Mapping the Impacts of Immigration Policy Change on International Students Wellbeing, Belonging, and Adaptation: A Scoping Review.

International student mobility has expanded substantially over recent decades, and international students now form a key component of higher education systems across many countries. At the same time, international education and migration pathways have become increasingly subject to political scrutiny, leading to frequent and sometimes abrupt changes to immigration policies governing visa conditions, work rights, financial requirements, dependants, and post-study or residency pathways. These changes have introduced uncertainty into the educational, professional, and personal trajectories of international students. This project is a scoping review that aims to systematically map and synthesise empirical evidence on international students’ lived experiences of immigration policy change and policy volatility within tertiary education settings. The review focuses on how such policy environments influence students’ wellbeing, sense of belonging, financial circumstances, academic engagement, career planning, and adaptive responses. Particular attention is given to policy volatility, understood as repeated, unpredictable, or rapidly shifting policy changes that generate ongoing uncertainty beyond single policy events. The review will adopt a scoping review methodology guided by established international frameworks and will examine literature across multiple disciplines, including higher education research, migration and immigration studies, public policy, and the social sciences. Using a transparent and reproducible search strategy, the review will identify and map qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies, as well as relevant empirical grey literature, published between 2015 and 2025. Studies from all national and regional higher education contexts will be considered. By systematically mapping how immigration policy change and volatility are conceptualised and experienced by international students, this review aims to clarify the current evidence base, identify key themes and patterns across national contexts, and highlight gaps requiring further research. The findings will support a clearer understanding of how shifting regulatory environments influence IS lives and inform future research and policy development.