Rethinking the value of international student mobility: A case study of the experience of Myanmar University students in Hong Kong

Following the "push-pull" model, this chapter examines the study abroad decisions of a group of students from Myanmar who were pursuing higher education in Hong Kong. It examines international student mobility in a sociopolitical context. Its focus is on the relationship of the study abroad decisions, the sociopolitical environment of Myanmar, and the policy agenda of the destination country. Specifically, by reporting the experiences of 14 students from Myanmar, the study organizes the factors affecting higher education participation of this underrepresented group on three levels; namely sociopolitical factors, community-school factors and family-individual factors, and assesses their relation to the conceptualization of international student mobility. It does so on the basis of theoretical insights from cosmopolitanism and a critical review of Hong Kong's higher education internationalization policy. It also provides an analysis of the tensions between the students' choice to return to their home country and Hong Kong's current policy agenda for higher education internationalization. After a discussion of the neoliberal approach to, and a self-contained system for higher education development, the chapter ends by arguing for a global domestic political agenda that engages a cosmopolitan vision for thinking of and promoting international student mobility. Copyright © 2018 The contributors.