In June 2019, President Rafael Reif wrote to the MIT community that immigration and international exchange are the “oxygen” of innovation and prosperity, appearing to express a commitment from MIT to support international student workers. However, the following year, MIT threw hundreds of international students into crisis by suddenly ending remote appointments that had enabled them to work from their home countries during the pandemic. This was not an isolated event, but rather an intensification of a pattern of precarity and disempowerment that international student workers frequently experience. During this crisis and in the months since, we’ve spoken to many fellow international student workers who believe that MIT’s policies often do not reflect or respond to our needs and that forming a graduate student worker union at MIT is the best way we can compel the Institute to respect our rights and well-being. Here are some of the stories we have heard.