Theorising the Spaces of Student Migration

Abstract

Student migration is a key component of knowledge migration. However, as knowledge becomes a central part of migrant selectivity, labour and family migrants too are involved in knowledge acquisition, both prior to and after migration. At the same time, student migrants are involved in work and family, just like other migrants. What then is distinctive about student migrants? This paper attempts to address this challenge. It begins by reviewing how migration theories have analysed student mobility. It then suggests that migration theorists need to extend existing analyses, which have primarily focused on the spatialities of migration, to take account of the spatialities of knowledge. It is argued that knowledge institutions need to reach out to people in different parts of the world and to produce in prospective students a desire to circulate. This is necessary if the institutions are to obtain a global presence and to maintain their legitimacy as knowledge brokers. An analysis of student migration where the inducements that the Higher Education Institutions offer to prospective students and the subjective responses of such students to these invitations will throw light on how the spatiality of knowledge is achieved and also highlight the distinctiveness of student migration in a knowledgeable migrant world. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Student-Migrant-Workers: <i>Temporal aspects of precarious work and life in Finland</i>

“…On the other hand, studentmigration has increased by 70 % between 2000 and 2008 forming one of the fastest growing migrant groups in many of the OECD countries (Raghuram 2013). In Finland, the number of international students have more than tripled in ten years, increasing from 6000 in the beginning of the millennium to around 20 000 in 2014, of which 76% came from countries outside the EU/ETA area (CIMO 2016).…”

“…Similar policy structures are common in other states of the Global North, as highly qualified migrants from a western administrative perspective are considered to stimulate the growth economy and to be socially more integrated migrants (Raghuram 2013). A recent trend in western countries has been to make it easier for migrants to obtain student visas and to stay and work in the country afterwards (Gribble & Blackmore 2012;Shumilova et al 2012) 1 .…”

“…International student mobility is a fast-growing phenomenon globally (Raghuram 2013). In 2012, there were 3.4 million foreign students in the OECD countries (OECD 2015).…”

Untitled

“…Keywords: youth migration, educational migration, positive net migration, age-period-cohort analysis, age-shift method, rating of region attractiveness. 10.17323/1814-9545-2016-3-169-203 Received in Youth migration is an independent area of research, primarily because it is related to education [Raghuram, 2013;Knapp, White, Wolaver, 2013;Smith, Rérat, Sage, 2014]. Researchers have been progressively shifting their focus to the youngest age cohorts associated with the very first education and migration decisions [Smith, Rérat, Sage, 2014].…”

Introduction: international academic mobility and inequalities

“…Bilecen 2014Brooks and Waters 2011;King et al 2011;Montgomery 2010;Murphy-Lejeune 2002), knowledge practices (e.g. Bilecen and Faist 2015;Madge, Raghuram, and Noxolo 2015;Raghuram 2013) as well as outcomes of international academic mobility (e.g. Robertson 2011;Shen and Herr 2004;Welch 1997).…”