Reshaping perspectives on the drivers of international student mobility: A study based on Sri Lankan international students in Victoria

© 2019 Subodhanie Umesha WeerakkodyThere is a growing body of research that views being mobile for educational purposes and skilled migration as two closely related processes in the mobile lives of the modern-day youth. Although extensive research has been carried out on international student mobility and experience, only a small number of studies have paid specific attention to examine how onward mobility aspirations have impacted drivers of international student mobility. This research sought to understand what drives international student mobility today and how those drivers are related to and impacted by skilled migration aspirations. Based on an interdisciplinary review of literature, a provisional conceptual model was designed to systematically understand what extant literature has identified as drivers of international student mobility and skilled migration. The provisional model also provided the basis for an empirical analysis as the quantitative data collection instrument, and both quantitative and qualitative data analyses were based on the drivers identified in the provisional model. The data were collected using an online questionnaire survey and biographical narrative interviews administered to a group of Sri Lankan international students in Melbourne, Australia. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and deductive coding. The findings highlight the importance of going beyond quintessential approaches in studying international students, restricted to the field of education. Recognising international student mobility as a phenomenon replete with educational, familial, employment and future mobility aspirations, this research identifies the relationship between international student mobility and skilled migration as non-linear and intricately entwined. In doing so, the findings call attention to the need for acknowledging the liminal and evolving nature of international student mobility, emphasising the need to go beyond the stay-return, home-host country binary perspective in studying international students. Furthermore, introducing the term ‘kinship interceptions’, the findings also bring into attention the importance of multiple roles played by international students in their social orientation as parents, partners and children, in addition to being international students. Methodologically, this research provides meaningful insights into using biographical narrative interviews as a tool that helps capture the lived mobility experience, emphasising the need for introducing new methodological approaches to grasp the nuances of international student mobility, while recognising the episodic nature of human mobility today. The findings of the study have practical implications for both universities and migration policy vis-a-vis international student recruitment, global competency related curriculum changes, and timely modifications of both international student and skilled migration policy