Between IT Engineer and Food Courier: How Remittances Shape the Economic Integration of South Asian Students in Finland

ABSTRACT This study examines the economic integration processes of student migrants from Pakistan and India in Finland—both students on scholarships and those who are self‐funded—drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and life story interviews. Transnational family ties and remittance dynamics are shown to shape varied career pathways, from low‐skilled sectors to professional roles. The article discusses the ‘odd job visa trap’, whereby precarious employment taken to maintain legal status and support families abroad compromises academic and career progression. Through the lens of remittances, the study views integration as a process embedded in transnational family contexts, rather than solely shaped by host‐country institutions. It complicates host‐centric perspectives by highlighting how transnational family resources and obligations also influence student migrants’ labour market outcomes. Thus, student migrants’ study‐to‐work transition and economic integration processes are better understood when going beyond too rigid views of integration, instead encompassing transnational perspective and remittances.