Precarity Behind Prestige: Chinese International Students in Low-Skilled Work in the UK

• In Event: International labor market outcomes: The Role of Public Policy

Abstract

This study examines how international student migration has produced a growing population of temporary, low-wage laborers embedded in the UK’s higher education sector. It reveals critical gaps in migration governance and labor protections, while challenging dominant academic and policy narratives that portray international students as uniformly privileged, mobile elites. While student migration is often associated with high cultural capital and upward mobility, this research reveals how a growing subset of international students enters precarious labor markets characterized by limited legal protection, structural exploitation, and symbolic inequality.

Based on a mixed-methods design—comprising 250+ valid survey responses and 15+ in-depth interviews (with 30 targeted)—the study finds that student labor participation is highly stratified. Quantitative analysis demonstrates that students from larger families or those whose parents are self-employed are significantly more likely to engage in part-time work. STEM students and students from less-developed regions in China are also disproportionately represented. These findings underscore the internal heterogeneity of the international student population and the embedded socioeconomic drivers behind labor decisions.

Qualitative findings reveal three critical patterns: (1) Many students work under informal or exploitative conditions, with no contracts and sub-minimum wages disguised as internships; (2) labor engagement is frequently symbolic or emotionally driven, framed as a path to independence or cultural assimilation rather than economic necessity; and (3) students face both institutional exclusion and cultural isolation in UK-based workplaces, with many opting for Chinese-owned businesses due to linguistic comfort or discriminatory wage practices in local establishments.

This study identifies critical gaps in the governance of student labor migration, particularly within the UK's Tier 4 visa framework, where educational mobility intersects with informal employment structures under-regulated by migration and labor policies. While the Tier 4 student visa formally limits work to 20 hours per week, enforcement is lax, and violations are commonplace. The National Minimum Wage standards are often ignored in ethnic enclave economies. Ambiguities between labor, internship, and educational placements further enable regulatory circumvention. Additionally, existing anti-discrimination frameworks such as the Equality Act 2010 rarely protect international students from wage inequality or employment-based marginalization.

By uncovering the dissonance between education-driven migration pathways and the informalization of labor, this study calls for an expanded understanding of international students as precarious labor migrants, and highlights the need for migration policy frameworks to incorporate protections for those situated at the intersection of education and employment.

Author

• junzhe gu, University College London
  Presenting Author