Temporary Transnational Youth Migration and its Mobility Links

ABSTRACT

Going abroad to live, work, or study for a period when young has become increasingly widespread. An important aspect of this development is the longer-term consequences for mobility at the individual and population levels. The present article explores the specific connections – the ‘mobility links’ – between temporary stays abroad and other mobility events in the early life course. The paper is based on a retrospective study of transnational moves and mobility among young adults in Gothenburg, Sweden. The results identify two main forms of consequential mobility: first, ‘secondary’ travel during the stay between two places linked by a move and, second, patterns of regular travel back to the place of temporary stay in following years, mainly because of new social ties formed.

Key Words:

• Youth
• Temporary migration
• Travel
• Students
• Working holiday
• Transnationalism

Acknowledgement

The Swedish Research Council has financially supported the preparation of this article. I would also like to thank the referees for constructive comments.

Notes

1. The sampling, the distribution of questionnaires and the collection of responses were carried out by Statistics Sweden. The sample was drawn from the register of the total population of Sweden (RTB).

2. One stratum, ‘Foreign background’, comprises individuals born in another country plus individuals born in Sweden with two parents born in another country. The other stratum, ‘Swedish background’, comprises individuals born in Sweden with at least one parent born in Sweden.

3. Since the sample was drawn from the RTB (see note 1 above) some background data was available also for non-respondents.

4. Part of the sharp decline of moves towards the end of the twenties may be explained by the ‘return bias’ built into the sampling strategy: People who left Gothenburg to live abroad recently but have not yet returned were not included in the sample or were among the non-respondents.

5. These figures refer to the 143 moves that were reported in more detail (one for each respondent who had lived abroad temporarily at some point after leaving school).

6. The information given in these last questions could to a certain extent be validated using information given elsewhere in the questionnaire. In cases of contradictory information, the figures concerning all trips taken since the age of 18 were set to ‘unavailable’.