“The grass is greener further away, right?

Socio-geographic imaginaries and psycho-social motivations of short-term student mobilities

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32674/ck6f2x62

Keywords:

international student mobility, higher education regionalization, metaphors, myths, Singapore, Asia

Abstract

 Singapore undergraduates prefer European destinations to Asian ones for semester-long exchanges, despite sustained efforts to enhance regional mobility within Asia. This research examines how ideological conditions, including socio-geographic imaginaries, sustain these preferences. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 63 local undergraduates from three universities in Singapore and used Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) to analyze emergent themes regarding worldviews, metaphors, and myths. We found that students’ preferences are discursively sustained by interlocking perceptions of cosmopolitan normativity, Asian homogeneity, and essentialized Asianness of Singapore’s identity. These worldviews are in turn stabilized by metaphors of distance (like “broadening horizons”) and the bildungsroman mythical journey of a fledgling leaving the nest, contextually salient to life stage experiences of Singaporean young adults. Our findings illustrate the importance of considering the interplay between socio-geographic imaginaries and the social meanings of specific mobility programs, extending limited research on the ideological factors shaping short-term student mobilities.

Author Biographies

  • Ming Wei Ang, Nanyang Technological University

    Ming Wei Ang, PhD, recently graduated from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His major research interests include sexuality and gender, intimate relationships, and futures. 

  • Peidong Yang, Nanyang Technological University

    Peidong Yang (DPhil, Oxford) is an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. A sociologist of education, Peidong’s research concerns the intersections between education and migration/mobility. He is the author of International Mobility and Educational Desire: Chinese Foreign Talent Students in Singapore (2016) and numerous journal articles on topics including international student mobility, identity, integration, and social studies education. In 2023 and 2024, Peidong was ranked by Stanford University as among the world’s top 2% scientist in the field of education. 

  • Yan Yun Toh, Nanyang Technological University

    Toh Yan Yun is a final-year Sociology undergraduate at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research interests centre on the intersections of gender, class, and power, with a focus on how structural inequalities are navigated in everyday life. She has presented at the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).

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Published

2026-01-15

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Vol. 16 No. 1 (2026): Journal of International Students

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Research Articles (English, regular edition)

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How to Cite

Ang, M. W., Yang, P., & Toh, Y. Y. (2026). “The grass is greener further away, right? Socio-geographic imaginaries and psycho-social motivations of short-term student mobilities. Journal of International Students, 16(1), 91-110. https://doi.org/10.32674/ck6f2x62