Migration aspirations and polymorphic identifications of the homeland: (im)mobility trajectories amongst Chinese international students amidst COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Drawing on longitudinal research with 33 Chinese international students in 10 European countries, this article examines their polymorphic identifications towards homeland and asks how these changing perceptions constitute the underlying logic of their particular migration aspirations during the COVID-19. Specifically, the article explores how homeland identifications function as a driving force to facilitate ‘voluntary immobility' in the study destination while being used as a tackling strategy to adapt to their ‘involuntary immobility' overseas. It also examines how these identifications articulate with the students' mixing and shifting migration aspirations formulated during the pandemic. In doing so, the article demonstrates that polymorphic perceptions closely relate to the generation, exercise and reproduction of their migration aspirations that are temporally distributed.