Transnational Mobilities – From International Education to Professional Migration in Australia

Abstract

This article explores the significant contributions in the body of research on Australian two-step migration to the field of migration and transnationalism. It also evaluates some pitfalls within the diverse research directions. While the policy stream considers education-related migration as fixed arrival movements, the body of research on transnationalism views the way skilled migrants make sense of transnational mobilities as an ongoing process. By considering transnational mobilities as embodied experiences constituted through migrants’ engagement with the world, this article calls for a theoretical and methodological approach that pays attention to migrants’ interactions with others and things across multiple domains of life and policy discourse.