Selected Others in a Non-Western Host: Racialized Governance of Southeast Asian Students in Taiwan’s Technical and Vocational Higher Education under the New Southbound Policy

This article examines how Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy constructs and governs Southeast Asian students within higher education internationalization. Drawing on critical discourse and policy analysis of public policy documents, institutional materials, recruitment discourse, and related media sources from 2016 to 2024, the study argues that Southeast Asian students are positioned as “selected others”: welcomed as regional partners and future talent while also subject to differentiated forms of linguistic, administrative, and labor-oriented governance. Focusing particularly on Taiwan’s technical and vocational higher education sector, the analysis identifies three interrelated dynamics: selective inclusion by nationality and educational track, Mandarin as a technology of governance, and the regional reproduction of Western-centric internationalization logics across East Asia. By situating Taiwan as a non-Western host within Global South debates, the article contributes to critical internationalization scholarship by showing how racialized governance can operate through hospitality, developmentalism, and regional cooperation.