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Unfamiliarities, Uncertainties, and Ambivalent Long-Term Intentions: Conceptualizing International Student-Migrant Settlement and Integration

Author

Listed:
  • Lisa Ruth Brunner

    (University of British Columbia)

  • Karun Kishor Karki

    (University of the Fraser Valley)

  • Negar Valizadeh

    (University of Ottawa)

  • Takhmina Shokirova

    (University of Regina
    Reception House Waterloo Region in Waterloo)

  • Capucine Coustere

    (Université Laval)

Abstract

International students (IS) are increasingly positioned as “ideal” economic immigrants for their supposedly limited settlement and integration needs, resulting in a growing number of education-migration, or edugration, immigration pathways. However, the settlement and integration experiences student-migrants undergo during edugration are undertheorized. Using collaborative autoethnography (CAE), we examine five graduate student-migrants’ edugration experiences in Canada. Our interest is not whether student-migrants are sufficiently integrated or settled through the eyes of the state, but rather the experiential impacts of edugration; in other words, we examine not the process of assimilation but the experience of being positioned as “easily” assimilated subjects. Our findings suggest three distinct experiential categories produced by edugration: unfamiliarity, uncertainty, and ambivalence. Together, these experiences form a unique settlement and integration experience due to extended periods of temporariness. Through this conceptualization, we argue that the recruitment of IS through multi-step migration pathways like edugration presents ethical questions for both the state and higher education. While we support strategic calls for more coordinated, cross-sectoral efforts to improve the lived experiences of student-migrants, we caution against justifying these calls based on neoliberal, econometric, or (neo)colonial rationales regarding (1) the value of IS as human capital, and (2) assimilationist notions of settlement and integration. We instead encourage more critical, nuanced discussions of student-migrant experiences which actively resist such logics.

Suggested Citation

  • Lisa Ruth Brunner & Karun Kishor Karki & Negar Valizadeh & Takhmina Shokirova & Capucine Coustere, 2024. "Unfamiliarities, Uncertainties, and Ambivalent Long-Term Intentions: Conceptualizing International Student-Migrant Settlement and Integration," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 973-996, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joimai:v:25:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s12134-024-01116-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s12134-024-01116-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Arnaud Chevalier, 2022. "How to attract international students?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-36, May.
    2. Vibha Kaushik & Julie Drolet, 2018. "Settlement and Integration Needs of Skilled Immigrants in Canada," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-14, May.
    3. Mattoo, Aaditya & Neagu, Ileana Cristina & Özden, Çaglar, 2008. "Brain waste? Educated immigrants in the US labor market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 255-269, October.
    4. Sandra Schinnerl & Antje Ellermann, 2023. "The Education-Immigration Nexus: Situating Canadian Higher Education as Institutions of Immigrant Recruitment," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 599-620, December.
    5. Huyen Dam & Joyce Chan & Sarah Wayland, 2018. "Missed Opportunity: International Students in Canada Face Barriers to Permanent Residence," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 891-903, November.
    6. Paloma E. Villegas & Breanna Barrie & Serriz Peña & Jilanch Alphonso & Alveera Mamoon, 2020. "Integration, Settler Colonialism, and Precarious Legal Status Migrants in Canada," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1131-1147, December.
    7. Garnett Picot & Feng Hou, 2023. "The Effect of Pre-immigration Canadian Work Experience on the Returns to Human Capital Among Immigrants," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 661-679, December.
    8. Emma Flynn & Harald Bauder, 2015. "The Private Sector, Institutions of Higher Education, and Immigrant Settlement in Canada," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 539-556, August.
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