Gendered Pathways and Precarious Promises: Chinese International Graduates Navigating the U.S. Temporary Visa Regime

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 1:45 pm - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Comparative Perspectives on Education and policy insights from a Chinese context

Abstract

This study examines how Chinese international graduates in the U.S. navigate the transition from student to immigrant under the H-1B visa regime. Drawing on interviews with 40 participants across five U.S. cities, it reveals how temporary visa policies reproduce gendered, racialized, and disciplinary inequalities—especially disadvantaging women in non-STEM fields. While international education promises mobility and empowerment, the STEM-biased, employer-dependent H-1B system often leads to delayed life milestones and constrained autonomy. Using a feminist empowerment lens, the study highlights how graduates perform “grinding selves” and make strategic sacrifices to pursue stability and belonging. It bridges international education and immigration studies to expose the post-graduation limbo and show how neoliberal immigration regimes reshape life chances and undermine education’s liberatory promise.

Author

• Yuejia Wang, University at Buffalo - SUNY