International students and precarious societies: The complexity of mobility rationales in a war-torn higher education

Abstract

It can be bewildering to see international students choosing war-torn societies as their study abroad destinations. Even more surprising there can be a growth of mutual interest between these students and their hosts to support each other amidst escalating precarity. In the context of global neoliberalism, where costs and benefits are calculated rationally with benefits accumulating proportionally to the prestige and world-class degrees obtained by individual beneficiaries, financial investments in precarious futures are hardly understandable. This paper examines the phenomenon of ISM in the precarious society of Ukraine during the Russian invasion. Using Chankseliani's perspective on “hierarchy of rationales” in higher education internationalization, the case-study of Ukraine finds that ISM rationales are more convergent than hierarchical in times of crisis. The economic rationales of ISM become affected by geopolitics amidst the war and the convergence of the two enhances when students make choices based on long-term futures rather than short-term benefits. Thus, despite the Russian invasion, a significant number of international students continued seeking Ukrainian degrees in view of growing opportunities in the vulnerable but highly resilient country pursuing access to the EU. Moreover, the precarious agencies admire the students’ solidarity when their society lives through existential threats. The study of ISM rationales in times of crisis suggests that social resistance to dehumanizing factors brings together precarious students from abroad and precarious universities at home to nurture perseverance and resilience for more sophisticated learning and mobility.