["Population, Space and Place, Volume 32, Issue 3, April 2026. ", "\nABSTRACT\nThis study examines the transition after graduation of Chinese post‐graduation migrants in Spain, conceptualizing it as a process of identity reconstruction across social, interpersonal and personal levels. By focusing on graduates as active drivers of migration, this study innovatively situates post‐graduation migrants within the framework of lifestyle migration. From this perspective, the student‐to‐migrant transition is understood not only as a process of identity negotiation but also as one of meaning‐making. Building on this approach, the study analyses the discursive strategies employed by Chinese post‐graduation migrants during the transition. The findings show that they alternately use two seemingly contradictory yet interrelated discursive strategies to navigate identity transition and thereby assign meaning to the transition.\n"]