Parental Migration across the Life Course and Children's Schooling in Nepal

Scott T. Yabiku, Arizona State University

While the literature finds that labor migration of a parent has beneficial consequences for children's schooling in the sending context, there has been less research considering how these migration experiences vary across the parent's own life course. We apply a life course approach to the study of fathers' international migration experiences. The setting for our study is the Chitwan Valley of Nepal, a growing rural area with rapid social change characterized by large in- and out-migration. Using rich life history calendar data of parental migration and children's schooling, we examine how multiple conceptualizations of parental migration affect children's school leaving before 10 years (an important education credential point in Nepal). We find that pre-marital migration experience appears to have minimal impact on children's schooling, whereas post-marital experience significantly decreases children's school exit, compared to children of fathers who never migrated outside Nepal.