The Logic of Linguistic Exchanges and Model of Investment

Currently, there is a lack of empirical research on the strategies for social reproduction, including study destination and language choices, employed by African international students in China. There is plenty of evidence of ‘Asian’ students and families’ strategies of transnational social reproduction and self-transformation in the field of English language learning and the westward directionality of international student mobility (ISM) (Choi, British Journal of Sociology of Education 42:374–387, 2021; Kim, British Journal of Sociology of Education 37:30–50, 2016; Nguyen, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 19:141–162, 2022; Park, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 14:443–455, 2011; Seilhamer, Gender, neoliberalism and distinction through linguistic capital: Taiwanese narratives of struggle and strategy, Multilingual Matters, 2019; Shin and Park, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 37:443–452, 2016; Waters, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31:179–192, 2006).