Remain, Return, or Re‐migrate? The (Im)mobility Trajectory of Mainland Chinese Students after Completing Their Education in the UK

Abstract

The migration of Chinese students to the UK has long been the focus of academic and policymaking attention. However, what happens to their transnational mobility after their education remains understudied. This article unpacks the migration decision-making process behind graduates' study-to-employment transition. We focus on individuals' on-going reinterpretation of capital convertibility between China and the UK and examine how the meaning of mobility changes in time and in the transnational socio-economic environment. In so doing, we draw on in-depth interviews with graduates who have remained in the UK, as well as with returnees. Our findings reveal our participants' periodic uncertainty about professional opportunities and attendant mobility choices in the context of fast-paced socio-economic change in China and in the UK. The article thus calls for a more supportive post-study work policy environment for international students in the UK, especially in the context of uncertainty about Brexit.

Portraying the ‘Chinese international students’: a review of English-language and Chinese-language literature on Chinese international students (2015–2020)

“…For instance, Louie and Qin ( 2019 ) showed how Chinese international students used auto-owning in disindustralised Michigan to foster desired social status and ensure sociability in their projected future of returning to work and live in China. Similar accounts about how these students deployed their transnational mobilities and lives as channels of capital accumulation and upward social mobility can be found in the works of Lee ( 2017 ), Li and Pitkänen ( 2018 ), Coates ( 2019 ), Tu and Nehring ( 2019 ), Wu [吴] and Huang ( 2017 ), Zhai [翟] and Gao ( 2018 ), among others.…”

Privileged Daughters? Gendered Mobility among Highly Educated Chinese Female Migrants in the UK

“…Apart from being a family strategy, individuals, especially among female participants, also placed much emphasis on cultivating a cosmopolitan personhood during their time abroad (Kajanus, 2015;Martin, 2014;Tu, 2018). Following the career trajectory of British-educated graduates' who remained in the UK and those who returned to China, Tu and Nehring (2019) discovered a constantly changing meaning of mobility: Post-study migrants continuously make comparisons between themselves and their peers in China, reflecting an ongoing influence of their home society. The above literature points to the multi-layered meanings of study abroad for both the individual student and their family, as well as the uncertainty attached to the post-study migration trajectory.…”

Let me Fly Abroad: Student Migrations in the Context of Nepal

“…They even move out of their country to study and most of them settle down in the host countries after completing their study (Tu & Nehring, 2020). Student migration is broadly taken as a crucial investment to secure the future of students from developing countries like Nepal.…”