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The Role of the Migration Industry in Chinese Student Migration to Finland: Towards a New Meso-level Approach

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Nordic-Chinese Intersections within Education

Abstract

This chapter applies the theory of the migration industry to understand Chinese student migration to Finland. It suggests that the migration industry approach adds to social network or push-pull theories to articulate the various levels of analysis of international student migration. Using a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with 30 mainland Chinese tertiary-level students in Finland, this research reveals that the migration industry can facilitate and channel international student mobility. It complements, and increasingly replaces, the role of migrant social networks in international student mobility. Students are using financial capital to compensate for their lack of human or social capital to ensure successful migration, which explains why student migration from China has become more accessible, but also more financially burdensome.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is estimated that by 2013, there were around 64 million Chinese families with more than 35,000 dollars of annual disposable income every year, which enabled them to afford overseas education for their children (Mak et al., 2014).

  2. 2.

    The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture decided to change this policy, however, so that from 2017 bachelor’s and master’s degree students coming from non-EU/European Economic Area (EEA) countries will have to pay tuition fees. However, doctoral students will continue to be exempt from tuition fees.

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Acknowledgment

The study was a part of the Marie Curie project Transnational Migration, Citizenship and Circulation of Rights (TRANSMIC), funded by the European Union’s 7th Framework Programs, coordinated by Maastricht University, which the author gratefully acknowledges. The author would like to thank Professor Pirkko Pitkänen, Professor Thomas Faist, and Dr. Virve Kallioniemi-Chambers for providing constructive and useful comments on an earlier version this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester China Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Hanwei Li

  2. Department of Sociology, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

    Hanwei Li

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  1. Hanwei Li
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Haiqin Liu

  2. Department of Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Fred Dervin

  3. College of Education, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

    Xiangyun Du

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Li, H. (2019). The Role of the Migration Industry in Chinese Student Migration to Finland: Towards a New Meso-level Approach. In: Liu, H., Dervin, F., Du, X. (eds) Nordic-Chinese Intersections within Education. Palgrave Studies on Chinese Education in a Global Perspective. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28588-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28588-3_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28587-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28588-3

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