Socioeconomic status, cosmopolitanism, and educational aspirations: A study of China’s middle-class students pursuing higher education in the U.S. amidst geopolitical tensions

As the demand for American education has been growing in China in the last two decades, it is important to understand the desire of Chinese students for pursuing their higher education in the U.S. Based on a recent survey of Chinese students in the U.S., this study intersects the desire for education abroad with social class theories, particularly on how China’s middle class view studying in the U.S. as a way of pursuing their global mobility as well as social mobility, and how their desires intersect with the interests of state, market, society as well as interests of family and self. The study employs both qualitative and quantitative research design in order to understand how Chinese middle-class students see studying in the U.S. as a means to seek cosmopolitan capital and self-development. It examines which socio-economic factors have significant impacts on the motivations of China’s middle-class students pursuing their higher education in the U.S. The findings reveal that middle-class families view studying abroad in the U.S. as a way of pursuing their global mobility, social mobility as well as cosmopolitan capital.