Negotiating a sense of home: Mainland Chinese student migrants’ childhood education migration experiences in Singapore

As part of the rise in international student mobility, more children are venturing abroad for pre-tertiary education. These children are often embedded in the transnational social field, forging deep and ongoing familial, social-economic, and political connections across borders. Yet, to date, there have been limited explorations of young student migrants’ experiences of home during their educational sojourn. In this context, this paper draws on in-depth interviews and photo elicitation with 18 mainland Chinese student migrants who migrated to Singapore during childhood to explore how construction of home intertwines with educational mobility. I argue that student migrants’ complex transnational network has reshaped the geographies of their home, making it increasingly mobile and pluri-local. Their home is also associated with a set of meaningful relationships. However, this does not imply that they can produce a sense of home anywhere and everywhere. Emphasising the continuing salience of the physical qualities of a place in shaping one’s sense of home, I explore how student migrants’ home is simultaneously mobile, relational, and rooted materially.