Senior Assistant Professor and Director of the Institute of Asian Studies Koh Sin Yee recently published a journal article entitled “Racial Sensemaking and International Student Mobility: Mainland Chinese Students in Singapore and Malaysia Navigating Multiculturalism and Multiracialism” in Ethnic and Racial Studies (Q1, Scopus). The article is co-authored with Madeleine Shutler (National University of Singapore) and Professor Brenda Yeoh (National University of Singapore).
The article uses the concept of racial sensemaking (i.e. a subjective, meaning-making process through which people interpret and explain racial experiences) to comparatively analyse the reflexive experiences of multiculturalism and multiracialism amongst mainland Chinese international students in Singapore and Malaysia who were interviewed in 2023-2024.
Through foregrounding micro-level experiences of multiculturalism and multiracialism that underpin and reshape education migration, the article enriches economistic explanations of study aspirations and experiences, situating them within racialised geopolitical dynamics.
Read the open access article.
Abstract:
Using the concept of racial sensemaking, we analyse the reflexive experiences of multiculturalism and multiracialism among mainland Chinese international students in Singapore and Malaysia interviewed in 2023-2024. We treat racial sensemaking as a dynamic process that shifts across time and space, shaping migrant decision-making and behaviour. Our analysis highlights three spatio-temporalities: (a) racial sensemaking from afar, focusing on pre-migration subjectivities; (b) racial sensemaking in the contact zone of embodied encounters, centring on experiences at destination; and (c) racial sensemaking and future-making, exploring aspirations and projections of self onto a changing world stage. Using a critical race approach, we foreground micro-level experiences of multiculturalism and multiracialism that underpin and reshape education migration. This perspective enriches economistic explanations of study aspirations and experiences by situating them within racialised geopolitical dynamics. We urge international student mobility scholars to pursue contextually grounded inquiries attentive to how racial sensemaking informs migration trajectories and educational futures.
