Migrant college students future intention to migrate for higher studies: a case study in Shillong, India

Meren Longkumer, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

This paper examines the migrant college students’ future intention to migrate for higher studies in India. Many students come to Shillong every year for higher studies because of lack of proper educational infrastructure in their hometowns. Shillong offers less costly educational facilities and it is also a preferred destination for college students whose ultimate goal is to migrate to bigger cities in mainland India or abroad for higher studies. This paper will discuss the choices of destinations of the migrant college students for higher studies and their socio-demographic characteristics. Drawing on the results of a quantitative survey with 556 migrant college students and few in-depth interviews, this paper discusses the consequences of students’ migration in the north-eastern region of India. It is argued that the best students would leave this region for their higher studies and most of them don’t intend to return to their hometown in the near future.