“Immigrants of doubtful value”

This chapter shows that policies are also best understood as both text and discourse, which are, in turn, translated, enacted, contested, differentially represented, mediated, and resisted by human actors on the ground. It discusses part of soft power, economic agents, sources of income, temporary subjects, and, finally, immigrants of doubtful value. Shifting discourse about international students afford “considerable analytical leeway in accounting for change”. The notion that international students are economic agents “is built around the claim that a global battle for talent is underway”. In an “international students as sources of income” policy discourse, notions of international students as economic agents who contribute to the labour market take second place to the crucial – indeed, essential – role they have in improving the financial bottom-line for education providers. International students may also be perceived as “immigrants of doubtful value”.