Crossing borders, constructing identities : a collective case study of Chinese international graduate students at a Canadian university

Abstract

This paper outlines a study designed to gain in-depth understanding of the social experiences of Chinese graduate students at a major Canadian university and to analyze and interpret how their identities are affected by their experiences. My specific focus is on Chinese graduate students as potential immigrants, thus examining their identity under the theoretical framework of transnationalism, cosmopolitanism and diaspora. My findings suggest that all participants maintain transnational ties and social relations via social media, that they have a tenuous identification of the hyphenated Chinese-Canadian identity and that they form identities with both diasporic and cosmopolitan consciousness.