(SOM4a) Sociology of Migration: Migrant/ immigrant students

This session highlights important subtopics in the study of migrant students.  Papers investigate the following: 1) the influences of university prestige and environmental quality in attracting students who migrate for higher education; 2) the experiences of refugee children in Canadian schools with racism, bullying and xenophobia and how they overcome these experiences; 3) the desire of students to get away from their home countries and experience Canada for growth and self-actualization, using Punjab students as a case study; and 4) the lack of support by immigration services and university institutions in transitioning from university to work. The session also highlights the use of secondary data (the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS), the narrative analysis of autobiographical accounts; reflective thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews and use of university student data. Tags: Migration and Immigration, Policy

Organizers: Lisa Kaida, McMaster University, Lori Wilkinson, University of Manitoba, Monica Boyd, University of Toronto; Chair: Thomas Soehl, McGill University

Presentations

Ito Peng, University of Toronto

Contextualizing International Student Mobility to Canada: The Case of Indian Punjab Youths

International migration for education has become one of the most conspicuous realities of the globalized era, as international students[1] [1] are increasingly valued as an asset by the receiving nations. These students eventually become a part of a global pool of highly skilled workers over which state actors like governments and corporations compete (Shachar, 2013). In recent years, Canada has emerged as a frontrunner among the OECD countries in attracting international students. While the destinations of international students have diversified over the past decade, India remains one of the major origin countries, accounting for 10% of all international students in the OECD nations in 2020 (OECD, 2022). The number of international students in Canada has increased by nearly 7-fold since 2000, from 122,665 to 807,269 in 2022. Within this, the increase in the influx of students from India has been particularly conspicuous. By 2022, Indians made up the largest share of international students in Canada, accounting for roughly 40% of all international students across the country. One Indian state that features prominently in discussions on student migration to Canada is Punjab. This distinction is not only because of historical Indo-Canadian immigration and a large and growing Indo-Canadian community in Canada (Walton-Roberts, 2003), but also due to an increasing number of Indian international students originating from Punjab. The large number of Punjab student migration to Canada is not without some challenges, however. The magnitude and persistence of the flow of Punjabi international students to Canada over the last decade offers an interesting case study for International Student Mobility (ISM) research. Yet, ISM scholars have rarely paused to understand and contextualise Punjabi student migration in its entirety, as a complex and overdetermined phenomenon, motivated by overlapping aspirations, mediated by a complex infrastructure composed of diverse actors and networks and embedded within a distinct cultural, economic and political structure. This study aims to fill this lacuna through a reflective thematic analysis based on semi-structured interviews with 34 Punjabi students aspiring for Canadian education. We apply the aspirations and capabilities framework (Carling and Schewel, 2018; de Haas, 2021) to understand factors that are motivating these students desire to migrate to Canada, and challenges they might face as they prepare for their educational migration. Our analysis of the aspirations of Punjabi youths confirms a clear blurring of the line that separates 'migration for education' and 'education for (im)migration'. However, education for immigration and income was not the only transformation that majority of the students are seeking from education-migration to Canada. Rather, many students also held a strong desire to 'get away' from Punjab, not only because of economic hardships at home but also in pursuit of a more 'liberal', 'advanced' and 'modern' society for growth and self-actualisation. This was particularly evident among women students. With regards to capabilities, at the micro level, we observe the prevalence of 'estimated' or 'perceived' capabilities specifically in terms of anticipated opportunities to work part-time work while studying and dependence on family and other social networks in Canada. Real financial capabilities such as borrowing from kin, are contingent upon these perceived capabilities. At the macro level, we found a strong correlation between Canada's hitherto permissive immigration policies for students and preference for Canada as a study destination among Punjabi youths. However, the recent shift in immigration policy landscape in Canada from permissive to more restrictive, and increasing tightening of regulations governing the student visa regime and the two-step migration pathway that students had long envisioned for permanent settlement, are creating new capability challenges for international students. We anticipate that this transition will significantly influence the capability of Punjabi youths to migrate to Canada, casting uncertainty over the fulfilment of their education-migration aspirations.

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Non-presenting author: Kriti Sharma, University of Toronto

Mercedeh Safarian, York University; Nancy Mandell, York university

University to Work Transition: Experiences of Undergraduate International Students in Canada

Few studies have addressed the transition of international students from university to work. in this presentation, we contribute to this literature by examining the experiences of international students at a Canadian university. We build on a three-stage framework proposed by Ng, Menzies, and Zutshi (2019), which comprises finishing a degree, looking for a job, and working in a job, to understand the university-to-work transition of international students at York University. Our analysis reveals that international students face considerable challenges during the initial stages. They confront economic, institutional, social, and cultural difficulties when finishing their degree and beginning to search for jobs. The students shared how these challenges make it difficult for them to secure employment. Moreover, the students’ stories highlight how they navigate these challenges by relying on friends and family for financial and emotional support. Despite their excitement about entering this new stage of their immigration journey, the students express concern over the limited support from formal immigration services and university institutions. This lack of support during the initial stages exacerbates the ongoing challenges they face and complicates their transition into the Canadian labour market. This study highlights the different struggles of international students in transitioning from university to work, the strategies they use to navigate these challenges, and the need for institutional support to facilitate their integration into the labour market.

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Non-presenting authors: Jana Borras, York University; Janice Phonepraseuth, York University; Larry Lam, York University

Amy Choi, York University

Critical Consciousness of East Asian Racism Among International Students in Canada

The Model Minority Myth (MMM), coined by sociologist William Petersen, describes Asian Americans as a “hardworking, successful and law-abiding ethnic minority that has overcome hardship, oppression and discrimination” (Chao, Chiu and Lee, 2010, p. 44). The terminology arose in the 1970s in the United States as Asian migrant populations drastically increased (Shih, Chang and Chen, 2019). In the age of globalization and transnational migration, contemporary discourse expanded the MMM incorporating Asian- Canadians into the context. Despite the proliferation of literature that demonstrates the dangers of the stereotype towards Asians, this public perception towards Asians has persisted through mainstream media. The MMM is called a myth because it oversimplifies the realities of many Asian Americans. Stereotyping, positive or negative, is dangerous because it confines subjects within narratives that are neither created nor controlled by the subject group. Scholars in many different fields such as sociology, education, psychology and law have critiqued the model minority stereotype to increase awareness of anti-Asian racism, marginalization and equity (Shih, Chang and Chen, 2019). The widespread criticism of the model minority stereotype includes claims that the myth 1) denies Asians the assistance they deserve, 2) hides and conceals discrimination against Asians, 3) divides Asians among other minority groups and 4) generalizes a racially diverse group consisting of more than 30 ethnic subgroups (McGowan and Lindgren, 2006). Furthermore, the myth creates an assumption that East Asians are self-sufficient minorities who do not need benefits from policy to help them with integration, settlement, and equity. There is a gap in the literature on East-Asian lived experiences in the Canadian context stemming from a lack qualitative studies. The current quantitative data cannot capture the true lived experiences of East-Asian minorities. The current literature on debunking the model minority myth has four major themes: confirming the perception of the model minority stereotype, focusing on examining the myth in the US context, case studies on all Asians not specifically East-Asians, and a quantitative approach instead of collecting qualitative data. My research question is ‘how do East Asian international students’ understand model minority stereotypes and anti-Asian racism’? I conducted a qualitative study interviewing 11 Chinese international students at the University of Toronto. A total of 27 open-ended interview questions were asked to participants. Participants were encouraged to share their lived experiences in comparison to the model minority stereotypes and discussion of racism, discrimination and microaggression encounters were discussed. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed through Nvivo. My preliminary findings demonstrate that 1) positive stereotypes among East Asian international students are considered motivating for the Asian community, 2) international students often do not recognize or identify microaggressions as discrimination, and 3) Chinese international students believe most of the model minority stereotypes are accurate depictions of Asian Confucian culture.

Sofia Noori, University of British Columbia

Newcomer Refugee Children and Youth Need to Overcome Hate in Order to Academically Survive

This paper presentation shares autobiographical accounts of Canadians with refugee experiences. These include six written memoirs and nine video blogs (vlogs) The presenter will highlight push-pull factors for pursuing and achieving postsecondary education in this community. Narrative analysis is used to explore these publicly available memoires and vlogs, using postcolonial theoretical frameworks. The findings demonstrate that these young people experience racism, bullying, and xenophobia in Canadian school. The main argument of this paper presentation is that newcomers need to overcome hate in order to succeed academically. The study also finds that the university setting helps newcomers from warzones find connections to subject areas they are passionate about, as well as peers from similar backgrounds and with comparable experiences. These pull factors often allow for making sense of their previous refugee situations (including being on the receiving end of hate). CSA audience will not only learn about how hate manifests in the lives of school aged newcomers from warzones, but also how they overcome such backlash in order to survive and even thrive in the post-secondary learning environment.  

Ebenezer Narh, Western University

Tracing diversity in communities to student migration: The role of institutional prestige and environmental quality

Like other forms of population migration, higher education student migration (HESM) redistributes young adults with diverse backgrounds and alters the demographic composition of communities (Liaw and Rogers, 1999). By and large HESM leads to population heterogeneity, especially in terms of socio-cultural origins. For instance, recent research documents the relocation of French and English-speaking students across Canadian provinces (Narh and Buzzelli, 2022). Evidence suggests that university prestige increases its attractiveness, and in turn increases the volume of student migration flows (Abbot and Schmid, 1975). And since universities are not entirely ‘city-less’ (Brockliss, 2000), their prestige may impact the locations in which they are situated. In this research, we use a quantitative approach to examine the influences of university prestige and environmental quality in shaping the student body and populations of 17 Canadian census metropolitan areas (CMAs) hosting at least one university. The research comprises enrolled domestic undergraduate and graduate students in Canadian public higher education institutions (HEIs). The primary data for the study is the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) which contains students programme information, residential postal codes (region of origin) and postal codes of HEIs (region of destination) as well as their demographic information. Statistics Canada creates the PSIS dataset from administrative data provided by HEIs across the country. After the data cleaning and inspection, migration flow matrixes were generated through crosstabulations of students’ places of origin and study destinations. The migration volumes were split by gender (i.e., male and female) and field of study (i.e., STEM and non-STEM) to compute the flows in each grouping. The resulting PSIS output (n= 1088) is linked to supplementary data such as university ranking, unemployment rate and environment quality for the analysis. Gravity model analysis shows that CMAs with high environmental quality and university prestige are attractive to migrant students, however these factors do not diminish the importance of students’ gender and preference for specific fields of study in the migration process. This research highlights the potential role of university prestige in attracting students who migrate for higher education studies and contributes to our understanding of the importance of location attributes in driving HESM. Communities may leverage diversity in talent, labour pool and populations to innovate. Hence, the paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications for the influence of HESM on community demographic make-up and local labour markets, as well as the significant role of university prestige and environmental quality in student attraction and retention.

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Non-presenting author: Michael Buzzelli, University of Ottawa