Paper short abstract:

This paper calls for the need to find a middle ground between the celebratory and the critical approach to youths’ travel for educational purposes by adopting a broader notion of education that can encompass the wide range of experiences gained by this kind of migration.

Paper long abstract:

While there is a long tradition of travel for educational purposes, such movement has been of little interest to migration researchers until recently, perhaps because it has been associated with the classic grand tour of the privileged elite or the international exchange programs offered to middle-class students. Of late, however, it has become apparent that growing numbers of international students derive from the third world or post-socialist countries and that their movement bears many similarities to labor migration, a classic topic in migration research. It thus involves many youths with limited economic means who often engage in unskilled and low-paid wage employment, with poor legal protection, in order to support both their studies and the family that helped finance their travel abroad. It has even been suggested that many international students may be disguised labor migrants who use student visas to gain entry to foreign labor markets. Whereas international education among Western youths has been seen to lead to intellectual and personal development, contemporary studies thus tend to stress the exploitative practices associated with this form of migration. Drawing on research on Caribbean migration for training in nursing this paper argues that there is a need to find a middle ground between the celebratory and the critical approach to youths' travel for educational purposes. It is suggested this may be found by adopting a broader notion of education that can encompass the wider range of experiences to be gained by this kind of migration.