Book

Description

Educational Sacrifice of Youth: Shouldering Intergenerational Responsibilities in Nepal explores the powerful, often unseen realities behind why many Nepali youth abandon higher education and choose labor migration. Drawing on in-depth interviews with youth labor returnees, the book reveals how poverty, cultural expectations, birth‑order roles, and limited livelihood opportunities shape life-changing decisions. Through the voices of young migrants, this work uncovers how dreams of education are redirected toward siblings, how sons feel obligated to finance sisters’ marriages, and how migration becomes a survival strategy rather than an aspiration. Their stories illustrate a cycle of responsibility where personal ambition is replaced by intergenerational duty, and where education—though deeply valued—becomes an unaffordable gamble. Combining qualitative insights with broader structural analysis, the book highlights how economic hardship, weak employment returns, and family pressure converge to push youth abroad. It challenges policymakers, educators, and communities to recognize educational sacrifice not as personal failure, but as a systemic outcome of inequality. This is a compelling, human-centered narrative that urges society to rethink how we support youth so they do not have to choose between family survival and their own future.