This project evaluates the effects of international educational migration, a novel approach to reducing global inequality by helping individuals from low-income countries to study and work in high-income countries. We partner with Malengo, an NGO that supports Ugandan students to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Germany. We conduct a randomized controlled trial, exploiting that Malengo randomizes admission among qualified applicants, and compare the outcomes of applicants who are selected by Malengo and those who are not, as well as their families and communities in Uganda. Here, we focus on short-term outcomes within the first three years of students’ arrival in Germany, i.e. before they complete their degrees and enter the labor market. We measure the effects of the intervention on objective and subjective wellbeing, cognitive skills, and aspirations of applicants and their social networks in Uganda.

How does the opportunity of international educational migration affect human capital investments in the country of origin? We inform high school students in Uganda about a new merit-based study-abroad program and analyze how the experimentally induced changes in knowledge about the opportunity to study abroad shape their human capital investments. The Malengo program offers mentoring and financial support to young adults in Uganda who want to complete a university degree in Germany and could not otherwise afford to study at a university. Acceptance to the program combines the returns to higher education with the returns to migration and thus offers a life-changing opportunity. To be eligible, applicants must obtain a sufficiently high score in the high-stakes Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education examination. Our primary research question is whether and how educational migration prospects lead to increased human capital investments amongst students who eventually go abroad as well as those who remain in Uganda.

This project examines how international migration influences identity formation, particularly in shaping the perception of the self and others. We partner with an NGO that supports secondary school graduates from Uganda with limited financial means in pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Germany. Admission to the program offers students a transformative opportunity to acquire higher education and increase their earnings. At the same time, students are exposed to a vastly different environment, characterized by distinct economic systems, political institutions, cultural norms, and racial compositions. We leverage the randomized admission among shortlisted applicants and conduct a randomized controlled trial. By tracking the outcomes of applicants and their families and friends in Uganda, we aim to uncover the direct effects of international migration on the perception of the self and others, as well as the spillover effects on those who remain in the country of origin. Our primary outcomes include universalism, gender attitudes, and racial identity.