The influence of the Chinese hukou system in motivating and shaping the geography of Chinese international student mobility

The hukou system (household registration system) is a long‐established and significant institutional barrier to population movement within China and, accordingly, has been the subject of a great deal of research. What has received scant attention, however, is the influence that this system has on th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPopulation space and place Vol. 30; no. 1
Main Author Kang, Erli
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2024
Subjects
Barriers
China
Decision making
Foreign students
higher education
institutional barriers
internal migration
international student mobility
Migration
Mobility
Study abroad
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Summary:The hukou system (household registration system) is a long‐established and significant institutional barrier to population movement within China and, accordingly, has been the subject of a great deal of research. What has received scant attention, however, is the influence that this system has on the considerable phenomenon of Chinese international student mobility (ISM). This paper is based on an analysis of 50 semistructured interviews with Shanghai‐based returnee students. Utilising the notions of institutional barriers to migration and middle‐category migration, it illustrates the important role that the hukou system plays in motivating nonelite Chinese students to study abroad and how this institutional barrier shapes their strategic decision making across various temporal phases of the ISM process. These findings are of significance as they highlight the largely unacknowledged role of hukou in the Chinese ISM system. Conceptually, they emphasise the importance of sufficiently accounting for institutional barriers to internal and international mobility in the experiences of international students in migration studies.
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ISSN:1544-8444
1544-8452
DOI:10.1002/psp.2734