Graduate employability and international education: an exploration of foreign students’ experiences in China

ABSTRACT

Despite the increasing research attention on international graduates’ employability and vocational development, most studies have focused on their employability in developed countries; little is known about their employability in developing countries such as China. In this qualitative study, 15 international graduates from two Chinese universities voluntarily participated in in-depth interviews to share their insights about how they negotiated employability in China. The study employed Bourdieu’s cultural theory, Tomlinson’s graduate capital model, and Pham’s employability agency framework as complementary conceptual frameworks. The findings revealed that international graduates in China strategically developed various capital (e.g., human, social, identity, cultural, psychological, identity, and agentic) to navigate the Chinese labour market. To some extent, the role of these capitals in the Chinese context was distinct. This study suggests that different stakeholders should collaboratively support international students in China to develop and utilise various employability capital during and after their study programme.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• employability
• China
• international students
• capital
• agency

Introduction

In recent years, graduate employability in relation to vocational development has become an important research topic, along with the complex landscape of international student mobility in the global higher education (HE) context (Tomlinson & Tran, 2020). International graduate employability (IGE) could reflect the values and issues of an educational system or institution and become a key performance indicator of HE quality (Farenga & Quinlan, 2016). Accordingly, employability has become an area of interest for educators and policymakers.

Existing studies have mainly focused on international students who graduated from developed countries and thereafter worked in their host or home countries (e.g., Cameron et al., 2019; Pham, 2021b; Pham, Dai, & Saito, 2023). However, little is known about the employability of international students and vocational development in China. An increasing number of international students have enrolled in Chinese universities and seek to extend their educational and vocational opportunities in the emerging economic hub (Dai & Hardy, 2023; Dai, Hu, Li, & Oladipo, 2023). As Chinese universities have been increasingly using graduate employability as a tool to attract international students (Singh, 2022), an exploration of the employability trajectories and vocational development of international graduates in China is needed. This study attempted to fill the current gap by exploring how international graduates in China negotiate their employability and vocational development. Against this background, this study attempted to answer the following questions: (1) How were international graduates in China able to develop and utilise different forms of capital to enhance their employability outcomes? (2) How were international graduates in China able to exercise agency in utilising different forms of capital to enhance their labour market prospects?

The research being conducted is significant to the realm of international higher education and graduate employability. The findings of this study will provide a comprehensive analysis of the working experiences of international students after they graduate from Chinese universities. Additionally, this research will offer a new perspective on the transitions of international students from study to work in a new sociocultural context. Furthermore, the study will explore the key factors that influence these transitions in China, which can provide useful insights for different stakeholders to improve university education and graduate employability in the Chinese context. This research serves as a starting point for further studies that focus on how international students can better prepare for employment in their host context.

The following article is structured as follows. First, a review and critical discussion of existing studies related to IGE is presented, followed by the introduction of theoretical lenses. Next, the research methodology, findings, and discussion are presented in order. Finally, a concluding section summarizes the study and suggests future research directions.

Research on international graduates’ employability

The concept of employability has been explored from different theoretical perspectives. The sociological and critical literature views employability outcomes as contextual and relational phenomena (Tomlinson & Tran, 2020). Scholars who adopt this perspective suggest that there are various contextual factors that affect one's employability, such as the access to employment opportunities within the constraints of their available resources, local job market conditions, and personal circumstances. In this regard, McQuaid and Lindsay (2005) highlight the interplay between broader economic conditions, institutional factors, and individual situations.

Other approaches tend to foreground the individual’s role in managing their career, mainly in terms of their capacity to draw on a broad range of abilities that meet the given demands of an occupational area. Therefore, it becomes a case of observing how individuals acquire the appropriate employment abilities, presenting them to employers in a way that meets their specific needs, and effectively deploying these factors in the workplace. These employ-abilities are often perceived as technical knowledge and professional skills (Barrie, 2007). Other researchers (e.g., Pham, 2021a; Tomlinson, 2017) have argued that graduates need to develop a wide range of capitals, such as social networks, understanding the local market, psychological capital, and cultural capital. Recently, Pham (2021a) and Pham and Jackson (2020) have observed that, ideally, graduates need to develop an employability agency: a capacity to develop different strategies to navigate the labour markets. Moreover, researchers have also emphasised the need to distinguish between employment and employability. Although employment generally refers to short-term employment outcomes, employability has several dimensions – the five main dimensions are: employment outcomes, job satisfaction, well-being, personal and professional growth, and sustainability (Pham, 2021b). The development and utilisation of various capital are more likely to support graduates to achieve these components of employability than the articulation of technical knowledge and specialisations (Pham, 2021b).

The exploration of IGE has become a crucial aspect of global education. On the one hand, several scholars (e.g., Blackmore & Rahimi, 2019; Cameron et al., 2019; Huang, 2013; Pham et al., 2019; Pham et al., 2023; Tran et al., 2020) have researched the employability of international students in host countries, such as Australia and the UK. These studies have found that factors such as permanent residence (PR), social network, individual agency, understanding of the local socio-cultural context, and positive attitudes towards difficulties significantly impact the employment opportunities of international graduates in Australia. Therefore, many international graduates struggle to equip themselves with the necessary skills and capital to support their career development in the host country. Similarly, studies (e.g., Huang, 2013; Huang & Turner, 2018) conducted in the UK have found that international students’ learning experiences may help them develop their employability, but institutions still need to improve their approaches to enhance international students’ employability and cultural awareness. Recently, a study (Singh, 2022) analysed international students’ views towards their employability at a Chinese elite university and found that it is essential for international students to develop multiple types of capital, including language, culture, and network, to prepare for a future job in China.

An increasing number of researchers, such as Singh (2020), Pham (2021c), and Tran et al. (2021), have been studying the employability of individuals who return to their home countries after studying or working abroad. These studies have shown that various factors, such as unfamiliarity with the local job market, lack of social network, and reverse culture shock, can affect the career development of returnees. For example, Singh (2020) found that there is a gap between the time when graduation programmes end in Australia and when companies in China begin recruiting, which means returning graduates may have to wait for weeks or months before finding a job. This issue significantly impacts their job-hunting experience.

In a study conducted by Pham (2021c), it was found that possessing a range of resources and capitals alone was not sufficient for positive employability negotiation. The importance of resources, skills, and knowledge varied at different stages of graduates’ career development. Employability enhancement was achieved only when graduates exercised a certain level of agency to appropriately use their resources to respond to contextual factors, and connect their educational, life, and job market experiences with their labour market goals. Pham (2021c) suggested that when graduates used their capitals flexibly and smartly to negotiate employability trajectories, they were more likely to achieve employability outcomes. Although the role of capitals in graduate employability has gained increasing attention in Western countries (e.g., Blackmore & Rahimi, 2019; Pham et al., 2019; Tran et al., 2020), limited information exists regarding how international graduates in China develop and utilize these capitals for their employability negotiation.

Understanding graduate employability from the lenses of capital and agency

This study utilized multiple theoretical frameworks to create new perspectives on the complexity of interactions between different areas of expertise and international graduates’ employability in China. The study drew on Bourdieu’s cultural theory, which highlights the connection between one's background, social position, and possession of cultural capital. Cultural capital includes both institutionalized values (e.g., qualifications) and embodied values (e.g., preferences) (Bourdieu, 1986). However, marginalized groups’ embodied values are not often acknowledged and validated because they do not have enough power to negotiate with mainstream stakeholders (e.g., institutions and employers) about their language skills, customs, and qualifications (Kelly & Lusis, 2006). Further research has highlighted the importance of different forms of capital in employability (Holmes, 2013; Tomlinson, 2017), including human, cultural, social, identity, and psychological capitals, which are considered in Tomlinson’s (2017) Graduate Capital Model (GCM).

Briefly, human capital means ‘the knowledge and skills which graduates acquire which are a foundation of their labour market outcomes’ (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 341). Notably, in most cases, those who pursued vocation-related subjects could apply their technical skills more effectively than those who pursued general disciplines, which may not equip students with transferable techniques. Based on Bourdieu’s sociological concepts, Tomlinson (2017) defines social capital as the relationships and networks that an employee builds with their significant others who organically influence graduates’ employability in job markets and even their future career development. Cultural capital refers to the ‘formation of culturally valued knowledge, dispositions and behaviours that are aligned to the workplaces that graduates seek to enter’ (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 343). Graduates must indicate their desired embodied disposition in a field they engage in via different ways, such as accent, body language, and humour; their overall features – their ‘personality package’ – plays a significant role in the workplace. Notably, overseas background and different socioeconomic situations may also influence international students’ development of cultural capitals in a new sociocultural context (Tomlinson, 2017), which could also be considered the influence of ‘cultural shock’ on cross-cultural adjustment in the workplace.

Identity capital refers to ‘the level of personal investment a graduate makes towards the development of their future career and employability’ (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 345). Notably, students who actively and vigorously invest themselves in future employment seem to be more competitive and possess greater identity capital than those who do not develop their ‘professional’ identity (Tomlinson, 2017). Finally, psychological capital refers to capabilities that may support graduates in strategically dealing with barriers, adjusting to new contexts, and dynamically overcoming potential challenges in the working process. While the capital-based analysis can help the researchers to understand key factors influencing graduate employability, it does not reflect how students dynamically enact different capital to navigate the labour market. Thus, it is also essential to consider their employability agency, which could provide more insights into their experiences.

Thus, the study utilised the Employability Agency Framework (Pham, 2021a) to complement Tomlinson’s (2017) model by reporting the emphasis on employability agency. Pham (2021a) conceptualises employability agency as a multi-dimensional phenomenon, constrained and facilitated by at least five components: subjectivities (e.g., motivation and identity), ethnic resources (e.g., ethnic community and language), host country’s resources (e.g., qualifications), contextual structures (e.g., global recession and visa policies) and agentic features and actions (e.g., beliefs, confidence, and active engaging). Using the capital and agency-based analytical approach to investigate international students’ working experiences in China gives researchers a more holistic understanding of their employability and key influential factors.

Research design

A qualitative exploratory design was used to answer the research questions. This design helped to prioritize the various perspectives of individuals (Merriam, 2009). The study was conducted in 2021 and purposeful sampling was used to recruit participants. The participants in this study were international graduates who graduated from a degree program in Chinese institutions, had been living and working in China, and were not short-term exchange students. Finally, 15 international graduates from different countries, disciplines, and career stages voluntarily participated in this study. It is important to note that the first author had worked at a Chinese university and his work mainly focused on researching international students in China. This helped him to establish connections with many international students which made it fairly easy to find the participants for the study. The first author’s experience in researching international students in China was valuable and provided him with an ‘insider’ perspective. The second author had been an international student in a Western country and researched international students’ employability in the global context. This perspective provided an ‘outsider’ viewpoint for the study. According to the Chinese government's policy for international graduates’ employment in 2017, international students should hold a master's or doctoral degree from Chinese universities when they apply for a work visa. Thus, all participants held their master’s or doctoral degree. Their demographic details are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographic data of the participants.

Variable	Sub-groups	n
Gender	Male	11
	Female	4
Original nationality	Pakistan	3
	Korea	6
	Nigeria	1
	US	2
	Russia	2
	Kazakhstan	1
Age groups	25–30	9
	31–48	6
Study level	PhD	4
	Master’s	11
Permanent residency status	Non-Obtained
Field of study	Business (e.g., marketing, finance, accounting, management, and sales)	7
	STEM (e.g., IT, engineering, and science)	5
	Education	1
	Communication	1
	Linguistics	1
Types of organisations	Educational institutions (e.g., university, college, school, and academy)	5
	Government organisations	1
	Multinational enterprises	4
	Private local companies	5
Working status	Full-time and part-time employed related to the area studied	12
	Full-time and part-time employed not related to the area studied	3
Number of years working in China	0–1 year	3
	1–3 years	12

These graduates were asked to answer questions that helped them express their experiences without any influence from the researcher or past research findings. The authors designed interview questions based on theoretical concepts related to the different capitals that these graduates acquired at Chinese universities and then used at work. The questions also focused on how these graduates handled challenges in transitioning from university to work and how they navigated themselves as foreign workers in the Chinese labor market. After receiving ethical approval, the first author conducted in-depth interviews with these international graduates to explore their employability trajectories and working experiences in China. A pilot study was conducted with five international graduates in May 2021 to examine the interview protocol before the formal interview. The interview questions consisted of three main sections, namely a warm-up section, job-hunting experiences, and working experiences. The warm-up questions included asking participants to introduce themselves (e.g., Could you introduce yourself?). The job-hunting experience questions (e.g., Could you introduce why you want to work in China after graduation? How did you find your job?) were designed to understand why graduates wanted to work in China after graduation and how they found their job. The work experience questions (e.g., What challenges do you encounter in your work? How do you overcome the issues?) aimed to identify the challenges faced by the participants and how they overcame them. The five participants shared their experiences based on the interview questions, and the interview questions were found to be reasonable. Based on the pilot study, some new questions were added to the formal interview, such as factors influencing the choice to work in China and strategies to support work when facing challenges. These participants did not attend the formal session, and the pilot findings were not used for analysis in the formal study. The formal interviews were conducted from July to September 2021, either face-to-face or online, depending on the availability and distance of the graduates. Each interview lasted around 40–60 min and was audio-recorded. The first author conducted interviews in either Chinese or English, depending on the language preference of the participants. Subsequently, a research assistant transcribed the data and translated all Chinese recordings into English. To ensure translation accuracy, the authors invited a scholar with extensive experience in qualitative analysis to co-check the data.

Both inductive and deductive approaches were used to analyze the data collected for this study. The thematic approach proposed by Creswell (2012) was applied inductively to identify the key factors (sub-patterns in each capital) that influenced the working journey of international graduates in China. Meanwhile, the data were analyzed deductively, using the GCM and the capitals-based approach, to categorize themes and identify the role of different capitals in the graduates’ transitioning journey and working experiences in China. To ensure accuracy, the authors invited a colleague to cross-check the codes until inter-rater agreement was achieved. The data were broken down into segments (words, sentences, or paragraphs) for easy annotation and coding. The authors presented the findings using rich and detailed stories that depicted the experiences and perceptions of the participants who worked in China as international graduates. The names used in the study were pseudonyms.

Findings

This study found that these international graduates have qualitatively different working experiences in China. Meanwhile, different capitals played complex roles in their employability trajectories.

Human capital: Specialised skills, work experiences, and Chinese language

The key human capital that graduates have acquired to prepare for work are their specialisations, professional skills, work experience, and Chinese language proficiency. The usefulness of these aspects of human capital varies depending on the disciplines and positions that the graduates hold. Those who have a degree in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) agree that studying in China has helped them develop technical knowledge and professional skills, which in turn facilitated their job search and employment in China. For instance, Huang, an IT professional, mentioned the following:

IT in China has become a hot area for many years. I learned a lot of practical skills that helped me secure a developer position in a top IT company. My company aims to develop global markets, so it recruited many international graduates. There is a good match between the company and me.

By contrast, those with degrees in non-STEM disciplines could not apply their knowledge to their job directly. For example, Gaga complained that she could not use what she had learned in university to her work in business and leadership.

I need to learn many new things, such as communicating with Chinese and other international colleagues. Lecturers did not teach such kinds of knowledge.

Moreover, Chinese language skills were also perceived as an influencer of the graduates’ employability in China depending on the type of job that the graduates held. For instance, Grace, working in a media agency, shared the following:

My job requires high-level Chinese, Russian, and English skills. I had learned English before, and Russian is my native language. My programme allowed me to learn how to use Chinese in different situations … My enhanced language skills and professional knowledge played essential roles in my job-hunting and current work.

Alternatively, Jack, working in a construction company, shared that language might not be a vital issue:

When I applied for jobs, I noticed that many Chinese companies do not require potential graduates to have high-level Chinese skills, or even Chinese is not necessary … Although I had learned some Chinese, I could not use this language very well. This issue was not a barrier to my work.

The responses revealed that the Chinese language was not always a crucially important component of a position because the graduates could use English, especially in international companies. These experiences show that contextual structures in different workplaces recognise capital in different ways (Pham, 2021a).

Considering their work experiences in China, many students shared their vivid stories. Some felt that their professional skills and knowledge developed through studying in China potentially helped their work. For example, Tim, working in a university as a research fellow in IT, mentioned the following:

My research training in China has equipped me with the required skills and knowledge for my current work. I can manage several research projects and collaborate with other colleagues to compose papers efficiently.

Such experiences may indicate that he had accumulated human capital during his study programme in China and gained advantages from this process. Meanwhile, he showed an active agency towards research work and collaborations with colleagues. These experiences indicate that agentic actions in learning and working journeys are essential in improving employability (Pham, 2021a). However, a few students felt challenged during the working process. John, working in a private marketing company, shared the following:

While I had acquired much theoretical knowledge and worked in a few organisations before taking my current job, I still felt stressed because the reality of the market is so different from what I had learned. So, I have to acquire new knowledge and follow the senior staff to gain experience.

This indicates that not all kinds of human capital supported the graduates effectively. Contextual situations in the workplace and in the host country significantly impacted their working capability despite acquiring considerable professional knowledge.

Social capital: Relationships and networks with significant others

Relationships and networks that the graduates built with significant others were found to be essential for their employability. A few of them tried to use social networks from university to seek job opportunities. For example, Hulu shared the following:

… Luckily, my university usually organised job fairs for international graduates. Thus, many foreign graduates relied on such events to find potential positions. I found my position via a job fair; otherwise, it would be difficult.

Alternatively, others invested in building social capital with significant others like supervisors and academics who then connected them to potential employers. Such networking becomes a valuable resource for them to navigate the host country job market (Pham, 2021a, 2021b). For instance, Gonga, working as a researcher at a university, stated the following:

During my doctoral study, I closely worked with my supervisor and actively participated in many conferences to share my research and know other colleagues in the field. A professor, whom I had met at a conference, offered me my current job.

In contrast, a few graduates had different experiences with building social capital in China. They found it challenging to develop social relationships to support their job acquisition because their living conditions did not allow them to develop and nurture social connections with local people easily. For example, Dogua shared the following:

We usually lived in the dorm for international students and studied together without many opportunities to engage with the local group. Those settings potentially created a long social distance between us and the Chinese students, the local community, and industry.

This experience shows that while certain Chinese universities provide English-based educational programmes for international students, such settings may not support this cohort to develop their social capital in China. Several international graduates attempted to develop social networks in the local community but could not achieve the goal because of such arrangements.

Cultural capital: Sensitivity to different working environments

Many international graduates consider having cultural sensitivity towards different working environments an essential cultural capital. The research analysis highlights the significance of ‘legitimate language’, which refers to the ability of obtaining the right knowledge, appropriate communication skills, and sensitivity to cultural differences in the workplace. Those who work in an international context tend to have a positive attitude towards their work experiences. As Hazel, working in a business company, shared the following:

I am working in a branch of an international company in China, and many colleagues are foreigners. While Chinese colleagues are the primary cohort, the working environment is very international; I feel it is not challenging to get involved in this context.

This experience suggests that a few graduates could fit into the international working environment without many cross-cultural shocks. These graduates could conduct themselves in legitimatised ways that were recognised by people in the workplace. In contrast, certain graduates who worked in a more ‘Chinese’ context faced further challenges because they felt at odds with the organisational culture and rules. For instance, Frank mentioned the following:

While I can do my work in my university, I feel I am still an ‘outsider’. I noticed that universities might have different policies to manage domestic and international academics. I do not know the apparent differences in practices. However, international academics seemed to be ‘isolated’ or ‘marginalised’ by the central university context and hidden policies. Meanwhile, cultural differences between Chinese and international academics also created barriers in communication and working.

Frank’s experiences suggest that he might have hit an ‘iceberg’ in the workplace when encountering different sociocultural rules without adequate preparation. According to Bourdieu (1986), people should accumulate relevant understanding through inculcation and assimilation to identify this embodied cultural context. Meanwhile, several graduates exploited the cultural capital to secure their positions. Jude, working in a construction company, shared the following:

My company has developmental projects in my home country, so they [the company] recruited me as project manager. I had educational experience in China and knew my home context, which became a significant advantage.

Such a success was importantly due to the graduates’ cultural capital matching the employer’s expectations. These graduates were also able to effectively pick embodied culture and became more confident in social interactions in the workplace. International graduates must develop cultural awareness and agency to identify and navigate such differences (Pham, 2021a, 2021d).

Psychological capital: Positive attitude to deal with issues

Many participants shared that shaping positive attitudes to strategically deal with issues as psychological capital significantly influenced their working experiences. On the one hand, a few graduates indicated positive attitudes towards their working life in China. For example, Hong, working in a private company, mentioned the following:

Learning here may not fully allow me to experience the Chinese context. Meanwhile, as a Korean, I look like a ‘Chinese’ and can speak Chinese and English. So, when people know I can speak Chinese, they feel more friendly to me, and I also feel less challenged when trying to get involved with the local community.

Hong’s experience suggests that she indicated positive attitudes and progressively developed a sense of belonging to the local community, which reflected an active agentic action towards future development (Pham, 2021a, 2021c). Her Chinese language skill and ‘appearance’ became significant capital in her employability development and sociocultural adjustment.

On the other hand, several graduates felt disempowered and indicated strong resistance towards their working life in China. For instance, Lafa shared the following:

I felt difficulty to fit into the local community (e.g., language barriers and unfamiliarity with rules). Sometimes, I am unable to pick the ‘key’ messages of my Chinese colleagues. While I can perform my research well, I encountered many psychological issues in dealing with my Chinese colleagues.

Lafa’s comment could suggest that he found it difficult to socialise with the mainstream people in his context and lacked an empowered sense of agency and a positive attitude to deal with issues (Pham, 2021a, 2021b).

Identity capital: ‘Foreigner’ as a complex role

The analysis showed that the label of ‘foreigner’ could have complex influences on graduates’ employability in China. On the one hand, certain graduates could exploit the identity of a ‘foreigner’. For example, Gaba, a researcher at a university, mentioned the following:

As I know, many Chinese universities are actively recruiting international students and academics, which could help institutions enhance internationalisation and ranking. After completing my doctoral research in China, I received several offers from different universities because I have published articles in many top journals and established some networks with key people in my field. Moreover, I think my identity as a foreigner is an important factor behind the offers.

Gaba’s experience shows that several graduates intentionally make efforts to build their capabilities to develop employability, which progressively establishes their professional identity in a field (Tomlinson, 2017). Meanwhile, like social capital, connecting with significant others is also vital for developing careers (Pham et al., 2019). Notably, international graduates’ identity as ‘foreigners’ seems to serve them as ‘appearance’ capital for developing careers in China. However, some graduates also encountered issues because of such an identity. For example, Diang complained about the following:

Although my company has offered me a position now, I feel unstable because it is difficult to obtain a Chinese permanent residence as a foreigner in China because of their immigration policy. So, I may work here for several years, but if no company supports me, I must leave the country.

According to the above experiences, identity capital in the Chinese labour market may be interpreted variously. On the one hand, it could be personal capability and efforts towards developing future careers and employability (Tomlinson, 2017). On the other hand, the appearance of a ‘foreigner’ could become an ‘identity capital’ in the labour market that motivates internationalisation. Moreover, in the Western context, PR could be a vital identity capital for international graduates to find their positions in the labour market (Pham et al., 2019). However, it may not be the same case in the Chinese context, which has different immigration policies and labour markets compared to other contexts. Notably, this experience suggests that international graduate subjectivities may have different and complex values in different places (Pham, 2021a).

Employability agency: Strategically respond to challenges

There is evidence indicating how graduates in China utilized agency to negotiate employability. As supported by theoretical frameworks, their agency was both aided and limited by various structural and personal factors. Based on the interplay of these factors, they employed different forms of agency to negotiate employability. For instance, Hong, a graduate from a business school, initially faced limitations such as an average academic record and limited knowledge of the local labor market. However, she overcame these limitations by utilizing social capital. As she was confident in social interactions, she engaged in many networking activities such as attending conferences, seminars, and business events. Eventually, she met a senior manager who referred her for a position, and she was offered a job. In this scenario, Hong employed a form of agency known as strength-based agency.

Distinct from Hong’s experiences, there was evidence of a few graduates using agentic capital (Pham & Jackson, 2020) to interlink various capitals to navigate job obstacles. For example, Frank shared that he had completed a postdoc fellowship before receiving his formal academic offer. During the fellowship, he maximised his research productivity because he knew only an excellent research record could help him stand out and secure an academic position. After entering academia, Frank encountered various sociocultural barriers because of a limited understanding of the workplace culture. He learned to observe and reflect to obtain better insights about the ‘legitimate language’, which referred to local people’s hidden rules and preferences.

Discussion

This research study aimed to investigate the employability of international graduates in the Chinese labor market and gain insights into their vocational development in developing countries. The study found several significant findings that addressed the research questions. The findings showed that many international graduates strategically developed various types of capitals, such as human, social, identity, cultural, psychological, and agentic capitals, to navigate the Chinese labor market. Notably, the role of these capitals in the Chinese context was distinct. The study also found that students exercised their agency in different ways to navigate the Chinese labor market. Some students actively prepared and gained capital while studying at Chinese universities, which may support their graduate development. However, some students found it challenging to exercise their capital in the working process. These experiences indicate that workplaces recognize capital differently, which pushes students to change and respond to different requirements strategically.

In this study, it was found that having human capital was an important first step for many international students to adapt to the Chinese labor context. Many universities in China are trying to recruit more international students and scholars to work there, which can enhance the internationalization of higher education and improve cultural diversity on campuses (Dai & Hardy, 2023). While some studies (e.g., Yang, 2022) suggest that international students may not bring high-quality human capital to Chinese society, this research indicates that this situation may be changing. However, whether the Chinese labor market can provide a sustainable environment for both international and domestic graduates to achieve development will affect the mobility of human capital.

Many students in China believe that developing networks and connections with key individuals is crucial for their learning process. Hulu and Gonga intentionally established relationships with people who could support their future development, which eventually helped them secure their positions. However, some students, like Dogua, found it difficult to build such connections and faced challenges in navigating the job market. These findings align with previous studies (e.g., Blackmore & Rahimi, 2019; Pham et al., 2023), which also highlight the significant role of social capital in supporting international students’ employability outcomes in host countries.

While students had different views and experiences on building social capital, their cultural capital also influenced employability in a complex way. For example, language skills (e.g., Chinese and English) played different roles in this context. Aligning with the existing findings that showed the dominant role of English in international students’ employability (Cameron et al., 2019; Pham, 2021d), English skills seemed to be crucial for international graduates in the Chinese labour market as well. However, the Chinese language may not be significant for some international graduates in their working process. The Chinese job market may channel international graduates towards developing international markets, which may lead to an outward-oriented employment direction.

Social capital can offer students opportunities, but it is also essential for them to develop psychological capital to cope with various obstacles. Some students can acquire a positive sense of agency, while others may lack an active attitude towards the issues they encounter. These differences are expected since people have varying psychological attitudes. However, international students working in a new place, with limited knowledge of the sociocultural features, may need to develop an empowered sense of agency, psychological adaptability, and flexibility to tackle challenges (Singh, 2022). How they respond to these challenges can significantly impact their long-term growth and professional identity as international graduates in host contexts.

Identity capital plays a significant role in graduate employability and vocational development. In contrast to the conceptual framework presented by Tomlinson (2017) and other research studies (e.g., Pham, 2021a, 2021b), the analysis of identity capital in this study revealed new insights. On the one hand, identity capital can refer to personal efforts to develop valuable skills for future employment, as evidenced by Gaba’s experiences. On the other hand, as observed in the experiences of Hong and other graduates, their appearance and identity as ‘foreigners’ seemed to be valuable capital in the Chinese job market. Compared to countries such as the US, Canada, and Australia, China is not a traditional immigrant destination, and national policies may not prioritize international students for Chinese permanent residency. However, as China’s economy grows, the country needs to develop the international market and enhance its ‘soft power’ in the higher education context. While international students may not find positions in their co-ethnic community in China, they can leverage their identity capital to gain opportunities in Chinese companies or universities that strategically employ international students to achieve their vocational development goals. Therefore, identity capital has complex meanings and values for both international graduates and Chinese employers.

Moreover, the agency emerged as an essential capital enabling graduates to navigate the Chinese labour market. Several graduates knew how to interlink various forms of capital to enter and sustain their profession. In line with the findings of previous studies (e.g., Pham et al., 2019), international graduates in this study demonstrated strong psychological capital, such as positive attitude and persistence, that helped them overcome real-life challenges. Other skills (e.g., knowing Chinese) also enabled graduates to adjust to the workplace and progressively develop a sense of belonging. Pham (2021a) emphasises that observations and reflections are crucial for developing employment agency. This claim was well-reflected in this study because the graduates with real-life experiences tended to navigate the labour market better.

Conclusion

This study explored how international graduates from Chinese universities navigate the Chinese labour market by analysing different types of capital they developed in China. The findings show that many international graduates can develop various capitals to support their employability and vocational development in China. Meanwhile, they needed to shape their agency in the navigating journey, which could help them strategically adapt their capital in the Chinese labour market. However, some capital (e.g., identity) may have different implications in the Chinese context compared to other countries. The study has the following implications. International students who aim to work in China may need to strategically develop different capital (e.g., social network and professional skills) while studying at Chinese universities. Meanwhile, it is essential to be familiar with the Chinese labour market (e.g., sociocultural contexts, organisational rules, and employers’ needs). Chinese employers may also consider offering more internships to international students who want to work in China and provide a pathway for mutual understanding before offering formal employment. Chinese universities and academics may also enhance employment training and arrange work-integrated learning activities for international students, who are valuable human resources for both the Chinese and international labour markets. It is worth noting that various factors such as the subject of study, language and cultural differences, identity issues, and policies can significantly impact the employability of international graduates. This study marks the beginning of an exploration into how international students acquire the skills and confidence to succeed in the Chinese working environment. Researchers in other locations could also investigate how international graduates navigate different job markets and develop their employment potential. However, this study is limited by its small sample size. Future research could compare how different higher education systems prepare international graduates for employment and career advancement.

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the research participants for sharing their experiences with us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).