Students without Borders? Migratory Decision-Making among International Graduate Students in the U.S.

摘要

In the summer of 2003, Liang, a Chinese graduate student in electrical engineering, traveled over 400 miles for a reunion with his college classmates. Such gatherings are far from unusual—every year millions of people around the world undertake the journey to reunite with former schoolmates. Yet Liang's reunion had a strikingly uncommon characteristic. It took place thousands of miles from his homeland, on the west coast of the U.S. At the time of our conversation, close to three-quarters of Liang's undergraduate class resided in the U.S., mostly as graduate students or as young professionals, just a year or two after obtaining a graduate degree.