In-betweeness: the (dis)connection between here and there. The case of Indian student-migrants in Australia

In recent years the number of Indian international students in Australia has increased considerably, from less than four hundred in the early 1990s to close to a hundred thousand by the end of 2009. This phenomenal growth is, to a large extent, due to the fact that a majority of Indian student inten...

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Main Author: Michiel Baas
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Conserveries Mémorielles 2013-03-01
Series:Conserveries Mémorielles
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cm/1468
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author Michiel Baas
author_facet Michiel Baas
author_sort Michiel Baas
collection DOAJ
description In recent years the number of Indian international students in Australia has increased considerably, from less than four hundred in the early 1990s to close to a hundred thousand by the end of 2009. This phenomenal growth is, to a large extent, due to the fact that a majority of Indian student intends to apply for permanent residency after graduation for which the Australian state had designed clear pathways. As a result education and migration have become highly entangled in Australia. This paper will analyze what it means for young, middle class Indians, to be both students and migrants at the same time. I will do so using the concept of in-betweenness – falling in-between commonly recognized categories – often understood as an ‘accidental state of being’ in literature on migration and transnationalism. I will show, however, that Indian student-migrants very actively seek out this particular state of being as an end goal by itself. As a result this paper will be able to shed light on what – in the Indian case - the (de)coupling of the local and global means, both theoretically and in practice. I will finally make a case against hegemonic ideas of integration which still lean heavily on neoliberal push-and-pull migration models and argue that in order to understand current day migration we need to be open to the possibility that many migrants do not so much seek to integrate themselves in the local but much more into the global.
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spelling doaj-art-b34f1b4f57e34c4ebcdfb52e499bf20f2025-02-05T16:16:27ZdeuConserveries MémoriellesConserveries Mémorielles1718-55562013-03-01In-betweeness: the (dis)connection between here and there. The case of Indian student-migrants in AustraliaMichiel BaasIn recent years the number of Indian international students in Australia has increased considerably, from less than four hundred in the early 1990s to close to a hundred thousand by the end of 2009. This phenomenal growth is, to a large extent, due to the fact that a majority of Indian student intends to apply for permanent residency after graduation for which the Australian state had designed clear pathways. As a result education and migration have become highly entangled in Australia. This paper will analyze what it means for young, middle class Indians, to be both students and migrants at the same time. I will do so using the concept of in-betweenness – falling in-between commonly recognized categories – often understood as an ‘accidental state of being’ in literature on migration and transnationalism. I will show, however, that Indian student-migrants very actively seek out this particular state of being as an end goal by itself. As a result this paper will be able to shed light on what – in the Indian case - the (de)coupling of the local and global means, both theoretically and in practice. I will finally make a case against hegemonic ideas of integration which still lean heavily on neoliberal push-and-pull migration models and argue that in order to understand current day migration we need to be open to the possibility that many migrants do not so much seek to integrate themselves in the local but much more into the global.https://journals.openedition.org/cm/1468migrationtransnationalmobilityinternational students
spellingShingle Michiel Baas
In-betweeness: the (dis)connection between here and there. The case of Indian student-migrants in Australia
Conserveries Mémorielles
migration
transnational
mobility
international students
title In-betweeness: the (dis)connection between here and there. The case of Indian student-migrants in Australia
title_full In-betweeness: the (dis)connection between here and there. The case of Indian student-migrants in Australia
title_fullStr In-betweeness: the (dis)connection between here and there. The case of Indian student-migrants in Australia
title_full_unstemmed In-betweeness: the (dis)connection between here and there. The case of Indian student-migrants in Australia
title_short In-betweeness: the (dis)connection between here and there. The case of Indian student-migrants in Australia
title_sort in betweeness the dis connection between here and there the case of indian student migrants in australia
topic migration
transnational
mobility
international students
url https://journals.openedition.org/cm/1468
work_keys_str_mv AT michielbaas inbetweenessthedisconnectionbetweenhereandtherethecaseofindianstudentmigrantsinaustralia