An economic analysis of international student migration

Although there are numerous studies on the issue of student nonreturn, there are relatively few micro-level empirical studies that examine this issue with New Zealand as the host country and even fewer studies studying this issue in an econometric framework. This study is an attempt to fill that literature gap. Unlike most studies which typically examine the issue from only one perspective at a time, this study addresses the issue of student nonreturn from three main perspectives and identifies the determining factors. The perspectives are the intensity of the students return intention, the timeframe in which the students intend to return home, and the destinations of the students after finishing their studies. The key findings suggest that good perceptions of skill use opportunities in the home country have the largest positive impact on the probability of a student s expressing a strong intention to return home, most students intend to return home after gaining work experience abroad, and the duration of stay in the host country has a positive impact on the probability of intending to stay on in the host country.