Based on a case study, this article discusses connections between educational inequality in Brazil, transnational migration and educational upward mobility. It analyses a young woman's migration from a "favela" in Brazil to Germany with a focus on the educational aspirations that motivated it, that is, as a case of "educational migration." It describes the social trajectories of this young woman and her family and interprets them in the context of recent socio-economic developments in Brazil, thus showing how educational inequality can drive migration. The significance of networks, as well as of migration and educational regimes that shape this trajectory, are taken into account. The analysis aims to show how migrants from disadvantaged social backgrounds actively take part in the transnationalization of education.