Knowledge diasporas: Narratives of transnational migration and higher education

Abstract

Through the narratives of postgraduate diasporic men and women in US higher education, this study examines their identity (re)formation, sense of belonging, and imagined futures. Rizvi (2000). International education and the production of global imagination. In N. C. Burbules and C. A. Torres (Eds.), Globalization and education: Critical perspectives (pp. 188-205). New York: Routledge argues that higher education has become a site for the creation of diasporic spaces, where new sociocultural processes and cultural changes and formations are taking place. This chapter responds to Lukose's (Anthropol Educ Q 38, 405-418, 2007) call to bring together diaspora and education research to study the cultural and social worlds of transnational populations. Hence, the narratives of the two groups in this chapter, resettled refugees from sub-Saharan African and educational migrants from the Philippines, bring into relief a critical understanding of the human experience of transnational migration and knowledge diasporas. This study contributes to a growing body of empirical work on diasporas and transnationalism in higher education and provides a starting point for dialogue on these two less visible populations as actors in the global knowledge society.