Navigating the Belt and Road, and Beyond: Education‐Migration and Aspirational Pathways Among Internationally Mobile Chinese Young People in Southeast Asia

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Abstract
Chinese student mobilities within Asia have expanded significantly amid the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and shifting geopolitical conditions. This paper examines Chinese youth studying in two prominent Southeast Asian destinations—Thailand and Singapore—to understand how their aspirations intersect with macro‐structural forces to shape differentiated mobility pathways. Drawing on interviews with 59 participants, we explore three interrelated themes: (1) how geopolitical and geoeconomic developments reconfigure opportunity structures for Chinese youth; (2) how students navigate enduring hierarchies within the regional and global landscapes of higher education; and (3) how transregional education spaces reshape future‐making projects under conditions of heightened uncertainty. Our findings reveal that in Thailand, the BRI has widened access to regional education‐migration opportunities for Chinese youth by expanding institutional linkages and legitimising alternative mobility routes. In contrast, Chinese students in Singapore rarely frame their educational choices through the BRI, instead mobilising other forms of capital within established hierarchies of international education. Despite the emergence of diversified intra‐Asian pathways beyond traditional Western destinations, students' aspirations remain structured by stratified geographies of higher education and calibrated to broader geopolitical dynamics. By foregrounding the interplay between macro‐structural forces and individual mobility projects, this paper highlights how diversified yet hierarchical aspirational pathways are forged within an evolving transregional educational landscape.
Funding Information
  • Ministry of Education - Singapore (MOE‐T2EP402A20‐0004)

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