‘Study-abroad influencers’ and insider knowledge: how new forms of study-abroad expertise on social media mediate student mobility from India to Germany

Abstract

This paper examines new forms of study-abroad expertise on social media and their role in mediating Indian student mobility to Germany. Firstly, it explores how mutual-support Facebook and WhatsApp groups—used by prospective international students in India to support each other through the process of applying to German universities—have contributed to the emergence of new forms of education consultancy, offered by Indian students or graduates of German universities, whom I call ‘Student Guides’. In addition, it shows how some Indians studying in Germany have started ‘Study in Germany’ YouTube channels, aimed at aspirant student migrants, and have become important ‘study-abroad influencers’. The paper analyses how these new forms of study-abroad expertise offer prospective international students social and cultural capital important for successful student migration, apart from shaping their imaginative geographies of Germany, and embedding them in cultures of mobility. Furthermore, the paper highlights how these new forms of study-abroad expertise intersect with, and critique, a more ‘traditional’ study-abroad expert: the professional education consultant. The paper draws on a digital ethnography of ‘Study in Germany’ Facebook and WhatsApp groups and YouTube channels, as well as interviews with the YouTubers, Student Guides, and Indian students in Germany.

Credits: Katie Chappell

Keywords:

• International student migration
• migration infrastructure
• social media
• India
• Germany
• education consultant

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Correction

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies for funding the research project on which this paper draws. I carried out fieldwork for this project while based at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, where I continue to be affiliated as an Associate Researcher. I am very grateful to my colleagues there, especially Prof. Patrick Köllner, for their encouragement and support of this research. I would also like to thank the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge for being such an excellent academic home. In addition, I am thankful to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments that strengthened this paper and to Stephan Hilpert for many useful discussions about this research. Finally, I am indebted to all those who participated in this research project—many of whom I now count as friends.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2024.2329413)

Notes

1 As my interlocutors typically used the term ‘education consultant’, I will use this term throughout the paper.

2 All names are pseudonyms (unless otherwise specified) and some details of my interlocutors’ stories have been changed to ensure their anonymity.

3 This is his real name as he did not wish to be anonymous.