Educational consultants in Nepal: professionalization of services for students who want to study abroad

International student mobility increasingly constitutes a desirable livelihood strategy specifically for middle-class youth and their families in Nepal. Applying the notion of migration infrastructure hints at the fact that it is not just students who migrate, but constellations consisting of actors, regulations and technologies. Brokers, known as ‘educational consultants’, are actively mediating this process. Findings challenge the ambivalent image of the broker. Rather profit and social orientation often intersect in work routines. Negative cases initiated the foundation of a business association. The analysis of the operation of this association serves as example how educational agents work to professionalize their business and respond to their ambivalent reputation. They actively shape their role in the migration infrastructure to make their services irreplaceable so that they can remain in the market.