ABSTRACT
Youth migration has become a defining feature of the interconnected world. Yet relatively little is known about the practices and preferences of youth migration for work and education in developing countries. Using Bourdieu’s ideas of habitus, fields and capital and taking three cohorts of youths from the cross-cultural milieu of Bangladesh, the chapter examines the interplay of structure and agency behind opting for different pathways. It relies on a pool of qualitative data from formal and informal conversational interviews of youth men and women who pursued labour migration, student migration and irregular migration. The study argues that the initial perception about particular forms of migration arises from socio-economic and cultural fields. Again, differential access to various forms of capital helps materialise youth’s moves. In all cases, the journey is sometimes discrete, often circular and motivated by economic and non-economic aspects. The chapter offers fresh insights into the migration literature of South Asia by analysing the dynamics, challenges and potentials of youth migration from a developing country such as Bangladesh.
