The Role of Institutions in the Student Migrant Experience: Norway's Quota Scheme

Abstract

This paper responds to calls for studies of student migrant experiences and the institutional actors that are involved in international student migration. In particular, we examine the ways in which institutional actors can influence student motivations and experiences through a case study of the Norwegian Quota Scheme. We discuss three main findings. First, institutions play a significant role in determining who migrates and the reasons for migration while shaping the academic experience and future migration plans of international students. Second, state‐funded international student migration programmes constrain the future plans of recipients, reflecting potential differences in decision‐making among state‐funded and self‐financed students. Third, international students – as both students and migrants – undergo significant personal growth during the course of their studies. This complicates state goals to return or retain student migrants, as the ambitions of students are likely to change concomitant with their personal development. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Geographies of migration I: Platform migration

“…The migration industry is not constrained only to facilitating clandestine migration (Casas-Cortes et al, 2015;van Liempt, 2018) or regulated labour mobility (Goh et al, 2017;Wee et al, 2019), although these are some of the most intense terrains of migration intermediation. Migration industry actors also facilitate and condition mobility associated with international education (Basford and van Riemsdijk, 2017;Beech, 2018), sports people (Waite and Smith, 2017), the super-rich (Koh and Wissink, 2018), expatriates (Cranston, 2018) and return migration (Cohen, 2020). While such forms of mobility and migration are vastly different in their patterns, participation and experiences, they are part of a wider commercialisation of international migration (McCollum and Findlay, 2018).…”

Future Migration Decisions: An Experimental Approach

“…Due to globalisation processes, national state policy initiatives, global marketisation (Findlay et al, 2016) of educational export, new migration stakeholder appear. Previous studies show different aspects of this process: recruiting of international students as skilled migrants (Ziguras and Law, 2006), the role of institutions for study migration (Basford and Riemsdijk, 2017), brokerage industry (Tuxen and Robertson, 2018) highlighting competition of 'world-class universities' (Prazeres et al, 2017) for the "best and brightest" (Findlay et al, 2012) in order to improve their job prospects (Heaviside et al, 2018). Many Western countries are competing to attract a global talent pool.…”

International students in Switzerland : trajectories, stay rates, and intentions for post-graduate mobility

“…Methodologically, the definitions of the sample groups and the data sources used for calculating stay rates vary remarkably, and make it difficult to directly compare stay rates from one country to another. Some studies use data from the national foreigner register , Hanganu & Hess 2014, while others analyze the transitions of student permits into other types of permits (Lu & Hou, 2015, OECD 2011, data from tax authorities (Finn 2001, Baker & Finn 2003, graduate surveys (Hanganu 2015) or qualitative interviews (Basford & Riemsdijk 2017). In the USA, Finn (2001) analyzes foreign graduates in Science and Engineering 14 and finds stay rates of 63% two years after graduation, 51% four or five years after graduation, and an estimated 69% stay rate for foreign doctoral students in all disciplines two years after graduation (Finn 2001).…”

“…constrain the options of staying and encourage the return of international graduates (Basford & Riemsdijk 2017). Thus, the type of study program, the underlying intentions, and the strategies of international students graduating abroad, as well as the higher education institutions, the state, and many other structural and institutional aspects shape the mobility options of graduates living abroad.…”

“…Many of these studies focused on Asian students, as they make up the largest group of incoming international students. Further studies focus on the UK (Baláž & Williams 2004), the Netherlands , Denmark , and Norway (Basford & Riemsdijk 2017). Overall, the main factors influencing postgraduation mobility or migration decisions can be sorted into three groups: professional, societal, and personal (Alberts & Hazen 2005).…”