Periodic Reporting for period 5 - MO-TRAYL (Mobility trajectories of young lives: Life chances of transnational youths in Global South and North)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-07-01 bis 2023-06-30
The MO-TRAYL project aims to better understand the relationship between young people’s mobility trajectories and their life chance outcomes as defined by their educational trajectories, psychological well-being and transitions into adulthood. Many young people in the Global North and South are affected by migration, either because they have migrated, or their parents have. There is growing concern amongst policy makers, civil society and educationalists that these migration experiences affect the well-being of youth negatively, for example because travels to the home country could hamper educational progress or because the absence of migrant parents at home causes a care deficit for children remaining in the origin countries. Yet little is known about how migration impacts youth, in part because the conception of young people’s mobility has to date been oversimplified – they are considered to move once or not at all. There is a lack of data on youth mobility patterns and hardly any that are longitudinal and track movements over time and across origin and destination.
The MO-TRAYL project studies young people’s mobility experiences, including immobility, through a transnational, longitudinal and mixed methods approach focusing on Ghanaian youth in Ghana, The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. In doing so, it advances knowledge of how migration impacts youth’s life chances at home and abroad. In Ghana the survey builds on a panel dataset collected in three waves (2013-2015) amongst 2,300 school children, making it the first large-scale longitudinal data collection of its kind. In Europe, the project surveys youth (including but not limited to Ghanaians) in the last two years of high school in selected cities. Four ethnographic studies are conducted on a selection of Ghanaian youth in the study countries. The encounters with their transnational family, teachers, friends and officials representing school systems and migration regimes are the focus. Finally, the project contextualizes the effects of youth mobility on life-chances by comparing the school systems and migration regimes in the four study countries.
The MO-TRAYL project has been able to identify the transnational resources that young people gain through their mobility and explain how they affect youth’s well-being, educational trajectories and ideas about their future. The way transnational resources are employed depend on the youth’s agency and the institutional contexts of school and migration policies that shape the way mobility is viewed, how it can be conducted and with what effects.
The MO-TRAYL project studies young people’s mobility experiences, including immobility, through a transnational, longitudinal and mixed methods approach focusing on Ghanaian youth in Ghana, The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. In doing so, it advances knowledge of how migration impacts youth’s life chances at home and abroad. In Ghana the survey builds on a panel dataset collected in three waves (2013-2015) amongst 2,300 school children, making it the first large-scale longitudinal data collection of its kind. In Europe, the project surveys youth (including but not limited to Ghanaians) in the last two years of high school in selected cities. Four ethnographic studies are conducted on a selection of Ghanaian youth in the study countries. The encounters with their transnational family, teachers, friends and officials representing school systems and migration regimes are the focus. Finally, the project contextualizes the effects of youth mobility on life-chances by comparing the school systems and migration regimes in the four study countries.
The MO-TRAYL project has been able to identify the transnational resources that young people gain through their mobility and explain how they affect youth’s well-being, educational trajectories and ideas about their future. The way transnational resources are employed depend on the youth’s agency and the institutional contexts of school and migration policies that shape the way mobility is viewed, how it can be conducted and with what effects.
The project has achieved its original milestones and beyond with the following output:
Data collection:
- 4 surveys of high school youth in Europe and Ghana
- 4 ethnographic studies of Ghanaian background youth in Europe and Ghana
Academic Publications:
- 18 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals (+2 under review, 5 in progress)
- 4 book chapters
- 4 doctoral dissertations
Societal dissemination outputs:
- 1 book for a broad public
- 2 academic pod-casts (Onallia + Valentina)
- 2 pod-casts for a broad public (Gladys’ interviews with her respondents)
- 8 Dissemination videos
Participant-led outputs
- 21 research participant-led outputs (11 audio stories; 10 podcast interviews; spoken word poems)
For a complete overview of publications, see: https://www.motrayl.com/publications
For a complete overview of all activities, see: https://www.motrayl.com/news
For all dissemination videos, see: https://www.motrayl.com/gallery
For all participant-led outputs, see: https://www.motrayl.com/stories/youth-workshop
Data collection:
- 4 surveys of high school youth in Europe and Ghana
- 4 ethnographic studies of Ghanaian background youth in Europe and Ghana
Academic Publications:
- 18 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals (+2 under review, 5 in progress)
- 4 book chapters
- 4 doctoral dissertations
Societal dissemination outputs:
- 1 book for a broad public
- 2 academic pod-casts (Onallia + Valentina)
- 2 pod-casts for a broad public (Gladys’ interviews with her respondents)
- 8 Dissemination videos
Participant-led outputs
- 21 research participant-led outputs (11 audio stories; 10 podcast interviews; spoken word poems)
For a complete overview of publications, see: https://www.motrayl.com/publications
For a complete overview of all activities, see: https://www.motrayl.com/news
For all dissemination videos, see: https://www.motrayl.com/gallery
For all participant-led outputs, see: https://www.motrayl.com/stories/youth-workshop
The MO-TRAYL project produced 4 surveys of youth in high school in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Ghana. Additionally, in Ghana, youth who were surveyed in a previous project were re-surveyed. Four ethnographic studies were conducted, each consisting of between 20-25 youth who were followed over the course of 1.5 years.
The mixed-data produced was analysed and published in 18 journal articles, 4 book chapters and 4 doctoral dissertations. The highlights include the following:
1) Transnational mobility
Young people’s mobility to a ‘home’ country is more complex than it has been made out to be in migration studies. Their mobility evolves over the life-course from accompanying parents on family visits when they are young, to travelling on their own and engaging in different types of activities in their young adult years. They create new friendships and romantic relationships. Young Ghanaians who stay in Ghana while their parents migrate (stayer youth) also exhibit complex mobility patterns, although usually internal to Ghana. This mobility has consequences for their lives (see points below).
2) Transnational resources
Mobility generates resources that young people can draw upon in various environments. These include self-confidence, adaptability and motivation. National school systems and migration regimes can help or hinder young people to apply their transnational resources in the different national contexts.
3) Rethinking categories of migrant youth
Using mobility trajectories as an analytical category helps to see other things than when analysing migrant youth only by first or second-generation, or by their ethnic categories, as is mainly done in migration studies. Whether youth are mobile across countries and cultures, can also differentiate them.
4) ICTs and transnational relationships with parents and peers
While it is known that ICTs help families maintain transnational relationships over great distances, knowledge of how they are used mainly comes from studies of adult parents. Our project looks at how transnational youth, both those living in Ghana and in Europe, use ICTs and especially social media, to navigate new spaces, forge new relationships, and acquire a new-found independence.
5) Young people’s diasporic engagement
For young people with a migration background, engagement with a ‘home’ country is not only about relationships be they family, friends, or romantic. It is also about engaging in cultural ceremonies and starting their own voluntary organizations to help with the development of their country. This is true for both first- and second-generation youth.
6) Methodology
Following young people’s mobility requires mobile methods. The MO-TRAYL project uses three main types of mobile methods: Following the young people: this includes traveling with them to observe what happens during their travels, or being with them as they communicate with their parents abroad; conducting before and after trip interviews and observation to track changes; and mapping their trajectories. This latter was developed by the project team by adapting life-course methods using grid tools. This helps to systematically collect mobility data over the life-course.
7) How to co-create research with participants
MO-TRAYL conducted a ‘Finding Your Voice’ workshop with youth research participants to have their voices heard rather than filter them through those of adults, be they their parents, teachers or researchers. A second objective of the workshop was to teach youth writing, interviewing and audio skills that can be handy in their future lives. The project researchers wrote down the methodology and tools that we used to guide other researchers interested in doing the same.
The mixed-data produced was analysed and published in 18 journal articles, 4 book chapters and 4 doctoral dissertations. The highlights include the following:
1) Transnational mobility
Young people’s mobility to a ‘home’ country is more complex than it has been made out to be in migration studies. Their mobility evolves over the life-course from accompanying parents on family visits when they are young, to travelling on their own and engaging in different types of activities in their young adult years. They create new friendships and romantic relationships. Young Ghanaians who stay in Ghana while their parents migrate (stayer youth) also exhibit complex mobility patterns, although usually internal to Ghana. This mobility has consequences for their lives (see points below).
2) Transnational resources
Mobility generates resources that young people can draw upon in various environments. These include self-confidence, adaptability and motivation. National school systems and migration regimes can help or hinder young people to apply their transnational resources in the different national contexts.
3) Rethinking categories of migrant youth
Using mobility trajectories as an analytical category helps to see other things than when analysing migrant youth only by first or second-generation, or by their ethnic categories, as is mainly done in migration studies. Whether youth are mobile across countries and cultures, can also differentiate them.
4) ICTs and transnational relationships with parents and peers
While it is known that ICTs help families maintain transnational relationships over great distances, knowledge of how they are used mainly comes from studies of adult parents. Our project looks at how transnational youth, both those living in Ghana and in Europe, use ICTs and especially social media, to navigate new spaces, forge new relationships, and acquire a new-found independence.
5) Young people’s diasporic engagement
For young people with a migration background, engagement with a ‘home’ country is not only about relationships be they family, friends, or romantic. It is also about engaging in cultural ceremonies and starting their own voluntary organizations to help with the development of their country. This is true for both first- and second-generation youth.
6) Methodology
Following young people’s mobility requires mobile methods. The MO-TRAYL project uses three main types of mobile methods: Following the young people: this includes traveling with them to observe what happens during their travels, or being with them as they communicate with their parents abroad; conducting before and after trip interviews and observation to track changes; and mapping their trajectories. This latter was developed by the project team by adapting life-course methods using grid tools. This helps to systematically collect mobility data over the life-course.
7) How to co-create research with participants
MO-TRAYL conducted a ‘Finding Your Voice’ workshop with youth research participants to have their voices heard rather than filter them through those of adults, be they their parents, teachers or researchers. A second objective of the workshop was to teach youth writing, interviewing and audio skills that can be handy in their future lives. The project researchers wrote down the methodology and tools that we used to guide other researchers interested in doing the same.