Indian student mobility to Germany: trends, prospects and implications for the labour market

Abstract

This paper focuses on Europe as a destination market for students pursuing higher education and, specifically, focuses on student mobility between one European host country, namely Germany and a leading source country, namely India. It discusses the trends and characteristics of student flows from India to Germany and identifies factors that are likely to have contributed to as well as constrained Germany’s presence as a destination for international students, including Indian students. The discussion is based on secondary evidence and corroborated by findings from a primary survey of Indian students in Europe carried out by the authors. Against this backdrop, the paper presents the current and projected skill and occupational shortages in the German labour market and the present contribution of Indian workers to the German labour force to draw inferences about the potential role Indian students could play in filling these gaps as future participants in the country’s labour market. The paper concludes by outlining higher education and related policies that could be used by a “middle player”, such as Germany, to attract students from key source countries, like India, for meeting its skill and occupational requirements and addressing its demographic challenges