‘To go abroad is to return better’: transnational identities of Tibetan international returnees

• In Event: Education Abroad Impact on Learning

Proposal

This research project draws on two theoretical frameworks: transnationalism and identity. It explores the Tibetan international students who returned to their home land (Tib: phayul) after their study in the United States in relation to two sets of interrelated concerns in global student mobility. First, I contextualize them in relation to in recent studies in international education about international student mobility using the concept of transnationalism (Tran & Gomes, 2017; Gu & Schweisfurth, 2015; Bamberger, 2020; Weib, 2015; Spangler, 2022; Fang & Fine, 2020; Soong, 2016; Chen, 2017), despite international students’ legal status as ‘temporary visitors’ in host countries, these scholars assert that situating within the nexus of education and migration can contribute to the ‘conceptualization of transnationalism in important ways (Soong, 2016, p.23). Interconnected relationships between home (phayul) and host societies can be used to explore ethnicity, language and culture embodied in student-migrant participants. Second, I simultaneously place the analysis of transnationalism of the Tibetan international students and returnees in conversation with the growing quest and active debates of Tibetan Identity ( Yeh, 2000&2013&2020; Patricia, 2002; Dhondup, 2002& 2004; Ashild, 2007; Anand, 2010; Hillman,2010& 2018; Jinba, 2013; Jabb, 2015; Kehoe, 2015; Grant, 2017; Miaoyan, 2017&2018; Wang el, 2019;).

In international student mobility literature, discussions of returnees ‘lived experiences of overseas study, impacts on their identity, professional and personal lives are rare and under researched. Using multiple forms of qualitative data collection methods, including semi structured interviews, surveys, documents from social media, and research memos, the research project lasted for 16-month and it is intended to investigate how, why, and to what extent Tibetan international students’ identities are shaped by their overseas educational experiences? And to what extent their personal and professional lives are impacted by their overseas educational experiences?

The Tibetan returnees demonstrated their sense of identity are being multi-layered, dynamic and fluid, and are mobile. Some describe themselves as ‘另类‘, ‘otherness’ when they returned homeland. Their sense of identity moves across and responds to linguistic, cultural, and ethnic spaces of interactions and encounters. On one hand, they represent a strong sense of ‘Tibetaness’, and on the other hand, they demonstrate a cosmopolitan outlook. They challenge the dominant discourse of fixed and ‘ethnic’ identity, they share a transnational identity and lifestyle. Tibetan returnees’ identity transformation represents manifestation of migrant students as transnational actors, both when they are overseas and when they return to their phayul. In addition, the research placed a broader frame of linguistic, social, cultural, religious, and political analysis of Tibetan returnees around issues of identity and their ways of connecting and bringing changes in Tibetan society through their professional and personal lives and networks.

Author

• Shamo Thar, university of Massachusetts Amherst