Who achieves superior rates of upward social mobility and better labor market outcomes in China: international student returnees or postgraduates who study domestically?

Given the growth in student mobility and transnational higher education, there is an abundance of research on international students’ studying and living experiences in a new environment. However, their poststudy transitions and social mobility have rarely been touched. This study addresses how student returnees perform in China’s labor market and social mobility, following their accomplishment of their master degree in the UK and return to China. In theoretical considerations of the graduates’ social mobility, Bourdieu’s capital theory helps identify the capital accumulation and conversion in the social mobility process. Based on a survey to collect data, 756 questionnaires are collected, including 347 questionnaires for returnees and 409 questionnaires for home graduates. Multi-regression model and visualization are employed to analyze the collected data. This study reports that home graduates have better performance in social mobility than their peers. Additionally, employment preference and spatial mobility between international and home graduates represent large diversity.