Grafted transnationalism: Rhythmic routines and disruptions of stay-at-home international students

Abstract

Despite the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions eventually, the destabilising consequences of the pandemic on migration persist and continue to worsen. Based on in-depth interviews with 25 Chinese international students, this paper asks what new forms of education transnationality are being introduced by the intersection of digital mobility and physical immobility. Using Henri Lefebvre's (2004) rhythmanalysis, we understand stay-at-home international students' sensual and physical experiences as palpable aspects of daily existence that not only constitute transnational lived temporalities but also trigger ‘small accidents’, leading to potentially larger-scale temporal changes. By attending to the dynamic interaction between their agency and the external structure, we conclude that situated corporeal and emotional suffering, embodied transitioning strategies, and changes to mobility pathways make up the fabric of the immobile everydayness of the new ‘grafted transnationalism’. This paper contributes to the existing scholarship on transnational education by highlighting the dual sense of exclusion that students experience in both corporeal and social time, as well as the multilayered possibilities of reorientation as their way of regaining control of dyssynchronous rhythmic encounters. It also sorts out the implications of lifetime geography on students’ differentially distributed vulnerability and susceptibility when facing life course disruptions.