Time and Precarity in ‘South−South’ Academic Mobility: A 2019−2023 Longitudinal Study of Pakistani PhD Students and Recent Graduates in China

ABSTRACT China's rise as an education hub introduces a new dynamic to the current framework for understanding international academic mobility. This paper presents longitudinal case studies of Pakistani PhD students and recent graduates in China, comparing their imagined mobility in 2019 with their actual trajectories by 2023. Using a time‐sensitive approach, this study unpacks the individual‐institutional temporal entanglement against the macro‐level socioeconomic changes in China and Pakistan between 2019 and 2023. Shifting from study to work, Pakistani PhD graduates face age‐based discrimination, temporary contracts and lack of permanent residency prospect in China. Meanwhile, deteriorating conditions in Pakistan's academic sector, over time, further constrained options. Despite aspirations to reach the ‘Global North’, participants experienced reversed migration decision driven by precarity rather than advancement. This study highlights the limitations within ‘South−South’ academic mobility and the difficulty for highly educated migrants to align their mobility strategies with an increasingly uncertain global socioeconomic environment.