Living the Promise: Debt, Labour and Affective Survival in the Niche Market of International Education
Living the Promise: Debt, Labour and Affective Survival in the Niche Market of International Education

Summary/Abstract: This study challenges the academic fairytale of study abroad by exploring the precarity embedded in Japan’s niche international education market. Through the life story of An (interviewee), a Vietnamese student who spent her childhood in a temple, the article traces how early deprivation shaped her educational migration trajectory into this niche market. Contrary to dominant representations of study abroad as a linear pathway to success, the study shows that An was simultaneously positioned as both a student and a labouring subject engaged in transnational debt repayment. Drawing on narrative analysis and framed by the political economy of international education and Ahmed’s affect theory, the study illuminates the realities of a niche study-abroad market – one in which individuals voluntarily participate yet confront emotional, economic and legal vulnerabilities. The study contributes to a more holistic understanding of international students, not merely as academic subjects but as socio-economic agents whose actions are shaped by accumulated affective histories and survival strategies in the marketised landscape of international education.

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