How Post‐Study Plans Project Into Onward Mobility Trajectories: Compromise, Attunement and Migrant Subjectification in (Re‐)Routing Post‐Study Migration of African Migrant Students in China

ABSTRACT In this article, I depart from the current majority of studies on international students’ plans of post‐study to delve into how these plans unfold into their onward mobility trajectories. I situate the movement complexities within the theoretical perspective of an interplay between global mobility regimes and migrant subjectivities. Drawing on a longitudinal ethnographic engagement with African migrant students at a Chinese university, I reveal how they encounter a situation of struggle and subsequently (re‐)route their post‐study migration with accompanying compromise and attunement. Specifically, I show two most prevalent situations of difficulty faced by many African students, that are, (i) the plan to stay in China is thwarted by inadequate employment opportunities and policy support, and (ii) the plan to leave for a third country, usually a Western country in the ‘global North’, is impeded by a lack of sufficient capital resources. They eventually had to return to their home country, at least temporarily, or descend to a ‘second state of immobility’ that prolongs their stay in China. By revealing the unexpected challenges experienced by African migrant students during their post‐study phase, this article contributes to problematising the dominant narrative that often portrays post‐study migration as a calculated, planned outcome. It also contributes to staging post‐study migration as part of ‘stepwise multinational migration’ by showing how students (re‐)route their onward trajectories in response to the emergent unexpectedness.