Who achieves superior rates of upward social mobility and better labor market outcomes in China: international student returnees or postgraduates who study domestically?

Abstract

Given the growth in student mobility and transnational higher education, there is an abundance of research on international students’ studying and living experiences in a new environment. However, their poststudy transitions and social mobility have rarely been touched. This study addresses how student returnees perform in China’s labor market and social mobility, following their accomplishment of their master degree in the UK and return to China. In theoretical considerations of the graduates’ social mobility, Bourdieu’s capital theory helps identify the capital accumulation and conversion in the social mobility process. Based on a survey to collect data, 756 questionnaires are collected, including 347 questionnaires for returnees and 409 questionnaires for home graduates. Multi-regression model and visualization are employed to analyze the collected data. This study reports that home graduates have better performance in social mobility than their peers. Additionally, employment preference and spatial mobility between international and home graduates represent large diversity.

Theory for the Job: Comparing Human Capital and Cultural Capital to Understand Graduates Employability

“…This thesis will concentrate on the inequalities in the employability of Chinese students who obtain Master's Degree in UK universities and those who obtain Master's Degree in local Chinese universities. As revealed in Zhai and Gao (2021), and Xiong and Mok (2020) are research, UK returnees seem more employable than their peers with same-level degrees in Chinese universities in the labour market of large cities in China, this thesis will use cultural capital and human capital respectively to explain this phenomenon. The first section of this essay begins with a brief presentation of this educational inequity issue concerning the same degree leading to different employability.…”

“…For students with a Bachelor's degree in China, if they desire to pursue a Master's degree, it can be classified into international degrees and Chinese degrees (Zhai & Gao, 2021). Firstly, Chinese undergraduate students who choose to enter overseas institutions for further study.…”

“…When domestic graduates and UK returnees enter the labour market in big cities in China, however, there are variations in the employment performance of these two groups (Zhai & Gao, 2021). Big cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, are considered to have more career development opportunities and more social resources, and therefore become attractive choices for graduates (Mok et al, 2020).…”

Subject in motion: (de)capitalization and coping strategies of Tibetan “Sea Turtles” in China

“…Third, studying abroad facilitates students' expectations and practices regarding future career development and upward social mobility (Ma, 2020;Tsang, 2013;Zhai & Gao, 2021). For Chinese students and their parents, the desire for American college education is rooted in an urgent social mobility quest (Ma, 2020).…”

“…For Chinese students and their parents, the desire for American college education is rooted in an urgent social mobility quest (Ma, 2020). Surveys have also shown that studying abroad especially qualifications from elite overseas universities positively improves Chinese students' job-seeking outcomes, starting salaries, and career development (Hao & Welch, 2012;Hao et al, 2016;Mok et al, 2016;Zhai & Gao, 2021). Hence, to secure a generational reproduction of class status and mobility for offspring, middle-class parents deliberately capitalize on privileged social capital and send their children to study abroad, especially if they have failed to gain entrance to premier Chinese universities.…”