ABSTRACT
In a world of ever-increasing border control, international skilled migration is one of the few forms of mobility that is seen as acceptable in public discourses and in immigration policies globally.1 Skilled migrants are an exception to the tendency towards increasing border control; they are often welcomed as they are seen as drivers of the global economy (Shachar 2006) of education systems (Robertson 2013), as talented and creative (Solimano 2008; Yeoh and Huang 2013), and as cosmopolitan subjects (Andersson 2013). Hence, they are politically, culturally, socially, and economically seen as more “acceptable” than most other groups. Skilled migrants are seen as being part of the global and in fact, of fashioning the global, through their businesses. However, this global imperative comes up against strong local factors as education is part of welfare policy and hence, subject to national ambitions and legacies. In this chapter we outline how placebased national higher education (HE) policies become noticeable with the introduction of international institutions, students, and staff in the local context. This takes place within the history of HE and it is argued that such a longitudinal perspective is necessary for understanding HE as an evolving and dynamic site where internationalism and localism meet. Using the example of South Africa, we explore how the national history of HE policies as they evolved through the apartheid period and after the dismantling of apartheid has meant that the nature and engagement with internationalization has become skewed.
