balance, - Exposure to international students from culturally proximate European countries. Competitive and male-dominated environments show weaker effects.