Whither the Young People?

Chapter 4 provides a demographic foundation for the study. It begins by linking educational migration with the resettling of Tibetan exiles in Nepal and India in the 1960s, where they established the schools and monasteries where many Nubri children now reside. By comparing fertility differentials between Nubri’s residents and the Tibetan exiles, the chapter provides evidence that demographic disparity helps drive emigration through a supply-and-demand chain linking urban institutions in need of recruits with rural communities where parents have many children. The chapter concludes by documenting the directions and quantifying the magnitude of Nubri’s educational migration.