International student mobility: the role of social networks

Abstract

Building upon recent work on higher education mobility, this paper contends that social networks of friendship and kinship are critical determinants for students deciding to study overseas, not just, as has hitherto been suggested, a complementary factor. It uses original data collected through interviews and focus groups with thirty-eight higher education international students studying at three UK universities and argues that students who choose to study overseas do not operate within a vacuum but rather draw upon extended networks of individuals who have chosen to do so themselves or advocate studying abroad. While this encouragement may be of an explicit and unequivocal nature-telling students that they ought to study overseas-for the majority it is rather more implicit. The students interviewed invariably related that higher education overseas or mobility more generally was an accepted practice amongst their peers, thereby leading to a normalisation of the mobility process. The paper concludes that international students come to accept mobility as a taken for granted stage within the lifecourse, and, whether intentionally or not, this is often the driving force behind their decision to study overseas. emergent understanding. Their studies of, inter alia, employability and the building of social and cultural capital have advanced the field at pace. However, hitherto, considerations of how students make the decision to study overseas, and in particular how they mobilise their social networks in so doing, are underdeveloped. While past research has asserted that patterns of mobility are often shaped by the relationships between people (Brooks and Waters 2010; Szelényi 2006), we know little about how international students utilise these networks or their effects. The notable exception is Collins' study of Korean students studying in Auckland, but this focuses on the role of education agents and immigrant entrepreneurs as being "bridges to learning" in facilitating the movement of international students (2008b, pp.399) rather than on social networks per se. This paper, by point of departure, shows that these relationships are key to determining whether mobility actually takes place. It asserts that these social networks directly shape the geographies of international students by detailing how they are part of complex communities already in motion without which both shape their decision to study abroad and their place of study. In contrast to Brooks and Waters (2010), it looks at students engaging both in mobility from Western countries and mobility from the East to the West. This paper therefore represents the first dedicated, systematic analysis of these dynamics. In so doing, it does not contend that social networks are the only influence on mobility. As the international student mobility literature shows, they are influenced by an array of different factors such as the financial and cultural implications, their intended career paths and even their understandings of place (see Beech 2014). My point is that with...

Cultural Factors and Study Destinations of International Students

“…Beine et al, 2014;Beech, 2015). We used the export of cultural goods as a proxy for cultural factors, perhaps for the first time in the literature.…”

Between striated and smooth space: Exploring the topology of transnational student mobility

“…These influences might be expressive elements (e.g., students' planned careers) (Mosneaga and Winther, 2013) or material elements (e.g., the rise of social networking media). The latter have allowed prospective transnational students to engage more easily with those who have already chosen to study overseas and who can thus share their experiences with those who have remained at home (Beech, 2015). In this way, communication technology is making relations to other places just as easy as relations to the place in which a student currently lives.…”

“…The student's place of residence becomes a transnational space through its connection to transnational educational networks via satellite campuses and/or communication technology. Similarly, researchers demonstrate the influence 4 of social networks on the ways in which migration practices develop, as these networks participate in and negotiate among different forms of social relations, stretching out across space and over time (Beech, 2015;Waters, 2010, 2011;Ploner, 2015).…”

“…This axis includes the material dimension -understood as bodies, physical components, technology, interpersonal networks, organisations and institutions, and face-toface meetings and conversations. As described in the transnational student migration literature, social networks are an example of the material (Beech, 2015;Brooks and Waters, 2010;Pedro and Franco, 2015). The other dimension of this axis is the expressive -understood as different kinds of linguistic and symbolic forms that relate to how memories, imaginings and experiences of particular elements (e.g., the reputation of the university, the experience of quality, hospitality, and future expectations) shape how transnational students relate to present and future places.…”

“…The latter distinction relates to the conceptualisation of cultural cosmopolitanism (Held, 2010;Stevenson, 2003) -how and in what sense migrants connect to a more global cultural space that is disembedded from nation-states (Harvey, 2009;Nowicka, 2005;Ong, 2005). Transnational students may be understood as cosmopolitans (Beech, 2015;Singh et al, 2007) or individuals in search of cosmopolitan identities The second axis of the becoming of an assemblage addresses varying relations from stability to instability and from fixation to flow, tendencies towards territorialising or connecting to place, and tendencies towards de-territorialisation, leading to an unstable flow of change and uncertainty. Territoriality is a type of materiality that can take the form of fixed spatial boundaries (e.g., places, buildings, and physical structures) or non-spatial demarcations, which affect how places, events and situations become homogenised and internalised by excluding and segregating certain groups and individuals (DeLanda, 2006).…”