Educational Migration in the Semantic Space of Political Science: a Review of Theoretical Approaches

Abstract

Among modern studies on the phenomenon of migration, of particular interest is the work studying and analyzing educational migration as one of the most popular and promising areas of migration. Despite numerous work devoted to the issue of educational migration, latter still remains the least studied migration category. In order to identify current trends and patterns of international educational migration and to trace development of theoretical constructions explaining migration process, author has conducted an analysis of more than 60 scientific publications (both theoretical and empirical studies) of foreign authors on the issues of consideration. Analysis of publications was carried out in context of a critical review of scientific theories and research concepts on educational migration. As the main theories, neoclassical theories of migration of macro (the concept of Push-Pull factors) and micro (the theory of human capital) level, transnational theory and theory of global knowledge were considered. As a result, author notes that educational migration studies are mostly aimed at studying economic aspects of migration, determinants and causes of migration, issue of highly qualified migration, processes of integration and adaptation of foreign students, new directions of student migration, transnational spaces and social migrant networks etc. Publications on the values and axiological aspects of educational migration are much less common. To sum up, based on results of the study, article reveals that vectors of educational migration studies are shaped by transformation occurring in the world and in the global educational environment that directly affects the nature of student migration flows.