Brokering international education and (re)producing class in Mumbai

This article discusses the role that education brokers play in the decision-making processes of international students in Mumbai, India. Drawing on 80 interviews with students and education brokers, the analysis reveals how the services that brokers provide, and who accesses them, are shaped by the class status of prospective international students within the localized and granular hierarchies of Mumbai's upper-middle-class. Brokers are divided into agents and counsellors, who offer different service models and draw their clientele from two distinct segments of the upper-middle-class: "South Mumbai elites" and "suburban strivers". Within these subtly differentiated landscapes of brokerage, advice from brokers can make certain students vulnerable, or hierarchise specific study destinations and trajectories. This article argues that attending to granular class differentiation within international education brokerage illuminates inequalities that exist within student cohorts from the same locality. It also outlines the policy implications of these inequalities in both sending and receiving countries.