To Stay or Return: Migration Intentions of Students from People’s Republic of China in Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

There is a growing policy concern in Canada regarding the facilitation of foreign students' transition from temporary residents to permanent residents. Interestingly, academic attention to the issue is somewhat lacking. By focusing on the Chinese undergraduate student at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, this study attempts to identify the factors which influence their migration intentions. The findings confirm the important effects of students' demographic characteristics, premove traits, Canadian experiences, parental expectations, as well as related aspiration factors. In addition, we find that female and male students are different from each other in terms of the factors that determine their intentions to stay in Canada. In light of the findings, we suggest that, in spite of gender differences, social and emotional adaptations are as critical as economic adaptation in facilitating temporary residents' intentions to stay. Furthermore, we contend that changes in immigration policy to attract foreign students to stay do motivate their immigration intention to some extent, but we also recommend that extended research needs to be done to examine the effects of most recent policy changes on foreign students' intended or actual migration.Résumé Une préoccupation en matière de politique prend de l'importance au Canada; elle porte sur la facilitation de la transition du statut des étudiants étrangers, de résidents temporaires à résidents permanents. Fait digne de remarque, cette question n'attire pas beaucoup d'attention de la part du monde académique. Cette étude tente d'identifier les facteurs qui influencent les projets de migration des étudiants asiatiques du premier cycle à la University of Saskatchewan, au Canada.Les résultats confirment le rôle important des traits démographiques des étudiants, des caractéristiques de leurs vies avant leur arrivée au Canada, de leurs expériences au Canada, des attentes de la part des parents, ainsi que des facteurs liés aux souhaits pour l'avenir. De plus, nous avons trouvé que les facteurs qui influencent le désir de rester au Canada ne sont pas les mêmes pour les étudiants que pour les étudiantes. Compte tenu des résultats, nous proposons que, malgré les différences entre les hommes et les femmes, l'adaptation sociale et émotive est aussi critique que l'adaptation économique comme facteur qui contribue à faciliter la décision des résidents temporaires de rester. Nous affirmons également que les changements apportés aux politiques en matière d'immigration pour motiver les étudiants étrangers à rester ont, dans une certaine mesure, l'impact voulu. Toutefois, nous recommandons des recherches plus poussées pour déterminer l'effet qu'ont la plupart des changements de politiques sur les intentions de migration des étudiants.

Student Migration: Evidence from Chinese Students in the US and China

“…This is a common concern for this generation of Chinese college students, who are overwhelmingly the only child in their family, and is similar to results found by Lu et al. ().…”

“…In addition, for both groups, personal reasons were more dominant than professional factors in their decision-making process. This is a common concern for this generation of Chinese college students, who are overwhelmingly the only child in their family, and is similar to results found by Lu et al (2009).…”

“…Interestingly, research also reveals that parents’ low socioeconomic status does not necessarily discourage students from going abroad and applying for permanent residency. On the contrary, for such students, especially male students, a disadvantaged background may in fact motivate them to pursue a life change through overseas education and immigration (Lu et al., ). This is also reflected in our work: about 12.1 per cent of the AIM males are from lower‐middle class or poor families, whereas only 3.9 per cent of the AIM females belong to these two categories.…”

Indian international students in Toronto: exploring young men resisting their family's expectations

“…Topic-wise, recent research covers in and out student mobility (Collins 2010;Findlay et al 2006;King, Findlay, and Ahrens 2010;Murphy-Lejeune 2002), students' motivations and experiences (Brooks and Waters 2009;, Liu-Farrer 2009, links between ISM and employability Waters andBrooks 2010, 2011), social class as a determinant of participation Waters and Brooks 2010), experiences and migration trajectories upon completion of the programme (Hazen and Alberts 2006;Ichimoto 2004;Norris and Gillespie 2009;Waters and Brooks 2011) and policy discussions (Gribble 2008;Hawthorne 2005). 1 Research on ISM into Canada is still in its infancy, and is limited to statistical overviews (Verbik and Lasanowski 2007), surveys and quantitative studies (CBIE 2009;Chirkov et al 2007Chirkov et al , 2008Lu, Zong, and Schissel 2009), policy discussions/outcomes (Bond 2007;Mchale 2006;WaltonRoberts 2009WaltonRoberts , 2011) and a small minority of qualitative studies exploring the student experiences within the framework of secondary, higher or adult education (Park 2010; Sherriff et al 2012;Waters 2006). Much work on ISM in Canada focuses on how the student experience reflects on the universities and their services, or on government policies; the student migrants themselves and their experiences are rarely the main concern.…”

“…These concerns emerge from the various political and social issues of the 'host' countries. In Canada, migration policy changes and enhanced marketing campaigns have been designed to attract more international students, because this group is viewed as a migrant pool able to fill demographic and labour market gaps (CBIE 2009;CIC 2010;Lu, Zong, and Schissel 2009). Another reason, among others, is that these students provide a revenue source for universities during periods of financial austerity (Altbach and Knight 2007).…”