EVERYONE knows that Chinese students are flooding American campuses. Less widely known is that their mothers are coming, too. Last year 394,669 pupils from China were studying at American universities, secondary and primary schools, the largest contingent of all international students. Increasingly their parents are moving in with them, buying local properties or investing at least $500,000 in businesses to try to qualify for a green card.

The tiger mums usually come to America alone, leaving their husbands behind. “When I wasn’t here, my son would survive on instant noodles and energy drinks for several days without eating fruit or vegetables,” says Wenxue Hu, mother of a masters student studying applied mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania. She gave up her job as a corporate finance director in Shenzhen to cook for him in Philadelphia. Through a local church she met other Chinese tiger mums, most of whom entered with a tourist visa that allows them to stay up to six months each time. New Haven, Connecticut now boasts a “Yale Chinese grandparents’ village”, with 15 residents. The old folk live under the same roof as their children, mostly PhD and post-doctoral students at Yale who are too busy to take care of their own offspring.

Although some parents rent, many others decide to buy. These Chinese dads and mums now make up a majority of Chinese buyers in America’s housing market. Last year China became the largest source of foreign property investment in America, pouring in $28.6 billion. Roughly 70% of inquiries from the Chinese indicated that education was the chief motive, says Matthew Moore, president of the American division of www.juwai.com, a Chinese international-property website. In Chicago estate agents anticipate more Chinese parents buying expensive condominiums. In Irvine, California, about 70-80% of buyers of new-builds are Chinese parents whose children attend, or plan to attend, nearby colleges, says Peggy Fong Chen, the CEO of ReMax Omega Irvine. Other college towns such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston and Dallas, see a similar trend.

Parents of younger children often venture into smaller towns with good primary and secondary schools. In New Jersey, towns like Millburn, Westfield and Princeton have seen prices rising 20-30% higher than in other places, partly because of interest from Chinese buyers. “If you want to make money in real estate,” says Steven Lawson, the CEO of Windham Realty Group, “buy where the Chinese are buying, because they perpetuate the price increase.”

For the rising middle class in China, parking their wealth overseas also makes good business sense. The near-bubble in housing prices at home and the depreciation of the yuan have made them nervous, so diversification becomes pressing. As property prices shoot up in some college towns, more Chinese buyers are drawn in, says Susan Wachter, a real-estate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Ownership, rather than renting, becomes more attractive, because their children can rent extra bedrooms to classmates to cover utility and tax bills, while also being able to benefit from future price rises.

Some tiger mums also try to help their children get married by making the down-payment or even meeting the full cost. In Chinese culture, owning a property gives a sense of security and helps to attract a spouse. For these children, having a tiger mum is good fortune indeed.