International Student Mobility, Government Policies, and Neoliberal Globalization

Given the increasing magnitude of international student flows from “developing countries” to the “developed” or major member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this chapter explores Chinese graduate student flows to Canada. Chinese graduate student perspectives are also drawn upon to study the phenomenon of Chinese student migrations to Canada in pursuit of higher education. Given the focus on exploration, meanings and understandings, an interpretivist approach and qualitative case study strategy were utilized to examine government policies and positions that stimulate international student mobility (ISM) from China to Canada and to understand the experiences of Chinese graduate students who study at the University of Alberta. Unlike the ISM mainly sponsored by the Chinese government before, contemporary outbound student mobility is impacted by neoliberalism and a freer mobility shapes Chinese students' pursuit of overseas studies. Chinese traditional culture and values also influence Chinese student mobility across borders for pursuing higher education. In the meantime, patriotism makes many Chinese students concern about serving their home country. The chapter also presents reflections on government policies pertaining to ISM and highlights the emergent themes from the data obtained from the qualitative case study of Chinese graduate student flows to Canada.