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Transnational Educational Migration: A Comparative Review of Policy Responses to Internationalisation in Germany and the Netherlands

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Authors : Saba Suhail Khan , Ankita Hansda , Fathima Thamanna PP , Barnali Roy

Citation :

Saba Suhail Khan, Ankita Hansda, Fathima Thamanna PP, & Barnali Roy. (2026). Transnational Educational Migration: A Comparative Review of Policy Responses to Internationalisation in Germany and the Netherlands. Institute For Policy Research and Governance, 1(25). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23396889

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Abstract

Internationalisation of higher education has become increasingly connected with international student mobility, migration and labour-market policy. This study examines how Germany and the Netherlands responded to these developments. Although both countries operate within a shared European higher education and migration environment, their policy responses have developed in different directions. A similar system design was used to compare these two cases. The analysis draws on a corpus of 37 legislative, parliamentary and policy documents and combines descriptive statistics, text-as-data analysis and critical discourse analysis based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework. Policy documents were examined across four broad policy orientations; attraction, management, retention and labour and fourteen related policy instruments. The comparison shows that Germany has developed a comparatively expansive approach to internationalisation. International students are increasingly viewed not only as participants in higher education but also as a potential source of skilled labour in response to demographic change and workforce shortages. The Netherlands has followed a more managed and selective approach. While the academic and economic value of internationalisation continues to be recognised, greater attention has been given to housing pressures, institutional capacity, language and access for domestic students. These differences suggest that the policy divide cannot be reduced to a simple distinction between open and restrictive systems. Instead, national responses reflect different combinations of labour-market needs, demographic pressures, institutional capacity and domestic social priorities. The study highlights the need for internationalisation policies that balance educational openness with sustainable institutional capacity, labour-market needs and broader social considerations.

Keywords: Transnational Educational Migration, International Student Mobility, Internationalisation of Higher Education, Comparative Policy Analysis, Policy Divergence, Policy Discourse, Germany, The Netherlands.

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