Conference Agenda

The purpose of this paper is to provide a synthesis as well as an evaluation of previous qualitative literature on education and employment trajectories of migrant background students in higher and vocational education in Europe. Since the previous research on this topic is fragmented across disciplines, in order to identify common patterns and develop new insights, a meta-synthesis is needed. The reason for choosing two different groups for study of ‘international’ and ‘migrant’ students is to ensure comprehensive study of transition from education to the labour market. While both groups might seem to overlap, they represent a different immigration system. The mobility of international students is due to the pursuit of education; however, migrants' students usually move due to family ties and asylum. Some students enrolled in vocational education programs may be recruited from abroad too. Nonetheless, irrespective of the recruitment pathway, the primary objective of engaging in vocational education is to attain entry into the local labor market. This is not necessarily the case for international students in higher education.

The present study is related to the Transforming Immigration Systems for Future Skills (TRIM) project, which is funded by the Strategic Funding Council at the Research Council of Finland (project 372292). The project's objective is to assess the capacity of the Finnish immigration system to facilitate the economic, sustainable, and equitable integration of foreign-background individuals into the Finnish education and labor markets. Throughout the course of this project, the term "immigration system" is employed in a broad sense, encompassing both the competence-based (e.g., employment and academic pursuits) and human rights-based (e.g., protection and familial support) subsystems. The present study places particular emphasis on the competence-based subsystem, with a focus on transitions from education to employment.

Like other European countries, the decline in the birth rates and rise in aging population of Finland has increased the importance of international students as a potential source of skilled labour (OECD, 2023). The present problem is analogous to the migration statistics observed throughout Europe. These challenges are accompanied by a global talent attraction competition and increasing numbers of international and migrant students at all levels of education. The current discussions on international and migrant students are oftentimes limited to talent attraction and retention while undermining the humanity aspect of migration experienced by separating human capital out of talent (Waters et al., 2024). Yet some earlier research has pointed out that migrant integration is a complex phenomenon. Next to structural integration (education, work), social, cultural, linguistic, and political are evenly important (OECD, 2019). We aim to explore these topics further and synthetize so far gained knowledge/research on the topic by asking the following research question:

• What common conditions, constraints and opportunities shape migrant students’ transitions from education to (un/under) employment across European countries?

In this study, "transitions" is defined as both individual progressions in studies and careers, as well as the institutional regimes that facilitate these transitions. Concomitantly, we acknowledge the particularities inherent in both higher and vocational education contexts and institutional frameworks in terms of creating opportunities or constraints to migrant background students’ transitions from education to employment (Sahradyan, 2022).

Europe has been an important yet overlooked place for the mobility of migrant background students (Brooks, 2018), who play an important role in the academic, financial, and cultural aspects of the host country. European countries have been active in implementing policies to make the continent an attractive destination for students from migrant backgrounds (Altbach & Knight, 2007). Vocational education has been acknowledged for its potential to unlock migrants’ skills (Bergseng et al., 2019). Despite of the increasing numbers of students with migrant backgrounds in international and vocational programmes, the research on how participation in these programmes relates to these students' ability to get and keep a job is rather fragmented at the moment (Eliasson et al., 2022).

This study examines how higher education in Flanders works —both structurally and in lived experience—as a form of social investment for highly educated refugees and newcomers (R&N). Research repeatedly shows that many highly educated migrants end up in jobs that they are overqualified for, a problem often called “brain waste” (Mattoo et al., 2008; Eurostat, 2022b; Dietz et al., 2015). Social investment theories suggest that education should reduce this by helping people develop their knowledge and skills and participate in society (Hemerijck, 2018; Bonoli, 2020). However, integration is also described as a “weak spot” for social investment strategies and procedures in Europe, as they tend to work best for people with stable documentation and immediate readiness to comply with formal requirements (Hemerijck & Patuzzi, 2021).

In this study, we address one overarching research question: To what extent do English-taught programs in Flanders help highly educated newcomers re-enter university and rebuild their careers, and where do the systems themselves create barriers? To answer this question, we looked at two things: what universities offer for R&N and how that offer lived and experienced in practice.

In Phase 1, we mapped English-taught degree and certificate programmes across 18 Flemish HEIs (12 universities of applied sciences and 6 research universities) using publicly available information from official institutional websites. The mapping shows that while English-taught programmes are growing, they are not evenly spread across institutions and disciplines. Research universities tend to offer a broad range of English-taught master’s programmes, while universities of applied sciences and arts offer a narrower selection in their bachelor and postgraduate programmes. However, these programmes often concentrate in certain disciplines such as business, engineering, ICT/STEM, and creative industries. English-taught pathways remain very limited in several socially essential fields, including social work, health care and education. Moreover, admissions systems are complex and fragmented, often requiring formalized documents and language certifications that are difficult to obtain for R&N. Financial models maintain a high cost barrier for non-EEA students, despite partial access to grants for recognized refugees.

Phase 2 adds a photovoice component documenting newcomer students’ first-hand experiences of admissions and arrival procedures. A thematic analysis points to four intertwined domains of barriers—administrative, financial, practical, and social-emotional—whose prominence shifts over time. Pre-arrival experiences are shaped by documentation demands, delays, and financial uncertainty, while post-arrival experiences foreground the need for clearer communication, predictable procedures, culturally responsive support, and early access to peer networks. These experiences align with international research showing that newcomers often face unique challenges due to their disrupted educational trajectories and limited resources (McBrien, 2005; UNESCO, 2018; Soberon et al., 2017).

Integrating both phases reveals a tension at the heart of English-taught programmes in Flanders. For some R&N, English programmes can function as a meaningful gateway into higher education. Yet the combined evidence also shows how current structures tend to favour applicants who can mobilise stable documentation, pay high costs, and comply with standardised language proof requirements—conditions that are unequally distributed for R&N. As a result, higher education risks reproducing mismatch rather than reducing it (Aleksynska & Tritah, 2013; Mattoo et al., 2008). From a social investment perspective, the central issue is therefore not only whether English-taught programmes are available, but whether access and support conditions are designed as developmental pathways rather than primarily as selection mechanisms (Bonoli, 2020; Hemerijck & Patuzzi, 2021).

This study examines how Chinese sexual and gender minority (SGM) international students experience belonging and exclusion within UK higher education institutions (HEIs), focusing on how intersecting identities shape their academic participation, social relations, and access to institutional support. Positioned within research on inclusion and diversity in higher education, the study responds to persistent gaps in European scholarship concerning racially and culturally minoritised sexual and gender minority students.

Across Europe, higher education has increasingly articulated commitments to equality, diversity, and inclusion, particularly in the context of expanding international student mobility. In the UK, these commitments are reflected in legislative and policy frameworks such as the Equality Act (2010) and institution-level LGBTQ+ inclusion strategies. However, research suggests that such frameworks often rely on universalised assumptions about identity and inclusion, which can obscure the experiences of students whose lives are shaped by race, nationality, language, and transnational cultural norms (Formby, 2017; Woodford et al., 2017). As a result, inclusion is frequently enacted symbolically rather than experienced substantively.

Existing studies on LGBTQ+ students in higher education document ongoing challenges related to discrimination, identity concealment, and campus climate (Rankin, 2003; Stonewall, 2017). However, this literature remains predominantly focused on Western-born student populations. Research on international students, by contrast, has tended to prioritise issues of academic adjustment and cultural adaptation, rarely engaging with sexuality and gender as analytically central dimensions (Gu & Schweisfurth, 2015; Parkes, 2023). Chinese SGM students occupy a particularly complex position, navigating UK institutional environments while remaining shaped by sociocultural contexts in which non-heteronormative identities are frequently stigmatised or silenced (Chi & Hawk, 2016; Wei, 2023). This study addresses this empirical and conceptual gap by foregrounding their lived experiences.

The study is guided by two research questions. First, how do Chinese SGM international students experience academic life, social interaction, and institutional belonging in UK HEIs? Within this, how are these experiences mediated by intersecting identities such as sexuality, gender, race, nationality, and language? Second, how effectively do existing institutional policies and support practices respond to the needs of this group, and what limitations emerge in practice? Together, these questions enable an examination of inclusion not merely as a policy objective, but as an everyday institutional process.

The research draws on qualitative data generated through semi-structured interviews with Chinese SGM international students. This approach allows for close engagement with lived experience and meaning-making, which is particularly important when examining marginalisation that operates through subtle, relational, and institutionalised forms (Creswell, 2013; Bhattacharya, 2017). Although empirically situated in the UK, the study speaks to broader European debates on diversity and internationalisation by highlighting how inclusion frameworks travel across cultural contexts and how their limitations are revealed through the experiences of mobile, minoritised students.

The analysis is informed by an integrated theoretical framework combining intersectionality, queer theory, and critical race theory. Intersectionality provides the primary analytical lens, conceptualising identity as mutually constituted rather than additive (Crenshaw, 1989; Collins & Bilge, 2016). Queer theory is employed to question normative institutional assumptions about sexuality, gender, and visibility that often underpin inclusion initiatives (Butler, 1990). Critical race theory situates these experiences within structural power relations, highlighting how racialisation, language hierarchies, and institutional norms reproduce exclusion even within formally inclusive settings (Delgado & Stefancic, 2023; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Together, these perspectives enable a critical analysis of how inclusion is produced, constrained, and contested within contemporary higher education.