The Reconstruction of the Cosmopolitan Imaginary: Chinese International Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Liu, Q. T., & Chung, A. Y. (2023). The Reconstruction of the Cosmopolitan Imaginary: Chinese International Students during the COVID‐19 Pandemic 1. Sociological Inquiry.

Although viewed as belonging to both Asian and Asian American communities, Chinese international students’ experience of discrimination in the U.S. during the pandemic is distinct from those of both long-term immigrants and native-born Asian Americans. The traditional scholarship on Asian/American racial citizenship does not fully explain the intersectional interplay of race and nationality on their sense of non-citizen “Otherness” between nations and the impact on their worldview. We want to highlight that the societal reception to specific immigrant groups has been influenced by not only the social standing of the group within the host nation but also by the geopolitical positioning of their sending nation to the host nation within the world order (Le Espiritu, 2003; Ong, 1999).

Studies on transborder migrants and western-born Asian return migrants suggest that resident citizens in their ancestral nation may also question the national loyalties, sexualities, opportunism, and even class-privileged positionality of nonresident migrants in the diaspora (Chung et al., 2021; Wang, 2016). During the global pandemic, transborder migrants have occupied this growing liminal space between countries in a manner that further distances them not only culturally but also, socially and politically from the worldview of resident citizens in both countries.

In the meantime, the scholarship on cosmopolitanism provides an analytical entryway for understanding the post-colonial features of the western global imaginary today, but they leave open the question of how cosmopolitanism can also be used as a way to reclaim a sense of identity and belonging for diasporic migrants who traverse the borders of developed and developing nations. Our article explores the possibility of a critical cosmopolitan imaginary among international students apart from its colonialist or Western imperialist roots (Mignolo, 2000) and instead, as a reclamation of the nationally liminal aspirations and identities of Asian international students throughout the processes of transnational mobility (Martin, 2021).

Methods

The data for this article come from 16 semi-structured interviews that were collected by phone, remote conferencing, and in-person meetings from spring 2020 through spring 2021 at a university in upstate New York. All the interviews were conducted in their native language–Mandarin. Given the changing disease control policy in China, the political transition from the Trump administration to Biden administration, and the shifting geopolitical dynamics between the two global powers, we later conducted six follow-up interviews in November 2020, January 2021, and May 2022 to track new developments and validate our main findings. The time period for this study is critical in understanding how the cosmopolitan identities and viewpoints of Chinese international students have evolved in response to unusual mobility restrictions and rising ethnonational rhetoric in both U.S. and China. Our interviews generally ranged from 30 minutes to 2 hours in length and we used the grounded theory approach to conduct data analysis.

Findings

The study explains how international students navigate their increasing racially and nationally liminal status between nations and national categories of belonging, particularly during times of crisis. First, the worldview of Chinese international students in the U.S. is conditioned by pre-migration cultural frameworks and geopolitical positioning within the global order–in this case, growing tensions between China and the U.S. that have the potential to create disjunctures between their understanding of race and the dynamics of racial formations in America. This historical disconnect explains some of the contradictions scholars have observed in the solidarity of foreign-born Chinese against anti-Asian hate yet indifference or opposition to affirmative action, Black Lives Matter, and President Trump–all of which were hotly debated during this period (Linthicum, 2016; Poon & Wong, 2019). Our findings suggest that being caught within a “liminal” space makes it challenging for transborder migrants to make sound connections or establish broad solidarity with other Asians, Asian Americans, or other BIPOLC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) groups. All of this points to the urgent need for greater, not lesser, education on the multiple and interconnected histories of subjugated groups around the world. Future research may explore to what extent other white international students–such as Russians who themselves come from a country that currently has tense relations with the U.S.—fear backlash to the same degree as non-white immigrants.

Second, because of their nation-less status as diasporic migrants during this period, Chinese students unexpectedly encountered significant pushback from their home government and even hostility and resentment from many fellow citizens–all of which exacerbated their insecure positionality as in-between citizens. Consequently, Chinese international students interpreted and responded to hardening racial and national borders during COVID-19 from the perspective of both displaced racial minorities and transborder migrants. Recent events in China–particularly President Xi’s increasing authoritarian control over the country–may further distance Chinese transborder migrants abroad from their resident compatriots back home (Huang, 2022; Ni, 2022), even as their disconnect from the racial politics of America contributes to their further national liminalization. Future research may explore to what degree this increasing sense of dislocation may explain the conservative ideological bent of Chinese diasporic communities from local communities in the host countries as noted by other pundits (Jiang, 2021; Liu, 2005).

Third, the current body of scholarship suggests that the younger generation of Chinese– whether at home or abroad–are instilled with a strong sense of nationalist loyalty (Wong, 2022), and other studies (Fan et al., 2020) do indicate that discrimination increases Chinese overseas students’ support for authoritarian rule back home. But we find that a broadly sweeping discourse of hyper-nationalism or alternatively, Western colonialist approach to cosmopolitanism oversimplifies their complicated and individualized relationships with their country (Martin, 2021; Wong, 2022) and how it may be taking shape within a post-national global context. Increasing exclusion and dislocation from both US and China have pushed students into a position that both straddles and transcends this nationally and racially liminal space between both countries. As a strategy to overcome this disadvantage, our participants have reappropriated and renegotiated their “cosmopolitan imaginary” in ways that have further alienated them from the official nationalist rhetoric of both countries but resisted “the will to control and homogenize” under the dictates of Western colonialism and modernization (Mignolo, 2000). In the process, they have reclaimed an ideal stripped of its colonialist connotations and used it to reassert their rights and privileges as transborder migrants. If these national divides persist, the question remains which countries will ultimately benefit from the incorporation of highly skilled migrants through greater social acceptance, flexible citizenship policies, and competitive work opportunities.

Overall, our study argues for a more critical approach to international education that does not merely reproduce the nationalist frameworks of the Global North or South nor overlooks the hegemonic effects of post-colonial legacies and global inequalities in shaping migrant experiences. This task will require greater scholarly and public attention to the wide range of transborder migrants and refugees who have been trapped in between competing nations, parties, and ideologies in the post-COVID era.

References

Chung, A. Y., Jo, H., Lee, J. W., & Yang, F. (2021). COVID-19 and the political framing of China, nationalism, and borders in the US and South Korean news media. Sociological Perspectives, 64(5), 747-764.

Fan, Y., Pan, J., Shao, Z., & Xu, Y. (2020). How Discrimination Increases Chinese Overseas Students’ Support for Authoritarian Rule. 21st Century China Center Research Paper, (2020-05).

Huang, K. (2022). ‘Runology:’ How to ‘Run Away’ from China. Council on Foreign Relations, June, 1.

Jiang, S. (2021). The call of the homeland: Transnational education and the rising nationalism among Chinese overseas students. Comparative Education Review, 65(1), 34-55.

Le Espiritu, Y. (2003). Home bound: Filipino American lives across cultures, communities, and countries. Univ of California Press.

Linthicum, K. (2016). Meet the Chinese American immigrants who are supporting Donald Trump. Los Angeles Times, May, 27.

Liu, H. (2005). New migrants and the revival of overseas Chinese nationalism. Journal of Contemporary China, 14(43), 291-316.

Martin, F. (2021). Dreams of flight: the lives of Chinese women students in the West. Duke University Press.

Mignolo, W. (2000). The many faces of cosmo-polis: Border thinking and critical cosmopolitanism. Public culture, 12(3), 721-748.

Ni, V. (2022). ‘Run Philosophy’: The Chinese Citizens Seeking to Leave amid Covid Uncertainty. The Guardian, July, 20.

Ong, A. (1999). Flexible citizenship: The cultural logics of transnationality. Duke University Press.

Poon, O., & Wong, J. (2019). The generational divide on affirmative action. Inside Higher Ed: Admissions Insider.

Wang, L. K. (2016). The Benefits of in-betweenness: return migration of second-generation Chinese American professionals to China. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42(12), 1941-1958.

Wong, B. (2022). The Complex Nationalism of China’s Gen-Z. The Diplomat, June, 19.

Author bio

*Qing Tingting Liu, University at Albany*

Qing Tingting Liu (tliu20@albany.edu) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology Department at SUNY Albany. She has been serving for AAAS Social Science Caucus Council as a Social Media Coordinator for more than 2 years https://sites.google.com/view/aaas-socsci/home. She is also affiliated with the University of Melbourne – Asian Cultural Research Hub (ACRH) https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/school-of-culture-and-communication/our-research/groups-and-resource-centre/asian-cultural-research-hub-acrh/our-members. Her research interests include migration, globalization, race and ethnicity, intersectionality and youth culture. Her dissertation project is about Chinese Working Holiday Makers in Australia, aiming to explore how temporal liminality affects their identity as Chinese diaspora living in Western society. For the detail of her profile, please see https://www.linkedin.com/in/qing-tingting-liu-251bb6181/ .

Angie Y. Chung is Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany, a 2021-2022 U.S. Fulbright Scholar, and former Visiting Professor at Yonsei and Korea University. She is author of Saving Face: The Emotional Costs of the Asian Immigrant Family Myth and Legacies of Struggle: Conflict and Cooperation in Korean American Politics. She is currently writing a book manuscript titled Immigrant Growth Machines: Urban Growth Politics in Koreatown and Monterey Park based on research funded by the National Science Foundation. She has published in numerous journals on race/ ethnicity, immigration, gender and family, ethnic politics, international education, and media.

Managing Editor: Tong Meng

Transitions across multi-worlds: Experiences of Chinese international doctoral students in STEM fields

Yang, Y., & MacCallum, J. (2022). Transitions across multi-worlds: Experiences of Chinese international doctoral students in STEM fields. Journal of Studies in International Education, 26(5), 535–552. https://doi.org/10.1177/10283153211016266

Introduction

Every year Chinese international doctoral students (CIDS) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) make transitions across different worlds in ways that supports achievement in their host community.

This article reports findings from a longitudinal study investigating holistic experiences of the contemporary generation of STEM CIDS in Australia. Endeavor to reveal both heterogeneity and commonality, this study examined their diverse and challenging experiences to identify factors that facilitate or constrain their successful completion of a PhD abroad.

The Three-Dimensional Multi-World Conceptual Framework

For this study, we developed a conceptual framework to accommodate the features of complexity and to allow a holistic understanding of the nature of doing a PhD abroad. In this framework (Figure 1), first we formed a three-dimensional space to accommodate student experiences. Along the three axles are Continuity, Interaction, and Situation. International doctoral students’ experiences were conceptualized as developmental over time, taking things from the past and modifying the quality of the future; interactive, assigning equal rights to both objective and internal conditions in interactions; and situated within the disciplinary, working, and living contexts.

Figure 1. The three-dimensional multi-world conceptual framework

Within this space we established the students’ multi-world model, including students’ research, personal, and social worlds. The three worlds are interconnected and interplay to co-construct study abroad experiences. Between the worlds, there are overlapping areas as experiential interfaces for transitions across each world to occur and lines in-between as borders that may constrain students’ transitions.

The Project

The CIDS Study is a narrative inquiry that involved a 4-year longitudinal study to understand Chinese STEM PhD students’ situated, continuous, and interactive experiences. We adopted narrative as a research approach because it incorporates a range of methodological stances and is agentive in demonstrating how individuals attempt to navigate their life, which suited the purpose of the study.

There were 38 CIDS participants from STEM fields at eight universities in five states of Australia. All participants were interviewed individually or in focus groups, with 17 followed up for a second interview roughly nine months after the first interview and eight followed up for a third interview. Most of these students had completed their PhD by the conclusion of data collection.

Congruence/Difference and Transitions Across the Worlds

The six categories of congruence or difference, and corresponding transitions identified through data analysis were used to structure the findings, though we combined the last two categories to highlight the final complications resulting in a doctoral withdrawal.

Congruent Worlds and Smooth Transitions

In this pattern (n=9), students reported their supervisory team and other social relationships as congruent based on the match of key expectations, values, and beliefs across their multi-worlds. The borders between their multi-worlds were almost imperceivable so that they could make transitions with ease. These students were generally satisfied with their study abroad experience by achieving academic success and enjoying social life while doing the PhD abroad. However, experiencing congruence and smoothness did not mean these students had not experienced difficulties, stress, highs, and lows in the PhD; rather, it meant immense bilateral or multilateral investment of time, effort, care, and patience in facilitating transitions, particularly at certain critical turning points, to enable students’ achievement and development.

Different Worlds and Smooth Transitions

In this second pattern (n=8), regardless of some critical differences in motivations, expectations, values, and beliefs between students’ multi-worlds, they reported easy transitions across and over time. The differences that created borders between the worlds were distinctive based on individual situations. Nevertheless, it was the empathy to accommodate differences and the respect to the existence of differences from the agents of their multi-worlds that enabled their smooth transitions.

Congruent Worlds and Border Crossings Managed

In this pattern (n=9), motivations, expectations, values, beliefs, and actions appeared mostly congruent between an individual’s multi-worlds, but this congruence was created with strong evidence of the performance of personal agency, strategies, skills, and initiatives in managing transitions across perceivable borders. Different from the first pattern that congruence was achieved with smooth transitions or the second pattern that difference remained, students of this third group, facilitated with strong and timely supervisory and peer support, managed to create a shared time and space between their multi-worlds. This sustained them through vicissitudes, sometimes crucial moments, in their PhD abroad.

Different Worlds and Border Crossings Managed

In this category (n=9), motivations, expectations, values, beliefs, and actions between students’ research, personal, and social worlds had critical differences, which had profound impact and led to conflicting ideas, attitudes, and behaviors that constrained students’ PhD progress. However, in general, the conflicts were able to be put under control, and the transitions were managed to achieve the PhD. Students of this group were agentic to act, persistent to achieve, resilient and strategic in expanding their small research context to a broader scope.

Different Worlds and Border Crossings Difficult or Resisted

In both categories (n=2 and n=1), there were some critical differences in motivations, expectations, values, beliefs, and actions across students’ multi-worlds. Differences led to conflicting ideas, attitudes, and behaviors. While some conflicts remained unsolved, diminished motivations, together with poor rapport and escalated complications constrained transitions and limited students’ achievement. In the fifth category, students adapted to the differences and completed the PhD, but negative emotions and limited output, resulted in both leaving the research world. In the sixth category, the student resisted adapting and dropped out of the PhD program.

Discussion and conclusion

Drawing on the three-dimensional multi-world framework, this study found that achieving a PhD abroad was challenging for each participant, but it was the way they experienced the transitions across their multi-worlds that created vast differences in their experiences. The six patterns demonstrated a range of experiences, shedding light on how in some cases STEM CIDS achieved their best outcomes and how in some other cases misunderstandings, frustrations, and severe conflicts occurred.

Besides persistence, resilience, and resources, agency to communicate, termed agentic communication, along with listening in negotiations between students and their supervisors, was key in supporting or undermining the PhD over time. This study highlights the effectiveness of agentic communication in making or breaking the rapport, trust, and respect in the most significant relationship in an individual’s multi-worlds during the PhD abroad.

This study revealed that culture might too easily become the scapegoat when we interpret miscommunication or under-communication situations. When doing a PhD abroad, the focus of these students was on achieving the degree and establishing their professional identity, rather than social or cultural integration with the host community. The conflicts or factors that constrained students’ transitions across multi-worlds were often related to their doctoral research rather than culture-related issues per se. When the communication about scientific research went smoothly, positive transitions ensued, or the reverse.

Given this study identified six patterns of PhD abroad experiences, further research could investigate how different experiences influence students’ post-PhD life and career trajectories and how these students contribute to the society, home, host, or elsewhere in the world, in return for their education received abroad.

Other works related to this project:

Yang, Y., & MacCallum, J. (2023). Chinese Students and the Experience of International Doctoral Study in STEM: Using a Multi-World Model to Understand Challenges and Success. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003258841

Yang, Y., & MacCallum, J. (2022). A three-dimensional multi-world framework for examining cross-cultural experiences of international doctoral students. Studies in Continuing Education, 44(3), 493-509 doi:10.1080/0158037X.2021.1890569

Yang, Y., Volet, S., & Mansfield, C. (2018). Motivations and influences in Chinese international doctoral students’ decision for STEM study abroad. Educational Studies, 44(3), 264-278. doi:10.1080/03055698.2017.1347498

Authors’ Bio

Yibo Yang, Associate Professor, PhD, Deputy Dean for the International Organizations and Global Governance, School of International Studies, Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Her current research interests focus on internationalisation in higher education, international organizations, research methodologies, and academic writing.

Judith MacCallum, Professor Emerita, PhD, College of Health and Education, Murdoch University, Australia. Her research and teaching interests focus on social interaction for learning and development, with emphasis on motivation, mentoring and professional learning.

Managing Editor: Xin Fan

Call for Proposals for the ‘Digitally mediated transnational mobilities and migration infrastructure in/from Asia’ Panel for ICAS

Digitally mediated transnational mobilities and migration infrastructure in/from Asia

Panel proposal to ICAS 13, 28 July – 1 August 2024, Surabaya, Indonesia

Convenors

Dr Juan Zhang (University of Bristol, UK)

Associate Professor Lan Anh Hoang (University of Melbourne, Australia)

Abstract

In the past decade, transnational migration and mobility patterns have been shaped by a variety of health and environmental crises, regional and international geopolitical tensions, as well as the opportunities and challenges stemming from evolving global economic outlooks. Notably, the digital boom has had a profound effect on the scale, composition, and velocity of human mobility flows, radically transforming the ways migrants conduct their transnational lives. There is a growing body of literature that explores how digital technologies, particularly social media and networking platforms, have become integral to global mobilities, increasingly blurring the boundaries between physical and virtual worlds. However, there is pressing need for more scholarly examination to address the wide-reaching implications of how digitalised networks – especially social media platforms, AI technologies, and the internet of things – are reshaping and redefining migration infrastructure (Xiang and Lindquist 2014; Lin et al. 2017). Further exploration is also required to understand the effects of pervasive digitalisation on mobility practices, from the digitisation of work to the rapid expansion of remote technologies embedded deeply in the social realms of communication, education, business, and care.

To address this knowledge gap, this panel invites scholarly contributions on digitally mediated transnational mobilities and migration infrastructure in and from Asia. The panel welcomes empirical studies as well as theoretically-driven analyses, with a specific emphasis on the following themes and questions:

1. How are digital networks and novel media platforms reshaping people’s migration experiences and transnational ties? Specifically, how are migrant family dynamics, gender relations, community engagement, and citizenship claims evolving across physical and virtual worlds?

2. How does the recalibration of education prospects and work structures towards remote and hybrid models transform migration aspiration, movement patterns, and mobility practices?

3. How do digital technologies challenge/restructure the established migration infrastructure in the Asian context?

4. Could the expanding digital divide lead to uneven migration routes and create disparities in mobility outcomes?

We invite abstract submissions that address these questions. Those wishing to join the panel are encouraged to submit a short abstract (250 words maximum) and biographical notes (100 words) to the convenors Dr Juan Zhang (juan.zhang@bristol.ac.uk) and A/P Lan Anh Hoang (lahoang@unimelb.edu.au) by 6 October 2023 (Friday).

Managing Editor: Xin Fan

NAEd/SPENCER DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIP

The NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship seeks to encourage a new generation of scholars from a wide range of disciplines and professional fields to undertake research relevant to the improvement of education. These $27,500 fellowships support individuals whose dissertations show potential for bringing fresh and constructive perspectives to the history, theory, analysis, or practice of formal or informal education anywhere in the world.

This highly competitive program aims to identify the most talented researchers conducting dissertation research related to education. The Dissertation Fellowship program receives many more applications than it can fund. This year 35 fellowships will be awarded.

THE AWARD

1 Academic Year

2 Professional Development Retreats Led by Senior Scholars

$27,500 Fellowship Stipend

QUALIFICATIONS

The NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Program is open to all eligible applicants regardless of race, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

Basic selection criteria are as follows:
- Importance of the research question to education
- Quality of the research approach and feasibility of the work plan
- Applicant’s future potential as a researcher and interest in educational research
Applicants need not be citizens of the United States; however, they must be candidates for the doctoral degree at a graduate school within the United States.
Fellowships are not intended to finance data collection or the completion of doctoral coursework, but rather to support the final analysis of the research topic and the writing of the dissertation. For this reason, all applicants must document that they will have completed all pre-dissertation requirements by June 1, 2024 and must provide a clear and specific plan for completing the dissertation within a one or two-year time frame.
Applicants should have a demonstrated record of research experience in education.
Proposed project must be an education research project. NAEd/Spencer funds studies that examine the efficacy of curriculum and teaching methods; however, we do not fund the initial development of curriculum or instructional programs.
Applications will be judged on the applicant’s past research record, career trajectory in education research, and the quality of the project described in the application.
Fellows may not accept employment other than as described in the application, nor may they accept other awards without prior approval (including awards from NAEd or Spencer) that would provide duplicate benefits.
Applications must be made by the individual applying for the fellowship; group applications will not be accepted.

Managing Editor: Tong Meng

NAEd/SPENCER POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP

The NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship supports 25 early career scholars working in critical areas of education research. These $70,000 fellowships support non-residential postdoctoral proposals that make significant scholarly contributions to the field of education. The fellowship also develops the careers of its recipients through professional development activities involving NAEd members.

THE AWARD

1 Year’s Teaching Leave

3 Professional Development Retreats Led by Senior Scholars

$70,000 Fellowship Stipend

QUALIFICATIONS

The NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is open to all eligible applicants regardless of race, national origin, religion, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

Applicants must have received their PhD, EdD, or equivalent research degree between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2022.
Please note, if you defended your dissertation in 2022 but did not receive your diploma, or were not conferred, until 2023, then you will not be eligible to apply for the fellowship this year. However, please do consider applying next year.
Applicants may also not hold tenure status at the time of the application deadline.
Applicant should have a demonstrated record of research experience in education.
Proposed project must be an education research project. NAEd funds studies that examine the efficacy of curriculum and teaching methods, however, we do not fund the initial development of curriculum or instructional programs.
Applications will be judged on the applicant’s past research record, career trajectory in education research, and the quality of the project described in the application.
Applications must be made by the individual applying for the fellowship; group applications will not be accepted.
Non-US citizens are welcome to apply.
Concurrent funding for the proposed project is not permitted. You may not hold a grant from the Spencer Foundation at the same time as this fellowship.

More info: https://naeducation.org/naedspencer-postdoctoral-fellowship-program/

Managing Editor: Tong Meng