Zugl.: Bremen, Univ., Diss., 2007

The Niuean population has been in decline since the airport opened on the island. This thesis investigates a specific aspect of the migration from the island: what final year high school students in Niue plans to do after graduation in relation to leaving or staying in Niue. The study relates this decision to place attachment, values and climate change.The study indicates that Niuean youth doesn’t want to study on the island but instead move to New Zealand to pursue their academic ambitions. The students exhibit a strong sense of place attachment that is based in their identification with the island culture and nature. They want to return to the island after getting their university degree, making them attached stayers. The risk of cyclones does not affect the students wishes to live on the island. Decisions are in large motivated by caring for family, the students want to get a degree and then return to be able to take care and give back to their parents, grandparents and other people that have cared for them during their childhood.

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has for centuries been known as an isolated island of archaeological mysteries; yet after a rapid modernisation this is today an international tourist destination, a World Heritage Site and a glocalised community. This anthropological study based on long-term fieldwork among young Rapa Nui on the island and away, describes how it can be to grow up in and to belong to such a place. Place is seen as a continually constructed social space and is influenced by Miriam Kahn??s use of Henri Lefebvre??s concept thirdspace. Rapa Nui, as a place, people and community, is here understood as continuously formed by global and local influences. Thus, although historical, global and national influences can seem overwhelming in such a small tourist destination with a turbulent colonial history, this study also sees the opinions and practices of the inhabitants as important agents. This thesis shows how young Rapa Nui are both influenced by and influencing what Rapa Nui is and becomes. Above all, their guiding principle seems to be a continuing strong attachment to their land ??also called Te Pito o te Henua (??The Navel of the World??).

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has for centuries been known as an isolated island of archaeological mysteries; yet after a rapid modernisation this is today an international tourist destination, a World Heritage Site and a glocalised community. This anthropological study based on long-term fieldwork among young Rapa Nui on the island and away, describes how it can be to grow up in and to belong to such a place. Place is seen as a continually constructed social space and is influenced by Miriam Kahn??s use of Henri Lefebvre??s concept thirdspace. Rapa Nui, as a place, people and community, is here understood as continuously formed by global and local influences. Thus, although historical, global and national influences can seem overwhelming in such a small tourist destination with a turbulent colonial history, this study also sees the opinions and practices of the inhabitants as important agents. This thesis shows how young Rapa Nui are both influenced by and influencing what Rapa Nui is and becomes. Above all, their guiding principle seems to be a continuing strong attachment to their land ??also called Te Pito o te Henua (??The Navel of the World??).

The Palestinian information technology (IT) sector is growing, yet an ongoing migration of IT professionals and graduates is taking place – both in shape of student migration and labour migration. Through group, pair and individual interviews, this thesis investigates highly skilled IT students’ intentions to stay in or to leave Palestine after graduation. The study puts the individual in the center of the analysis focusing on a micro-level perspective while examining professional outlooks and factors affecting migratory and stay decisions. The findings highlight the impact of the university, the IT sector, the Israeli occupation and gender norms. Moreover, the study reveals a clash between aspirations and reality in professional outlooks, a lack of freedoms, and show significant support for the impact of macro-level factors in migratory decision-making. This thesis also addresses the call for a human face in skilled migration, and provides insights to an under-researched region in the skilled-migration literature.

I universitetsstäder måste det finnas möjlighet för studenter att bo, ofta brukar det finnas speciella studentbostäder. Tidigare forskning har visat att studenter koncentrerar sig till vissa platser vilket kan leda till en nedgång av ett bostadsområdes skick, så kallad studentifiering. I denna fallstudie undersöks hur studenter väljer bostad samt hur de upplever sina respektive bostadsområden. För att få svar på detta har en kvantitativ metod använts, en enkät har delats ut till studenter i Uppsala, villkoret har varit att de hade Uppsala som studieort (i motsats till distansstudier). Agens diskuteras, något som kan påverka val av bostad, men är svårt att kvantifiera. Resultaten tyder på att det inte finns samband mellan studenters bakgrund och bosättningsmönster, men ger inga entydiga svar. Det kan däremot finnas olika studentkulturer som koncentreras till lokala studentbostadsområden. Vilka kriterier studenterna har vid val av bostad bekräftar tidigare forskning.

This paper investigates and compares Chinese master’s students in Denmark and Sweden, focusing on their motivation for choosing to study in Denmark and Sweden, their daily life and study acculturation experience, as well as their intentions of staying or returning after graduating.The paper provides information on the current student migration situation, and presents relevant motivational migration and acculturation theories. A semi-structured interview method is then used to gather qualitative data from six Chinese master’s students studying in Denmark and Sweden. In the analysis, the paper applies the theories on the interview data.This paper’s findings suggest that the main reasons for the Chinese master’s students to study abroad is to improve their competencies and experience foreign culture. When choosing the study destination, decisive factors include the quality of the program, the academic reputation of the universities, the use of English in teaching and cultural aspirations.The effects of cultural differences, study situation and finance are factors that affect their psychological well-being during the process of acculturation. Their psychological well-being generally follows a “U” curve with an initial high level followed by a lower level which eventually increases to a higher level once again. The students encounter challenges in their study related to the Danish and Swedish academia’s direct teacher-student and student-student communication, as well as the English language.Regarding the students’ intentions after graduating, some plan to return to China because of family, friends and personal relationship reasons, while others intend to stay mainly for career reasons, but with the intention of ultimately returning to China.

More than 1.2 million students have left China to study abroad during the past three decades of economic reform in China. In 2007 alone, China sent around 144,000 students abroad, 167 times of the number of students in 1978. This large scale of student migration has often raised debate on brain drain , because many of these student migrants do not return to China upon graduation. However, there has been a reverse trend in the past decade as China witnessed a growing wave of return migration. More and more Chinese students are coming back to China after their studies and work abroad due to the strong economic situation and promising career opportunities at home. These returnees are given the nick-name Haigui or, in English, sea-turtles. This doctoral research is therefore an academic inquiry to this emerging social phenomenon. While international migration is mainly researched on the national level, this innovative doctoral research seeks to understand the relationship between migration and global city formation. To do so, it analyses inter-city migration flow by applying a relational case study of circular student migration between Shanghai and Paris and examines the rationale behind return migration and the role of management/business student returnees from French business schools on Shanghai s pathway to become China s premier global city. This research reveals that global cities have become the strategic points for Chinese talents (students and skilled professionals) acting the role as sending, transiting and receiving sites, which are interconnected in the dynamic process of knowledge accumulation, contact making and network creation. Chinese student returnees contribute to the development of Shanghai by actively engaging in transnational activities including developing and maintaining cross-border organisation/corporate ties and personal networks, knowledge transfer, acting as global-local business and cultural interface, as well as enriching cosmopolitan and multicultural business and cultural spaces in Shanghai.

This project is a multifaceted analysis of the Post Graduate Work Permit Program (PGWPP), a temporary work permit that allows international students to live and work in Canada following graduation. This dissertation explores a) the program’s development throughout the years, b) the lived experiences and the perceptions of the students who used the program for transitioning to permanent residency and, c) an art-based autoethnographic introspection about this transition. The research question focuses on how the PGWPP, which provides the government with economic projections regarding student migration, influences the social and economic integration of international students/graduates. This dissertation consists of three self-containing articles all of which employ mobilities paradigm to examine the following secondary questions and purposes: a)Article 1 is an archaeological review of the development of the program that assesses how well the program meets its objective to settle international graduates as successful future permanent residents, b)Article 2 investigates international graduates’ experiences and perspectives about their transition to permanent residency via the PGWPP, c) Article 3 investigates the impacts of migratory-related difficulties among international students on their trajectory as immigrants. Each article approaches the PGWPP from a different methodological angle to provide a comprehensive analysis of the program that ultimately considers the wellness of international students in their pathways to Canadian residency.

As a traditional country of immigration, New Zealand has often looked outside of its borders for its population composition and as a result 19 percent of New Zealand's current population were born overseas. In recent times, immigration has been used by successive governments as a means of countering severe skills shortages and off-setting a declining birth rate. While attention in the media, public and to some extent in academic circles has been largely focused on the increasing volume of immigrants to New Zealand from Asian countries, migration from Europe has often been overlooked and yet it remains an important component of the New Zealand's migration flows. This thesis explores this stream of migration - from the member states of the European Union to New Zealand - by examining the specific case study of contemporary European Union migration to the Canterbury region, incorporating migrants who live, work and study in Canterbury. The thesis used surveys and in-depth interviews in addition to secondary data to investigate the composition of the European Union migrant population in Canterbury, as well as exploring the motivations and experiences of these migrants. Conceptualising the motivations of contemporary migrants from the EU to New Zealand is difficult, due to a multiplicity of theories and frameworks surrounding the topic of migration. As such, this thesis suggests a three level framework drawn from in order to better understand the motivations of target population. Although the experiences of the surveyed migrants were largely positive, some difficulties were noted, particularly while seeking work and building friendships with New Zealanders. Finally, this thesis proposes a number of recommendations at a policy and academic level which may assist in furthering understandings of the important but often ignored group of European Union migrants in New Zealand.