ABSTRACT

This paper explores the contemporary relationship between international student migration and diaspora formation. It argues that international students have been largely absent from recent discussions of ‘knowledge diasporas’, where migrants’ ‘home’ states attempt to harness and co-opt the skills and knowledge of their émigrés. This is surprising, given students’ evident role in knowledge circulation and exchange. In this paper, we foreground the significance of international students but also explore their relationship to diaspora formation from a different angle. We argue that some states are increasingly engaging in (sometimes seemingly contradictory) policies designed to obstruct overseas diaspora formation, and these policies centre on their international student populations. Through a number of case studies and drawing on the secondary literature, we demonstrate the ways in which states are strategising to repatriate international students following their studies overseas. More broadly, we argue, this represents an alternative to popular notions of brain circulation and knowledge diasporas, chiming with a far more long-standing concern with ‘brain drain’.

摘要

本文探讨了国际学生移民与侨民形成之间的当代关系。它认为，在最近关于“知识侨民”的讨论中，国际学生基本上没有出现，在这些讨论中，移民的“家乡”国家试图利用和吸收他们移民的技能和知识。鉴于学生在知识流通和交流中的明显作用，这是令人惊讶的。在本文中，我们突出了国际学生的重要性，但也从不同的角度探讨了他们与侨民形成的关系。我们认为，一些州越来越多地参与（有时看似矛盾的）旨在阻挠海外侨民的形成，而这些政策的中心是他们的国际学生群体。通过大量案例研究并借鉴二手文献，我们展示了各州如何制定战略以遣返海外学习的国际学生。更广泛地说，我们认为，这代表了大脑循环和知识侨民流行概念的替代方案，与长期以来对“人才流失”的关注相呼应。