Education as a Migration Strategy: Aspirations, Networks, and Work–Study Pathways among Nepali Youth

Deepak Chandra Bhatt; Rajendra Bir Chand

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.71696

Education as a Migration Strategy: Aspirations, Networks, and Work–Study Pathways among Nepali Youth

Author(s)	Dr. Deepak Chandra Bhatt, Dr. Rajendra Bir Chand
Country	Nepal
Abstract	The educational migration has become one of the most important and fast-growing types of international mobility of the Global South. Although conventionally theorized as academic mobility or human capital accumulation, recent data indicates that to a great deal of the youth, international education acts as a tool of employment, a place to settle and security in the long term. The article analyses educational migration as a migration strategy by the Nepali youths based on the mixed-methods research study carried out in Sudurpaschim Province, which is among the poorest provinces in Nepal. The research is a mix of structured survey of 140 migration intending students amongst Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions with students, parents, education consultants, and returnee migrants. The results show that foreign education is being increasingly structured as a package, which incorporates education, legal work, acquisition of a skill, and eventual settlement. Scholars find that the choice of destination is influenced less by academic prestige compared to work rights, affordability, institutional mediation, and migration networks with Japan becoming the leading destination. Educational migration is normalized and reproduced through social networks and consultancies, and enhanced outward migration through weak domestically absorption of labour markets and lack of governance. The paper is a contribution to the scholarship on migration in that it has the potential to reframe the educational migration as a hybrid mode of human capital investment and labour migration that is rooted in structural inequality, youth agency, and networked decision-making. The implications of the findings to education policy, migration governance and youth employment in Nepal and other similar situations in the Global South are significant.
Keywords	Educational migration, youth mobility, work study pathways, migration networks, Nepal, Global South
Field	Sociology > Education
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-03-23
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i02.71696

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Education as a Migration Strategy: Aspirations, Networks, and Work–Study Pathways among Nepali Youth

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