International Student Mobilities and Voices in the Asia-Pacific : Letters to Coronavirus

This edited volume explores core questions on education and transnational mobility in a time characterized by a global pandemic, recasting them through the lenses of regimes, experiences, and aspirations. The volume brings together 19 short essays in the form of letters addressed to the coronavirus and written by international students , together with nine striking illustrations that depict emotive scenes from the essays, and nine academic commentaries that analytically link these personal narratives to broader societal structures. This book represents a timely intervention, providing an intimate glimpse into young people’s hopes and the challenges they face concerning their education and mobility. Foreword Editor’s Preface Acknowledgments Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures 1 Introduction International Students Displaced, Vulnerabilized, and Activated Scope, Aims, and Contributions Bridging International Student Voices and Analyses Regional Focus on the Asia–Pacific Theoretical Underpinnings Organization of Book Part 1: Regimes—Borders, Norms, and Divisions Part 2: Experiences—Emotions, Velocity, and Habits Part 3: Aspirations—Suspension and Freedom References Part I Regimes: Borders, Norms, and Divisions 2 Letters on Borders A Letter to the Coronavirus: The Border that Connects and Divides Invisibility and Immobility: International Students as Afterthoughts in the Pandemic 3 The New Borders of Covid-19: An International Student Perspective Introduction (Emerging) Borders of the Covid-19 Pandemic Legislative Border Frameworks Bordered Relationships Borders in Learning Borders, Inequality, and Precarities of the Pandemic Conclusion References 4 Letters on Norms We Are Not Done Yet Navigating Norms of Life and Study in the Time of COVID-19: A Queer Doctoral Student’s Narrative A Married Queer Couple Locked in Two Countries A Doctoral Student’s New Life Routine Final Remarks Education the New (Ab)Normal Notes 5 Visible Norms: COVID-19 and the Challenge to Global Higher Education Practices Norms of Educational Practices Norms of Mobility Norms of Expectations The New Normal? References 6 Letters on Divisions Face-Changing COVID The Missing ‘Sense of Shared Calamity’ Among the Youth Notes 7 COVIDivides Within CORONAtionalism: International Student Experiences of Racial Othering and Nationalist Distancing Introduction Division and Globalization COVIDivides Development and Class Divides Ethnic and Cultural Divides Education and Digital Divides International Students as Intersections of Multi-Scalar Inequalities Displacement: International Students as the “Racialised Other” Nationalist Distancing: International Students as Their Own Nationals Conclusion References Part II Experiences: Emotions, Velocity and Habits 8 Letters on Emotions To Leave, or to Stay, That is a Question Living with Real Uncertainty: A Wave of Emotions of a Final Year Ph.D. Student Amid COVID-19 Crown Trials February 2020—First Hearing April 2020—Second Hearing July 2020—Recess December 2020—Judgment Oh COVID-19!: A New Era of International Education Marked by the Internet, Camera, Speaker, and Microphone 9 Navigating Desire, Despondency, Disconnectedness, and Disillusionment: International Students’ Emotional Turmoil Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic Anchoring ISM Emotions: Educational Desire and Its Spatial–Temporal Disruption Emotional Turmoil Unpacked Educational Desire and Despondency Familial and Social Disconnectedness Self-Doubt and Disillusionment Coping Strategies: Emotional Labor and Beyond Concluding Thoughts References 10 Letters on Velocity Zoomin’ Across the Pacific Ocean Pause and Ponder: Retrograde Grading in Higher Education Note 11 Learning on Pause? The Ambivalent and Conflicting Velocities of International Student Mobilities in Pandemic Times Introduction Pausing to Reflect on Velocity Contradictory Velocities of Higher Education (Re)Zooming Study Across the Pacific The Two-Body Problem Re-Assessing Higher Education Moving Forward Notes References 12 Letters on Habits Thank You Letter to the Crowned Teacher Adapt and Carry on: Understand the Changing of International Student Daily Habits Under the Pandemic Reshaping My Life During the Pandemic: How I Have Built a Newborn Relationship with My “Family” 13 Pandemic Recalibration of Habits Introduction Pandemic Recalibration of Habits Among International Students Spatial Adjustments and Relocation of Social Time Normalization of Digital Communicative Habits Physical-Mental Well-Being and Agency Concluding Thoughts References Part III Aspirations: Suspension and Freedom 14 Letters on Suspension Planning to Unplan: A Reflection of Learning and Living in the Time of Coronavirus Suspended There and Back Again: Ambivalent Meditations and Lifeways of the Ph.D. Fieldwork at Home 15 Temporal Suspension, Precarity, and Agency Among International Students During the COVID-19 Introduction Times, Temporalities, and ISM: Temporal Suspension, Precarity, and Agency Suspended Times/Temporalities: Stillness, Waiting, and Uncertainty Precarious Times/Temporalities: Vulnerability, Exclusion, and Instability Temporal Agency Immobility as a Strategy Positive Waiting Conclusion References 16 Letters on Freedom “You Guys Were OK Before the Pandemic?” Coping with Mental Health Disorders as an International Student in Singapore During COVID-19 “To Go or not to Go?”: Freedom in Flux 17 “Freedom in Flux” and “Were You Guys OK Before the Pandemic?”: A Conversation on International Students, Academic Mobilities, Higher Education, and Society at Large Introduction Freedom in Flux Artemio Le-Ha Artemio Le-Ha Were You Guys OK Before the Pandemic? Le-Ha Artemio Le-Ha Artemio Le-Ha Final Considerations and Conclusion References Index This edited volume explores core questions on education and transnational mobility in a time characterized by a global pandemic, recasting them through the lenses of regimes, experiences, and aspirations. The volume brings together 20 short essays in the form of letters addressed to the coronavirus and written by international students, together with eight striking illustrations that depict emotive scenes from the essays, and eight academic commentaries that analytically link these personal narratives to broader societal structures. This book represents a timely intervention, providing an intimate glimpse into young people's hopes and the challenges they face concerning their education and mobility.