Research Highlights

I. MO-TRAYL: Mobility trajectories of young lives: life chances of transnational youth in Global South and North
Mobility trajectories of young lives (MO-TRAYL) is a five year research project (2017-2021) led by professor Valentina Mazzucato which aims to develop a better understanding of the relation between migration and young people’s life chances.

In today’s globalised world, young people from all over the globe have migration as part of their biographies, because they migrated themselves or because at least one of their parents did. To date, it has been assumed that their movement patterns are rather straightforward and linear; either they accompany their parents when they migrate and thus move once, or they stay behind and do not move at all. This conception of youth mobility, however, is overly simplified and does not do justice to the experiences of young people with migrant background. As a result, little is known about how migration impacts young people in the medium-term. Over the next five years, the MO-TRAYL research team will fill the gap.

We will break new ground by studying so-called mobility trajectories: the geographical moves in space and time that youth and their family members engage in, resulting in changing family constellations over a youth’s life course. This means that we will map young people’s physical movements, thereby taking into account those family members or caregivers that have been of significant influence on the youth’s life. As is known from previous research, family is very important to understanding young people’s life chances. How those life chances – defined as educational outcomes, psychosocial well-being, and transitions into adulthood – are affected by different mobility trajectories is the central focus of our research. Read more about this research

MO-TRAYL has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 682982).

II. MiLifeStatus: Migrant Life Course and Legal Status Transition

Migrant Life Course and Legal Status Transition (MiLifeStatus) is a five year research project (2016-2021), led by professor Maarten Vink. MiLifeStatus studies the relation between migrant naturalisation and integration.

In the wake of the European refugee crisis and the influx of migrants into European countries, migrant integration is at the top of the political agenda. The acquisition of citizenship through naturalization, in this context, is either regarded as a reward for a successfully completed integration, or as an incentive to reach this goal. In fact, however, little is known about the relation between the naturalization of migrants and their integration within the host society. The MiLifeStatus research team breaks new ground by investigating why, how, and for whom legal status transition matter, and how varying policies impact on this relation.

That is to say, context matters. Not all migrants have the same opportunities or face the same obstacles when it comes to building up a life a new country. As result, not everyone has an equal interest to naturalise, which also affects the relation between citizenship and integration. We are interested in finding out how these variables affect the pay-off of citizenship. Does it still matter if a migrant acquires citizenship after a long waiting period? Our hypothesis is that how – and when – you get citizenship also affects what it means to you. Read more about this research.

MiLifeStatus has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 682626).