New directions in studying policies of international student mobility and migration

Many host-countries have liberalised migration policies to facilitate the

transition of international students to the local labour market as they are

seen as economic agents who increase global competitiveness and

integrate easily. However, how migration and educational policies at the

regional and national levels emerge, are negotiated and become

implemented, and how they contradict other policies, remains littleknown.

This special issue aims to address that gap. This introductory

paper offers an analytical framework for studying policies of

international student mobility that addresses four critical dimensions:

discourses, contexts, agents and temporalities before offering some key

avenues for future research.