Otherness and international student migration: A critical discourse analysis-based study

What is it about?

This study investigates how international student migration from China has been shaped by a disturbing trend underpinned by the myth of Western supremacy. The investigation is conducted through a critical discourse analysis of U.S. news coverage of the cross-border movement of undergraduate Chinese international students attending U.S. higher education institutions. The findings of the study suggest that the myth of Western supremacy can be conceptualized with reference to two interwoven processes. One process is encapsulated in the discursive construction of an “us–them” paradigm. Accompanied by this process, a set of onto-epistemological boundaries between the students’ home and host countries were reified through the polarized assignment of negative out-group representations to the former and positive in-group representations to the latter. The other process is encapsulated in the discursive construction of a “(neither) us–(nor) them” dilemma. Accompanied by this process, the subject positions of the students were manipulatively framed through the prism of the said “us–them” paradigm.

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Photo by Krzysztof Hepner on Unsplash

Photo by Krzysztof Hepner on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Using U.S. news media reporting on international student migration from China as an example, this study brings to the fore a discursively oriented perspective to investigate the myth of Western supremacy in the context of international higher education. The study demonstrates that the driving force behind the myth of Western supremacy can be conceptualized in relation to the discursive constructions of the “us–them” paradigm and the “(neither) us–(nor) them” dilemma. Untangling the “us–them” paradigm and the “(neither) us–(nor) them” dilemma constitutes a pivotal step toward problematizing and deconstructing the dominant West/non-West divide and its roles in pathologizing the cross-border movement of international students.