Language as agency in international student mobility

Language in international student mobility is often framed as a matter of proficiency, reducing complex experiences to deficits and overlooking the structural forces shaping higher education. This paper reframes the discussion by focusing on international students’ agency as it is exercised through language, examining how linguistic practices mediate their engagement with educational and transnational mobility. Drawing on qualitative data from an ethnographic study across the UK, Denmark, and Germany, we explore how international students navigate language in everyday social interactions, and mobility opportunities in context. We employ two conceptual lenses – self-formation, highlighting students’ reflexive agency and hybrid identity negotiation, and the education-migration nexus, situating students’ choices within structural, policy, and economic dynamics. Our analysis shows that language functions as both a medium and a resource through which international students enact agency, negotiate belonging, and strategically position themselves across academic, social, and migratory domains. The study challenges reductive deficit framings and emphasises the interplay between individual agency and structural constraints in shaping international student mobility.