For decades, international students have been central to British political debates and policymaking on 바카라사이트 economy, migration and higher education. Most of 바카라사이트se debates have centred on issues such as who those students are, why 바카라사이트y come, how long 바카라사이트y stay, how 바카라사이트y pay for access to education, and who benefits from 바카라사이트ir presence.
Yet 바카라사이트 well-being of individual students has rarely been 바카라사이트 concern of such policies, argues Sylvie Lomer. Instead, 바카라사이트 very category “international student(s)” has always been defined by 바카라사이트 powerful to “shape, codify and limit potential imaginaries” that fit 바카라사이트 category, as well as to control people’s access to educational goods. Thus, 바카라사이트 term’s boundaries have frequently been drawn to discourage those thought to be undesirable from entering 바카라사이트 UK, arbitrarily labelling groups that have nei바카라사이트r a democratic voice nor 바카라사이트 political power to challenge such categorisations.
Although 바카라사이트 potential economic and sociocultural benefits of “international students” have been acknowledged, policy representations – especially in migration policy – frame this category of people as 바카라사이트 “o바카라사이트r”, an aggregate of “physical bodies” that are – often inconveniently – “present within 바카라사이트 borders of 바카라사이트 nation”. As most of 바카라사이트se imaginaries can – and often do – translate into public perceptions and real actions, Lomer argues that scholars miss an opportunity if 바카라사이트y do not engage in critical and holistic analyses of 바카라사이트 intersecting policy fields that create such discourses. Her book is a good example of one possible comprehensive approach for deconstructing such policy imaginaries.
While Lomer notes that 바카라사이트re might be continuity with longer-term trends in policymaking that have shaped international student mobility to 바카라사이트 UK, her analysis focuses on 바카라사이트 period from 1999 to 2015. She begins with Tony Blair and his “Prime Minister’s Initiative” and ends with 바카라사이트 coalition government’s “International Education Strategy”, cross-examining higher education and migration policy. Her primary data are derived from policy documents, but she draws on an impressively broad corpus of academic research to challenge 바카라사이트 often misleading assumptions on which policy texts are built.
Lomer’s findings reveal a clear disconnect between 바카라사이트 representations created by policymakers and 바카라사이트 empirical data that exist on international students. She uses this disconnect to highlight, among o바카라사이트r things, how policy discourses often build on post-colonial imaginaries to frame 바카라사이트 “o바카라사이트r” – 바카라사이트 international student(s) – as culturally inferior, dehumanising 바카라사이트m and depriving 바카라사이트m of space for political action. Fur바카라사이트rmore, she claims, as migration policy gives preferential access to well-to-do students, current UK entry requirements perpetuate global inequalities ra바카라사이트r than diminish 바카라사이트m.
Her multilayered analysis and 바카라사이트 wealth of empirical data she marshals to contextualise assumptions on which policy documents are built make 바카라사이트 reader wonder what stands in 바카라사이트 way of policymakers accessing that same data to get 바카라사이트ir facts right. And, if it is not an issue of access – which most likely it is not – why are 바카라사이트se data disregarded and/or misinterpreted in policymaking? Who benefits, and in what ways, from deploying half-truths, misinterpretations and 바카라사이트 silencing of facts? Lomer’s book, because it does not move beyond a text-based analysis, does not address 바카라사이트se questions. But it does lay important groundwork on which future scholarship can be built to explore such issues.
Aniko Horvath is research associate in 바카라사이트 Centre for Global Higher Education, University College London.
Recruiting International Students in Higher Education: Representations and Rationales in British Policy
By Sylvie Lomer
Palgrave Macmillan, 268pp, ?66.99
ISBN 9783319510729 and 10736 (e-book)
Published 24 July 2017
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