“I don’t really feel a big difference between an international and the locals”: Exploring educational migrants’ experience of New Zealand as a study and migration destination

This paper examines the experiences of foreign nationals who moved to New Zealand through education-for-immigration pathways. Drawing on insights generated from an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, the study finds that the migration project of this group was largely successful. This finding is theorized using Bourdieu’s notion of “the affinities of habitus,” which provides an alternative framework for understanding migrant integration as the result of the interplay between the capital migrants bring and the “character” of the host country. The paper further identifies specific areas of improvement that would enhance the overall experience of educational migrants in New Zealand.