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

Research Highlighted: 

Kang, E. (2024). The influence of the Chinese hukou system in motivating and shaping the geography of Chinese international student mobility. Population, Space and Place, 30(1), e2734. https://doi-org.ezphost.dur.ac.uk/10.1002/psp.2734

International student mobility (ISM) refers to the processes of movement of ‘internationally mobile students’, defined as people who leave their country of citizenship primarily for education (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2014). Scholars have found that institutional barriers significantly influence the ISM process (Lomer, 2018; Lulle & Buzinska, 2017). However, this understanding usually refers to international migration. There is little knowledge about how institutional barriers to internal migration affect ISM. To fill the important gap, this paper relates to the data from 50 semistructured interviews with returning master’s graduates in Shanghai to examine the effect of the Chinese hukou system on different stages of ISM experience, including pre-departure, upon and after return, among Chinese international students. Specifically, this paper asks whether the hukou restriction of internal migration may motivate some students to study abroad. If so, how does the hukou system affect the ISM experience of middle-class Chinese international students? The main contribution of this paper is the revealing of the thus far underacknowledged relationship between ISM and domestic institutional barriers to mobility. 

The Chinese hukou system is an appropriate starting point for exploring how domestic institutional barriers affects ISM. This is partially because China is one of the largest ISM-sending countries in the world (Wen & Hu, 2019).These students came from different regions of China, but upon their return were concentrated in several developed coastal cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou (Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange CSCSE, 2018). In other words, returnees were often internal migrants within China. Additionally, the hukou system is an important social institution to control internal migration in China. The hukou system is a household registration system in China that classifies the population according to two frameworks: hukou type (agricultural or nonagricultural) and place of registration (local or nonlocal) (Song, 2014). The hukou system significantly influence on internal migration in the country (Qian et al., 2020; Song, 2014). On the one hand because individuals’ citizenship rights are connected with their hukou registered regions (Song, 2014). It is difficult for internal migrants to access diverse welfare benefits without local hukou status in their destinations (Chan & Buckingham, 2008; Song, 2014; Zhou & Cheung, 2017; Zhou & Hui, 2022). On the other hand, changes in hukou status are highly regulated and are difficult for individuals to achieve (Qian & Qian, 2017; Zhou & Hui, 2022).  In recent years, hukou reforms have allowed returning international students to access hukou status in developed cities (Brooks & Waters, 2021; Zhai, 2020). These reforms provided enhanced potential opportunities for middle-class students in economically peripheral regions to access hukou status in core cities via ISM. The mechanism of this process is the focus of this paper. 

Based on an analysis of interviews with 50 returning students, this analysis generated three main findings that address important current limitations in understanding the effects of institutional barriers on ISM. First, overcoming restrictions from the hukou system motivates many Chinese students to study abroad. Young people hope to migrate from other parts of China to developed Chinese cities because of the regional inequalities that have occurred in Chinese urbanisation in recent decades (Zhai & Moskal, 2022). Students who belong to the ‘middle-category migration’ participate in ISM to achieve future internal migration. Second, the data demonstrate that students emphasise being away for a short study time, with some choosing specific destinations that are closer to China, lowering the emotional and monetary costs of ISM. This finding indicates that hukou can impact the geographies of ISM destinations because students belonging to the ‘middle category’ of migration could access hukou status by paying less to study internationally in specific destinations. Finally, this paper found that distinctive requirements for accessing hukou status in different areas affect returnees’ decisions regarding internal migration after returning. These findings have two major implications on ISM studies. 

First, this paper highlighted the effect of institutional barriers on the geography of ISM, which shapes the geographies of both ISM destinations and return destinations. Previous studies have focused on institutional barriers in ISM-receiving countries (Tuxen & Robertson, 2019). Only in recent years have some scholars identified the hukou system as an institutional barrier that influences ISM (Brooks & Waters, 2021; Zhai, 2020). However, this is the first study to explicitly demonstrate how the hukou system affects the ISM process. Second, this paper found that the hukou system helps scholars better understand the ISM experience of students from a ‘middle-category migration’ background. International students are usually regarded as a privileged group within ISM research. Students’ diversity in terms of socioeconomic and sociopolitical backgrounds is usually disregarded (Lipura & Collins, 2020). The hukou system provides a tool to distinguish ‘middle-category migration’ international students from the commonly held viewpoint that ISM involves students of a particularly elite class.  

Reference: 

Brooks, R., & Waters, J. (2021). International students and alternative visions of diaspora. British Journal of Educational Studies, 69(5), 557-577. 

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Wen, W., & Hu, D. (2019). The emergence of a regional education hub: Rationales of international students’ choice of China as the study destination. Journal of Studies in International Education, 23(3), 303-325. 

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Zhai, K. (2020). Social mobility and international graduates in China (Doctoral dissertation, University of Glasgow). 

Zhai, K., & Moskal, M. (2022). The Impact of Place of Origin on International and Domestic Graduates’ Mobility in China. International Migration Review, 56(1), 123-154. 

Authors’ Bio 

Managing Editor: Xin Fan