This special issue showcases ethnographies with young people in the Global South which draw on the common conceptual umbrella of the 'identity of the educated person' to unpack novel intersections between mobility, migration and education in the context of globalisation. Overarching themes include how definitions of the educated person are shaped by diverse identity constructions and axes of difference, notions of discipline and hardship, and global discourses and concepts which travel across international space. Definitions of the educated person are contested through migration processes, and young people's agency within and beyond schools, through consumption practices and appropriation of popular culture.