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.

Keywords: narrative inquiry; affect theory; political economy of education; international education; international student mobility

How to cite: Nguyen, T. L. (2026). Living the promise: Debt, labour and affective survival in the niche market of international education. Knowledge Cultures, 14(2), 137–154. https://doi.org/10.22381/kc14220267. 

Received February 28, 2026 • Received in revised form May 31, 2026
Accepted July 15, 2026 • Available online August 1, 2026