Transcript BuddRyley IBG 2010

International Students in the UK:
individual decision-making and
negotiation of the visa application process
Dr Adam Warren, Dr Elizabeth Mavroudi
Department of Geography
[email protected]
1. Context - Policy
1. Points Based System (PBS) (2008)
• Enable the UK to ‘keep out migrants who will not benefit the UK and actively
favour those who will’ (Home Office, 2008)
• 5 Tiers linked to certain skills, categories and points
• Tier 1: High value migrants
• Tier 2: Skilled workers with a job offer
• Tier 4: People undertaking a course of study at UK educational establishment
2. Annual limit (‘cap’) on workers (2011-2014)
• 20,700 for 2011-2012; 2012-2014
• Conservative Party 2010 election pledge
3. ‘Graduate’ visas (2012)
• Post study work visa closed to new applicants
• Graduate Entrepreneur visa opened
 Relevance to non-EEA migrants
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Scholarly Research
1. Politicisation of migration
 ‘liberal paradox’ (Hollifield, 2004)
 Govt fears of public perceptions (McLaren and Johnson, 2007)
 immigration policies unable to achieve intended aims (Castles, 2004)
2. Definitions: ‘highly skilled’ and ‘skilled’ migration (Koser and Salt,
1997)
 Contested  PG students ‘highly skilled’ as involved in academic mobility
3. Immigration policies overseas (Cantwell, 2011; Gribble, 2008; Hugo,
2005)
4. Role of state in assisting / impeding highly skilled mobility (Bauder,
in press).
Yet: less on migrant perceptions of changes to policy whilst working /
studying in host country (Silvey, 2007; Hollifield, 2008)
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2. Our Research
 Aim: To investigate how UK labour immigration policy impacts on
the highly skilled non-EEA migrants, using experiences of
academic staff and PG students as case study
 Methods: Semi-structured interviews; April 2010 – July 2011
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Students (Masters and PhD): 36
Academic staff (Tier 1 and Tier 2): 18
Advisors (university): 8
Policymakers (Home Office / UKBA; UUK);
Migrants’ rights groups
3. Findings: motivations for studying in UK #1
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Opportunity to acquire work experience – PSW visa
Historical link
Personal contacts
Economic considerations
Importance of degree from overseas – ‘educational capital’ (Waters, 2009; King
et al, 2010)
Vast majority of students did not consider immigration policy when choosing
the UK; academic, personal and economic factors came first.
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Motivations … #2
There are many reasons why I choose the UK. It is more easy for me to study
here than in America or Canada or Australia. And I also think that the UK has a
very long history and I also like the culture here and the education here, the
quality is good.
(Masters student, China, Midlands)
It’s just for a change, the experience of studying overseas and to obtain a
different outlook and of course I could have achieved the same objectives in the
US or Australia and so then the other factor that will affect my decision is cost
and currency fluctuations and the weakening of the pound, ... so if I am here it‘s
because I want to have the UK experience but if they make it difficult for me,
then I will not die if I don‘t have the UK experience. I can go elsewhere.
(Masters student, Singapore, London)
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Visa Application and Perceptions
 Entering the UK
The application process was incredibly confusing. And there was a lot of
information that was constantly changing and a lot of, I wouldn‘t say
ambiguity, but inability to find the answers that you want... My main complaint
was that it was very difficult to get anyone who could explain the rules to me,
whatever the current ones were. There was no one I could get on the phone.
(Masters student, US, Midlands)
It does create a lot of work for advisers and people handling applications. The
application procedure is more complicated... I think what surprised and
shocked me over the last 2 years is simply how unstructured the whole thing
seems to be. Yes it was clear it was coming in but the details weren’t clear
and then this little extra detail appeared but then it disappeared again and
then some other rule appeared.
(International student advisor, HEI, London)
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Changes to policy #1
…we‘re seen as a scapegoat in that they can‘t do anything about immigration
from the EU and what they can tackle is the non-EU national immigration but
we have to jump through so many hoops anyway, I don‘t see why there is any
need to tighten up what is already in place [...]. As people who are employed
here, we have to go through so many hoops anyway, so we‘ve proved our
worth [...]. We contribute so much money
(PhD student, US, Midlands)
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Changes to policy #2
Yes, it does cause me problems, I wish it wasn‘t like this, I wish it was freer but
as long as I can‘t do anything about it, I have to try and live with it. This is the
initial conditions, these are the frames that we have to live with them, otherwise
you will be unhappy but as long as you can‘t change anything, there is no other
way but to see how you can fit in.
(PhD student, Belarus, Midlands)
I have decided that I already don‘t want to stay because they seem to be
making it a lot harder for people to stay, the rules are changing. What seems to
me like every week they are changing. I‘ve had friends who thought they would
stay, and they haven‘t, friends who have been called up and told their visa
might be been taken away and it seems like a lot of hassle to go through to stay
in the UK.
(Masters student, Kenya, London)
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Future Plans: students
• Varied; positions often afforded flexibility
• Prepared to travel to most advantageous employment environment –
professional, economic, migration policy
‘…non-UK European researchers now appear to be viewing the UK as the place
to establish their academic reputations and then return to their own countries (or
move on elsewhere)' (UUK, 2010)
 Did not perceive themselves to be migrants. Supported by UUK and
international student advisors
I don‘t see them as migrants, I think the vast majority of students come to the
UK for an education for a UK experience, a bit of work experience and the
vast majority want to go home (International Student Advisor, HEI, London)
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5. Conclusions
1. Critical of reforms to UK immigration policy e.g. repeated
changes, cap, closure PSW, classification students as migrants
2. Students perceive themselves to be mobile;
3. Yet, student mobility is constrained by immigration policy in
dynamic and complex ways
 Greater engagement with international students and academic
staff as ‘active social and political agents’ (Robertson, 2010)
 Impact of states on geographies of mobility of highly skilled
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Next Steps
 Refereed academic paper, Geoforum (resubmitted after final
corrections)
Liaison with policymakers and industry
 APPG on Migration, House of Commons
 PhD studentship Highly Skilled Immigrants and the Promotion of
Entrepreneurship in the UK
 Commenced: 1 December 2011.
 Funded by Loughborough University and Paragon Law Ltd
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/gy/staff/pgrs.html#windsor
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References
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Warren, A.P. and Mavroudi, E. 2011. Surveillance and Identity Management: Migrant
perspectives on UK Biometric Residence Permits, Computer Law and Security
Review, 27 (3), 245-249.
Warren, A.P. and Mavroudi, E. 2011. Managing Surveillance? The impact of
Biometric Residence Permits on UK immigrants, Journal of Ethnic and Migration
Studies, 37 (9), 1495-1511.
Selected academics
 Bauder, H. in press. The international mobility of academics: a labour market
perspective. International Migration.
 Cantwell, B. 2011. Academic in-sourcing: international postdoctoral employment
and new modes of academic production. Journal of Higher Education Policy and
Management 33 (2), 101-114.
 Castles, S. 2004. Why migration policies fail. Ethnic and Racial Studies 27 (2), 205 –
27.
 Favell, A., Smith, M.P. 2006. The human face of global mobility: International highly
skilled migration in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific. Comparative Urban
and Community Research (8), Transaction Publishers, New Jersey.
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References cont’d
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Hollifield, J. 2004. The emerging migrant state. International Migration Review 38 (3),
885-912.
Hollifield, J. 2008. The politics of international migration: how can we - bring the state
back in? In C. Brettel, J. Hollifield (Eds.), Migration theory: Talking across disciplines. New
York, Routledge, pp. 183-239.
Jöns, H. 2009. ‘Brain circulation’ and transnational knowledge networks: studying long
term effects of academic mobility to Germany 1954-2000. Global Networks 9 (3), 315338.
Koser, K., Salt, J., 1997. The geography of highly skilled international migration. Popul.,
Space and Place 4 (3), 285-303.
McLaren, L., Johnson, M. 2007. Resources, group conflict and symbols: Explaining antiImmigration hostility in Britain. Political Studies (55), 709–732.
Robertson, S.L., 2010. Critical response to special section: international academic
mobility. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 31 (5), 641-647.
Silvey, R. 2007. Unequal borders: Indonesian transnational migrants at immigration
control. Geopolitics, 12 (2), 265-279
Waters, J., 2009. In pursuit of scarcity: transnational students, employability and the
MBA. Environment and Planning A (41), 1865-1883.
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