Postcolonial economic relations have received considerable attention from geographers in recent decades. However, the large and growing body of work on international students has paid little attention to this work.
This paper explores how postcolonial economic relations shape the experiences of international students in the global South who study at a distance. Using the case of payments of tuition fees across borders as a case study, the paper highlights how money flows for some, but for others it is marked by frictions and volatilities arising at the intersection between postcolonial economies and international higher education.
By attending to student practices of paying tuition fees, the paper goes on to highlight two aspects of the resultant subalternity of these students: their agency and the difficulties of representation. It thus highlights the intersections between colonial histories and contemporary economic relations in order to visibilise less explored forms of subalternity.
Breines, M. R., Raghuram, P., & Gunter, A. (2025). Postcolonial economies and subaltern international students. Geoforum, 167, 104458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104458
