Student mobility reviewed: Attraction and satisfaction of international students in Turkey

Building on international migration theories and the literature on the dynamics of student mobility, this study sketches a two-dimensional framework and examines its utility to understand the rationales of in-bounding student mobility in Turkey.  The results suggest that private rationales are prominent for students coming from Western and economically developed countries.  The study suggests some insights which are instrumental in re-interpreting the position of the countries in the periphery in international student mobility. First, the nature of cultural, political, and historical proximity between home and host countries determines the size and direction of in-flowing student mobility in economically developing countries. Second, for developing countries pre-departure pulling rationales at private level are more prominent than public rationales. This article can be useful to better understand the student's motivations to go to developing countries.