Chinese Student Migrants’ Pandemic Experiences and Post-Pandemic Migration Aspirations

• In Event: 20862 - Section on International Migration Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 9: Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Impacts on Migration

Abstract

Over the past two decades, international students have become a highly mobile transnational population. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and cross-border restrictions disrupted this mobility, forcing many into involuntary immobility. While existing studies focus on students' immediate struggles and coping strategies, less is known about how they retrospectively make sense of pandemic-induced immobility and redefine their migration aspirations in the post-pandemic era.

This study examines these shifting aspirations through the case of Chinese international students, the largest group in the international student population. Based on 23 in-depth interviews conducted in 2024, we explore how students reflect on their migration experiences, reassess future trajectories, and navigate evolving migration capabilities.

Using the migration aspiration-capability framework, our findings reveal two key shifts. First, students increasingly prioritize overall well-being over capital accumulation. Second, their perceptions of their ability to remain abroad have changed, directly reshaping their aspirations. These findings challenge dominant views of international student mobility as either a capital-maximizing strategy or an exercise in unrestricted transnational mobility. Returning to China is not necessarily a calculated move to optimize global capital but often an involuntary decision shaped by external constraints. Likewise, staying abroad is not always about elite status attainment but, in some cases, a means of self-preservation. The pandemic has foregrounded issues such as freedom of movement, security, xenophobia, and family support—concerns that were previously overlooked or underemphasized by students.

Empirically, this study provides a much-needed processual and micro-level account of how migration aspirations and capabilities evolve in response to transnational crises. Theoretically, it highlights perceived capability—alongside objective capability—as a key but underexplored factor in migration decision-making. It further reconceptualizes educational migration as a multi-step, continuous process rather than a singular, linear event.

Authors

• Huazhi Qin, National University of Singapore

• Yuxin Zhao, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill