Maybe it is just the crowd I hang out with, but I know a lot of technically inclined people who didn't quite get the memo when people were told to a) work for a big megacorp b) close to where they went to college.

There are a variety of ways to do it. They really do work. Plenty of normal, sane, well-adjusted people take advantage of them. There are avenues forward from them to either standard middle class career paths at home or continued success abroad, for a variety of values of "success."