Swimming like a fish and fishing in the ocean: the role of imagination in Chinese students' choices to go abroad and the influence of Dutch policy.

Abstract

Since China’s rapid economic development, the amount of Chinese students going to study abroad increased tremendously. This study focuses on why Chinese students come to study in the Netherlands, what role imagination plays in their decision-making process and how policymakers shape this imagination to their own benefit. Imagination is both personal and shared and also normative in that it determines what students should strive for and where they should obtain it. In-depth interviews were held with 9 Chinese students and 13 policymakers and a survey (N=466) was spread amongst Chinese students to support and complement the qualitative data. The Chinese students in this study were all attracted by the image that studying abroad can give them something that China cannot. Their imagination was formed by their own subjectivity, the collective imagination that the West equals quality and the marketing strategies of the policymakers that reinforced their already dominant images.