Tied to the family and bound to the labor market: Understanding Chinese student mobility in Japan

Abstract

This chapter considers the case of Chinese students currently studying in Tokyo to shed light on the mechanisms that have created diverse outcomes of international education. The author examines student mobility from a sociological perspective, interpreting student mobility as a migration process that develops in an interaction between individual migrant characteristics and socio-institutional contexts. Based on students' narratives, she finds that for the new generation of Chinese students in Japan, labor market conditions and the support from as well as the duty toward the family are particularly important factors that shape students' mobility.