Mobility, Migration, and Cultural Political Economy: Personal Narratives of Immigration Policy

This study embraces the opportunity to explore students’ immigration experiences from a cultural political economy (CPE) perspective, beginning with a review of literature relevant to understanding students’ perspectives of host nation international student mobility and migration (ISM) policy, followed by an outline of the CPE theoretical framework. The study’s methodology is presented, outlining how findings were obtained through a qualitative content analysis of interviews with 40 international students studying in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Findings are then presented through the words of study participants, highlighting how international students connect their ISM policy experiences with the local CPE contexts of their host countries. This article provides an empirical, comparative view of the student-level impacts of national immigration policy (i.e., policy pervasion) and will ideally help guide future research to (a) better understand the international student experience as embedded within particular national policy contexts, and (b) uncover the local cultural, political and economic discourse geneses of student visa and study permit policymaking. This study works to humanize the personal impacts of visa and study permit policies, which are a crucial facet of national internationalization stances due to their importance in sanctioning inbound student mobility flows.