ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the mobility of students in Kerala, India, in unexpected and diverse ways, which in turn impacted their aspirations. This chapter examines the effects of the pandemic on student migration, return and the formation and realisation of educational aspirations. Through in-depth interviews, the study explores the challenges faced by students during the pandemic. This chapter specifically focused on the repercussions of the first wave of the pandemic, excruciating in the uncertainties it produced, by analysing how the respondents reflected on this earlier period of the pandemic as well as formulated strategies of survival in its aftermath, with most of the uncertainties following them into the second wave of the pandemic. The findings reveal that the pandemic led to a range of restrictions, hampering not only physical mobility but also the aspirational mobility of students. The study sheds light on the complex intersections of personal, collective and normative dimensions of aspiration and mobility in the context of a global health crisis.
