Bamberger, Annette;
Kim, Min Ji;
Lee, Seungah Sarah;
Yan, Fei;
(2025)
Politicizing Mobility in the COVID-19 Pandemic: International Student Mobility in Israel, China, and the United Arab Emirates.
Social Justice Research
10.1007/s11211-025-00455-3.
(In press).
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Abstract
We critically examine the politicization of international student mobility (ISM) during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on Israel, China, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Applying Vicki Squire’s framework of the politics of control and migration, we reveal how the pandemic intensified existing political tensions and inequalities, challenging depoliticized narratives of ISM. The study demonstrates how crises magnify societal organizing principles and embed mobility policies within broader struggles over national identity, economic priorities, and geopolitical strategies. In Israel, selective border reopening exposed tensions between religious and secular interests, with lobbying efforts shaping mobility outcomes. China’s intensified regulation of ISM highlighted the state’s efforts to leverage mobility as a tool for soft power, narrative control, and geopolitical positioning. In the UAE, private universities adapted by targeting ‘permanently temporary’ expatriates with tuition incentives, revealing systemic inequities within its dual-track higher education system. Our analysis underscores ISM as a dynamic and contested field shaped by the interplay of state power, institutional strategies, and individual agency. We highlight the co-constitutive relationship between control and migration politics, demonstrating how mobility evolves across governance systems and through negotiation and resistance. These findings offer critical insights into ISM’s role as a site of political contestation and its implications for equity, access, and social justice.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Politicizing Mobility in the COVID-19 Pandemic: International Student Mobility in Israel, China, and the United Arab Emirates |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s11211-025-00455-3 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-025-00455-3 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; International students; Geopolitics; International student mobility; Social justice; Internationalization |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10209169 |
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