RHETORIC on the United States election campaign trail in the past year has given rise to questions about the future of immigrants in the US, some of whom are students.

But as counsellor for public affairs at the US Embassy in Kingston Joshua Polacheck told the Jamaica Observer, the outcome of the election is unlikely to influence the education programmes run by the State Department.

“US education diplomacy and our openness to international students is the bedrock of American progress and the American dream, and that is not going to change,” he said.

He was speaking at the recent two-day college fair put on by EducationUSA, in collaboration with the American International School of Kingston and Hillel Academy at Spanish Court Hotel.

The fair featured some 35 US institutions and attracted busloads of high school students from across the island, as well as passers-by.

The embassy, which has been hosting college fairs through its EducationUSA programme for the past 25 years, previously said it was on a deliberate, drive to increase the number of Jamaicans studying in the US in tandem with President Obama’s 100,000 Strong in the Americas Initiative which is seeking to have 100,000 people from across the hemisphere studying in the United States before the end of the decade.

(See related story in tomorrow’s Career & Education)