Expanding Capabilities: The Impact of International Student Mobility on Peacebuilding

From the 2010s to 2020s international student enrollment decreased in the United States (IIE, 2024), leading to economic, intellectual, and social ramifications and notably affecting the country’s reputation as a place that fosters intercultural understanding and innovation (IIE, 2024; Song and Li, 2022; Laws and Ammigan, 2020).While international student mobility has increased since, ongoing issues such as political polarization exacerbate international education efforts to build intercultural understanding. Yet, it is such educational efforts that are crucial to nurturing peacebuilding (O’Hair and Woods, 2024; Reardon, 2001). This dissertation employs a global survey and semi-structured interviews to investigate how international students leverage acquired skills to contribute to their communities in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 4.7, which emphasizes the promotion of peace. It also scrutinizes the perceived impact of country-level indicators including democracy, human development, and peace on participants’ contributions. This study advances the debate on the impact of international student mobility by adapting Sen’s capability approach (1999), using both non-study abroad and study abroad groups, and including country level data to look at contextual factors. The findings suggest that, while international student mobility fosters skills in support of peacebuilding, local factors can affect individuals’ perceived impact. Additionally, such factors influence decisions to stay abroad. The findings call for future experimental research studying the impact of international student mobility on peacebuilding as well as the most effective pedagogies for international learners.