Between logics of attractivity and migration management : Third-country national students’ application process to Sweden's Higher Education Institutions

Abstract: In a context where Higher Education Institutions increasingly seek to attract students, this study follows the path of third country national students through their application process. Their particular status, situates them at the intersection between openness and closure. Between internationalization strategies that seek to attract them, and migration management policies that sometimes facilitate, sometimes restrain their movement. In a qualitative approach, it explores the application process’ different steps to Sweden's Higher Education Institutions. It uses Foucault’s governmentality, de Certeau’s strategies and tactics, along with Bourdieu’s understanding of capital, to analyze data issued from nine semi-structured interviews with third country national students, studying or recently graduate from Linköping’s University. Departing from students’ narratives on their application process to Sweden’s Higher Education Institutions, this study unravels the complex links between internationalization strategies and migration management, and how their disciplining effects appear throughout the application process.