Chinese Student Mobility and the Capacity to Aspire: A New Wave of Self-Aspiration

Abstract

This article examines Chinese student mobility by focusing on mainland Chinese students pursuing higher education at Northern Thai universities. Moving beyond the limitations of the push-pull framework, the study applies Appadurai’s (2004) concept of capacity to aspire to understand how educational decisions are socially constructed and developed through transnational mobility. Drawing on qualitative data from in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, the findings show that interactions between structural conditions in China and opportunities in Northern Thailand influence students’ decisions. The study also demonstrates that students actively interpret these conditions through aspirations shaped by family expectations, social class, and prior experiences. By highlighting these dynamics, the study positions Northern Thailand as an emerging regional hub in global higher education and offers a reconceptualization of student mobility as a socially embedded and dynamic aspirational process. The findings have implications for internationalization strategies and student support systems in Thai higher education.