Cultural Capital and the Transnational Mobility of Asian Middle-Class Students to Germany

Abstract

This paper reports the motivations of middle-class Asian students who choose German universities of applied sciences under the third wave of international student mobility. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the students’ qualitative experiences in Asian countries that influenced their preference for German universities of applied sciences and their expectations of their German degree as cultural capital. The research analyzes the family, school, peer experiences of 23 Asian students currently enrolled in a German university of applied sciences to understand their motivations for choosing this type of institution and Germany. The findings reveal that the cultural capital that influenced their choice includes differentiation strategies of middle-class students, reasonable education investment choices of Asian students, and the use of a German degree as a trump card in the labor market. The study provides implications for the development of international higher education by connecting Asian students’ aspirations for global cultural capital to a complex and atypical structure that encompasses global, national, and individual dimensions simultaneously.