The Transformative Potential of Educational Migration

Chapter 9 discusses how education, career aspirations, and life outside the village detach youths from their rural homesteads. It begins by analyzing the sending of children to distant institutions as a form of fosterage intended to enhance their livelihood opportunities, then explores how educational migration is driving a unique trajectory of population change that diverges in key ways from the forecasts of demographic transition theory. The focus then shifts to endogamy to illustrate how marital choices are expanding in conjunction with newfound ideologies and autonomy, but not without bounds, due to the enduring influence of parents. The chapter concludes by critiquing the notion that arranged marriage is an artifact of a traditional society that withers under the forces of secular education and modernization.