LIST OF PANELS

While historically the domain of education policy, the role of international students in higher education systems around the world has expanded dramatically and now encompasses multiple policy domains (Sá & Sabzalieva, 2018). This effect is felt most strongly in jurisdictions that have historically attracted significant numbers of international students such as the United States, Australia, and the UK, the three countries with the highest net flow of internationally mobile students in the world (UIS Institute for Statistics, 2020). However, this is no longer the domain of the Anglophone ‘West’, with large international student flows of between 200,000 and 300,000 students a year also evident in Germany, Russia, France, Canada, Japan, and China.

Globally, the number of internationally mobile students has grown by 25% since 2011 to over 5.5 million in 2018 (UIS Institute for Statistics, 2020). That international students are drawn from every single country in the world not only highlights the scale of this globalized phenomenon, but also the importance of understanding the effects this has on public policy. Responsibility for international students now tends to lie at the intersection of education policy and immigration policy (Riaño et al., 2018). This has been represented in the policy discourse in the notion that international students are ‘ideal’ immigrants (Scott et al., 2015), framing this highly skilled and socially acculturated group as key targets for future immigration (Trilokekar & El Masri, 2019). This discourse is now circulating globally and has been translated into a policy priority in multiple countries (Conrad & Meyer‐Ohle, 2019; Gribble & Blackmore, 2012; Morris-Lange & Brands, 2015).

The education-immigration nexus puts particular emphasis on the notion of global competition, from which naturally follows an imperative to attract the best and brightest international students. In turn, this is shifting the roles and functions of higher education, whether by turning higher education providers into devolved immigration agents or in the additional responsibilities placed on higher education to organize provision in line with local labour market requirements. The various ways in which this is unfolding and how this is presented in policy terms form the focus of this panel.

References

Conrad, H., & Meyer‐Ohle, H. (2019). Transnationalization of a Recruitment Regime: Skilled Migration to Japan. International Migration, 57(3), 250–265. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12529

Gribble, C., & Blackmore, J. (2012). Re-positioning Australia’s international education in global knowledge economies: Implications of shifts in skilled migration policies for universities. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 34(4), 341–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2012.689181

Morris-Lange, S., & Brands, F. (2015). Train and Retain. Career Support for International Students in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration. https://www.svr-migration.de/en/publications/train-and-retain/

Riaño, Y., Mol, C. V., & Raghuram, P. (2018). New directions in studying policies of international student mobility and migration. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 16(3), 283–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2018.1478721

Sá, C. M., & Sabzalieva, E. (2018). The politics of the great brain race: Public policy and international student recruitment in Australia, Canada, England and the USA. Higher Education, 75(2), 231–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0133-1

Scott, C., Safdar, S., Desai Trilokekar, R., & El Masri, A. (2015). International Students as ‘Ideal Immigrants’ in Canada: A disconnect between policy makers’ assumptions and the lived experiences of international students. Comparative and International Education/Éducation Comparée et Internationale, 43(3), 5.

Trilokekar, R. D., & El Masri, A. (2019). “International Students Are … Golden”: Canada’s Changing Policy Contexts, Approaches, and National Peculiarities in Attracting International Students as Future Immigrants. In M.-J. Kwak & A. H. Kim (Eds.), Outward and upward mobilities: International students in Canada, their families, and structuring institutions (pp. 25–55). University of Toronto Press.

UIS Institute for Statistics. (2020). National Monitoring: Inbound internationally mobile students by continent of origin. http://data.uis.unesco.org/index.aspx?queryid=3804

UIS Institute for Statistics. (2020). National Monitoring: Net flow of internationally mobile students. http://data.uis.unesco.org/index.aspx?queryid=3808

While historically the domain of education policy, the role of international students in higher education systems around the world has expanded dramatically and now encompasses multiple policy domains (Sá & Sabzalieva, 2018). This effect is felt most strongly in jurisdictions that have historically attracted significant numbers of international students such as the United States, Australia, and the UK, the three countries with the highest net flow of internationally mobile students in the world (UIS Institute for Statistics, 2020). However, this is no longer the domain of the Anglophone ‘West’, with large international student flows of between 200,000 and 300,000 students a year also evident in Germany, Russia, France, Canada, Japan, and China.

Globally, the number of internationally mobile students has grown by 25% since 2011 to over 5.5 million in 2018 (UIS Institute for Statistics, 2020). That international students are drawn from every single country in the world not only highlights the scale of this globalized phenomenon, but also the importance of understanding the effects this has on public policy. Responsibility for international students now tends to lie at the intersection of education policy and immigration policy (Riaño et al., 2018). This has been represented in the policy discourse in the notion that international students are ‘ideal’ immigrants (Scott et al., 2015), framing this highly skilled and socially acculturated group as key targets for future immigration (Trilokekar & El Masri, 2019). This discourse is now circulating globally and has been translated into a policy priority in multiple countries (Conrad & Meyer‐Ohle, 2019; Gribble & Blackmore, 2012; Morris-Lange & Brands, 2015).

The education-immigration nexus puts particular emphasis on the notion of global competition, from which naturally follows an imperative to attract the best and brightest international students. In turn, this is shifting the roles and functions of higher education, whether by turning higher education providers into devolved immigration agents or in the additional responsibilities placed on higher education to organize provision in line with local labour market requirements. The various ways in which this is unfolding and how this is presented in policy terms form the focus of this panel.

Papers in this panel may cover any aspect of the policy process. We are particularly interested in studies examining discursive constructions of international students and immigration policy, whether building on the ‘ideal’ immigrant narrative or identifying other discourses. Research on how these discourses are changing as a result of Covid-19 are also of interest. Papers that examine the ethical dilemmas of the education-immigration policy nexus for equity, diversity, and inclusion are encouraged. Comparative studies are welcomed, especially papers that examine emerging international student destinations and/or that take a novel comparative policy approach (e.g. in the choice of jurisdictions, the governmental level of analysis).