The Hindu Editorial Analysis
18 December 2025
The changing patterns of India’s student migration
(Source – The Hindu, International Edition – Page No. – 8)
Topic : GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education
Context
It reveals gaps between aspiration and outcome, and between opportunity and exploitation.
Introduction
India’s latest wave of student migration represents a decisive shift. It is no longer limited to elite universities or fully funded programmes. Instead, contemporary migration is driven largely by self-financed education, with middle-class households making substantial investments in the promise of a global degree, enhanced employability, and upward social mobility.
- Ministry of External Affairs data shows that over 13.2 lakh Indian students were studying across 70+ countriesin 2023
- This figure increased to 13.35 lakh in 2024 and is projected to reach 13.8 lakh by 2025
- India ranks among the largest senders of international students globally
- The United States and Canada together account for nearly 40% of Indian student destinations
- Other major destinations include the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany
- This trend is officially acknowledged in the Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of Indian Diaspora (2022)
- The Committee identifies students as a key category within India’s expanding diaspora
Limits of the ‘Democratisation’ of Foreign Education
- Apparent inclusion, deeper inequality: Expansion of overseas education is projected as democratisation, but access often leads to unequal outcomes rather than genuine mobility.
- Channelling into low-value pathways: Students are frequently pushed into lower-tier universities and vocational colleges, with courses misaligned with skills and weak employment prospects.
- Grey-zone recruitment industry: Unregulated recruitment agencies operate in a legal grey area, prioritising commissions and profit over student outcomes.
- Profit-driven institutional linkages: Partnerships between recruiters and less credible private colleges reflect the commercialisation of global education.
- Deskilling and underemployment: The result is widespread deskilling, with graduates struggling to access skilled employment.
- UK case study: Post-1992 universities (former polytechnics) increasingly rely on international students, sometimes relaxing entry standards, raising concerns about academic quality.
- Limited post-study mobility: Only one in four Indian postgraduates in the UK reportedly secures a sponsored skilled visa.
- Risk-laden middle-class aspiration: Student migration from India reflects middle-class ambition, but entails high financial and career risks.
- Kerala’s shifting migration profile: As per KMS 2023, student migration from Kerala doubled in five years(1.29 lakh in 2018 to 2.5 lakh in 2023), forming 11.3% of total emigrants.
- Reversal of remittance logic: Outward student remittances from Kerala (₹43,378 crore) equal ~20% of inward labour remittances, signalling a structural shift in migration economics.
Financial Burdens and Reverse Remittances in Student Migration
- Debt-funded migration pathways: Most students rely on self-financing or education loans, often mortgaging family property, driven by expectations of higher wages and upward mobility.
- Broken mobility promise: For many, migration results in debt traps, underemployment, or forced return, rather than improved livelihoods.
- Reverse remittances: Economists describe this outcome as reverse remittances, where Indian households subsidise foreign economies instead of receiving inflows.
- Major contribution to host economies: International students generate substantial economic value for destination countries.
- Canada’s dependence on students: In 2022, foreign students contributed $30.9 billion to GDP and supported 3.61 lakh jobs; in 2023, Indian students (4.27 lakh) made up ~45% of total international enrolments.
- U.S. case: Around 4 lakh Indian students (2024) spent $7–8 billion annually on tuition, housing and living costs, sustaining universities and local economies.
- High cost of overseas education: Students often spend ₹40–50 lakh to study abroad, creating long-term financial stress.
- Rising living pressures: High rents, restricted work hours, and visa caps intensify financial and mental strain.
- Downward occupational mobility: In the absence of skilled jobs, many students take up low-wage, unskilled work, juggling multiple part-time jobs, sometimes undocumented, and facing exploitation.
- Structural constraints: Restrictive visa regimes, limited post-study work options, and poor placement supportfrom low-ranked colleges deepen vulnerability.
- Closing of survival pathways: The UK’s earlier option (pre-2024) to shift from student visas to care visasoffered temporary relief, but new restrictions have eliminated this route, worsening precarity.
Structural Drivers of Student Outmigration
- Domestic push factors: Student outflow reflects systemic constraints at home, including perceived quality gapsin institutions and limited well-paid employment opportunities.
- Not merely an education choice: Migration is driven less by academic factors and more by long-term life outcomes.
- Rejection of cheaper offshore options: Despite Western universities’ offshore campuses in Dubai, Singapore, and elsewhere offering lower-cost degrees, Indian students seldom opt for them.
- Structural aspiration gap: Preference for OECD countries stems from prospects of permanent residency, social mobility, and an escape from a ‘third world’ identity.
- Labour market paradox: Student migration has generated a new pool of cheap, flexible labour for OECD economies.
- Parallel with Gulf migration: This resembles Gulf labour migration, but differs in being financed through household savings and debt.
- Reverse remittance dynamic: Instead of earnings flowing home, reverse remittances channel resources from Indian families to rich economies, reinforcing global inequalities.
Conclusion
This rapid growth in Indian student migration reveals sharp contradictions between aspiration and actual outcomes, and between promised opportunity and lived exploitation, producing what can be termed brain waste rather than brain gain. It underscores the urgent need for stricter regulation of education agents, robust pre-departure counselling, and bilateral regulatory frameworks to ensure accountability of foreign institutions and protect student interests.