International study and democratic consciousness: From formation to engagement

This paper examines how international higher education shapes the formation of democratic consciousness in returnees to autocracies and anocracies, and how that consciousness is put into practice after return. Democratic consciousness is conceptualised as a generative mechanism: a reflective and moral orientation toward pluralism, accountability, and participation that emerges through contrast, dislocation, and critical encounter during international study. Drawing on qualitative data from 51 interviews with returnees across 30 countries, the analysis traces how this mechanism is enacted after return through five observed pathways of civic engagement: discursive reframing, building civic infrastructure, symbolic intervention, institutional infusion, and strategic bridging. These pathways illustrate how democratic consciousness becomes practicable in constrained political settings. The paper draws on theories of reflexive agency, transformative learning, and transnationalism, and contributes to research on higher education and democratisation by clarifying how international study can reshape moral and civic perception and support sustained, context-sensitive engagement under autocracies and anocracies. • International study fosters democratic consciousness in individuals from constrained regimes. • Democratic consciousness shapes how returnees interpret civic responsibility. • Five pathways show how returnees enact democratic values after returning home. • Reflexive agency enables civic engagement under autocratic and anocratic regimes. • Returnees identify civic footholds even in politically constrained environments.