The student migration transition: an empirical investigation into the nexus between development and international student migration.

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between development and outgoing international student mobility (ISM) for the years 2003-2018 using data from UNESCO. Starting from migration transition theory, we expect that development and outgoing migration follows an inverted U-shape due to changes in capabilities and aspirations of populations. As predicted, we find that outgoing ISM also follows this pattern.