Transnational student-migrants and the state : the education-migration nexus / Shanthi Robertson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Robertson, Shanthi.

Series:

Migration, diasporas and citizenship

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Students, Foreign.

Students, Foreign--Legal status, laws, etc.

Physical Description:

ix, 193 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Summary:

The boundaries around the categories of student, migrant and worker have become increasingly fuzzy, as international students are often engaged not just in education, but also in high stakes and expensive journeys towards gaining permanent migration status. Transnational Student-Migrants and the State unpacks the social and political consequences of this education-migration nexus, the uneasy intersection between international education and skilled migration policies that has developed in many Western migrant receiving nations. The book shows how the nexus has given rise to a new and unique form of transnational migrant: the student-migrant. This book examines student-migrants in terms of their transnationalism and in terms of their relationship to the state, and provides a detailed overview of policy development in concert with an analysis of student-migrants' lived experience. In doing so, it paints a vivid picture of how the macro-politics of state policy intersect with the micro-politics of migrants' transnational social practices. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction 1

Bringing a sociological lens to the student-migrant experience 5

Student-migrant transnationality, the Immigration regime and assemblages of power 7

2 The Education-Migration Nexus: Global Flows 12

The development of the education-migration nexus 16

Study mothers, parachute children and wild geese: Distinctions and connections between 'education for immigration' and 'immigration for education' 21

Two steps: Points-based pathways from student to migrant in Australia, Canada and New Zealand 26

Stepping stones: Varied pathways from student to worker in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany 31

Emerging destinations: Intra-Asian education and migration 38

Conclusions 40

3 The Nexus and Its Discontents: An Australian Perspective 43

The education-migration nexus as a project of neoliberal governance 45

Transient students and desirable migrants: The inception of the nexus 48

Vocational pathways: The nexus opens wide 51

Cash cows and back-door migrants: Student-migrants in the public imagination 54

Student-migrant agency 58

Government and institutional responses to the nexus' 'discontents' 59

Conclusions 65

4 Shaping the Student-Migrant Experience 68

Staggered entrances, extended precarity and student-migrant subjectivities 69

Student-migrant transnationalism 73

Student-migrants and citizenship 78

Conclusions 82

5 Encountering the Residency Regime 84

Gaining PR 85

Perceiving and experiencing the regime 87

The self, the social and the regime 94

Conclusions 98

6 Acquiring and Practising Citizenship 100

Student-migrants and citizenship policies in Australia 104

Making decisions about citizenship 106

Maintaining multiple belongings 108

Blended desires: Symbolic and instrumental choices 109

Not letting go: Relinquishing original citizenships 112

Seeking security: Precarity and cultures of anxiety 113

Political participation: Ambivalence and engagement 117

Seeking mobility: Global hierarchies of citizenship and imagining return 119

Practising citizenship: Student-migrants as activist citizens 123

Student-migrant activism and legitimizing discourses 125

Conclusions 130

7 Negotiating Border-Crossing Lives 135

Technologies of transnational connection: Mediated personal communication as transnational practice 136

Virtual mobility through the mass media 148

Conclusions 156

8 Conclusion: Precarious Transnationals and the Settler Nation 159

Transnational student-migrants and the state 160

The future of the education-migration nexus in Australia 163

Temporary migration and the demise of the settler nation 165.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1137267070

9781137267078

OCLC:

825047324