April 12, 2011 at 13.30-17.00
Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, room 18.1.08
In Europe and North America, the mobility of youths has increased with the internationalization and commercialization of the educational market, combined with the need for labour in certain occupational niches. Such mobility has been supported by an influential political discourse touting international experiences as a vital means whereby young people can improve their career opportunities and enjoy a period of transformative personal development during an important formative period of their lives.
This seminar focuses on different forms of student and professional migration in the context of this discourse of internationalization. It will address questions such as: How does this discourse of internationalization frame youth mobility? What kinds of international experiences are actually engendered by this kind of mobility and how do they affect the subsequent career choices of the youths? In the light of major discrepancies between youths’ experiences and the claims of the discourse of internationalization, why does this discourse continue to be so powerful, and whose interests does it serve?
13.30 -13.45 Welcome
13.45 -14.30 Train to export: nurse education in Nepal and increased opportunities for international migration for Nepali nurses
Radha Adhikari, University of Edinburgh
14.30 - 15.15 In Pursuit of the ‘Full Ride’: American Athletic Scholarships and Mobility, Sport and Childhood in Canada
Noel Dyck, Simon Fraser University
15.15 - 15.45 Coffee / tea
15.45 -16.30 Student Mobility and Internationalization: Rationales, Rhetoric and ‘Institutional Isomorphism’
Vered Amit, Concordia University
16.30 - 17.00 Concluding discussion
Train to export: nurse education in Nepal and increased opportunities for international migration for Nepali nurses
Radha Adhikari, University of Edinburgh
Professional nurse education has been perceived both as a means and an end towards international migration. This is particularly evident in Nepal’s context. Nursing education in Nepal was initially established under British and American leadership, supported by the World Health Organisation and foreign aid. It was central to the introduction of western scientific biomedical ideas; ideas very different from the traditional health beliefs and care systems in Nepal. Nursing education allows westerners to travel to Nepal to practice and transfer their professional knowledge and skills, as well as Nepali nurses to journey abroad in pursuit of international opportunities. The international migration of Nepali nurses began mainly after the new millennium, and by 2010, between four to five thousand Nepali nurses have migrated to western countries, particularly the UK, US and Australia. Many young women now take up a nursing education in Nepal with the primary intention of working abroad; others travel abroad to obtain this education. Nursing education programmes in Nepal are becoming increasingly international in nature and training is designed to cater for “global” healthcare needs. In this paper I examine young Nepali women’s aspirations to become nurses and the available professional and social support networks to fulfil these dreams. The neo-political economic climate that facilitates this rise in education will be the context for the presentation of case studies of nurses; how they are educated, their subsequent migration processes, and their experiences of living and working in the UK.
In Pursuit of the ‘Full Ride’: American Athletic Scholarships and Mobility, Sport and Childhood in Canada
Noel Dyck, Simon Fraser University
This paper examines the pursuit by Canadian youths of athletic scholarships offered by American colleges and universities, situating their individual efforts within longstanding family projects of child rearing as well as the operations of local sport organizations. Asking why and how the prestige attached in Canada to American athletic scholarships continues to be upheld despite ample evidence of problems associated with this means of obtaining an undergraduate education, the analysis focuses upon the ways in which Canadian youth athletes in the U.S., parents, coaches and college officials play their respective parts in sustaining a distinctive form of coming of age.
Student Mobility and Internationalization: Rationales, Rhetoric and ‘Institutional Isomorphism’
Vered Amit, Concordia University
Drawing on interviews with Canadian and Australian officials, this paper seeks to examine the framing of student mobility within a broader discourse of internationalization. Difficulties in definition, and admitted shortfalls in achieving progress even on the more easily articulated benchmarks of student mobility do not seem to staunch the enthusiasm of a variety of officials for the idea of internationalization. This paper will examine some of the paradoxes of as well as factors impelling institutional discourses of internationalization. It will argue that a longstanding Western view of travel as a vehicle for self cultivation and transformation combined with competitive efforts to keep up with perceived trends in the fields of postsecondary education are producing a momentum that is elusive even as it threatens to steamroller across important institutional practices and procedures.
The research seminar organized jointly by the Department of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, and the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University.
