Social networks and educational mobility: the experiences of UK students

Abstract

A recurrent theme in the literature on transnational mobility – and particularly that pertaining to the young and/or highly skilled – is the individualised nature of such movement, as people move to take advantage of opportunities in an increasingly interdependent world. Drawing on research with 85 young adults who had moved overseas for their higher education, or were seriously contemplating doing so, this paper subjects this claim to critical scrutiny. Indeed, it suggests that while internationally mobile students are clearly only a subset of the broader category of transnational migrants, they nevertheless demonstrate important ways in which mobility is often socially‐embedded, grounded within networks of both family and friends. It then points to the socially reproductive nature of such ties, and discusses their implications for the development of ‘mobility capital’.

Keywords:

• transnational mobility
• social networks
• UK
• globalisation
• higher education

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to: the British Academy, for funding the research; Helena Pimlott‐Wilson, for conducting the interviews; and our 85 respondents, who gave up their time to be interviewed.

Notes

1. For further information about the research methods, see Brooks and Waters (2009a, 2009b).

2. We are conscious that, in many ways, the ‘international’ experiences reported by our respondents were highly circumscribed and demonstrate a rather naïve form of transnationalism. This argument is developed in more detail in another paper from the project (Waters and Brooks, forthcoming).