Mobility Trajectory Mapping for Researching the Lives and Learning Experiences of Transnational Youth

Mazzucato, Valentina; Ankobrey, Gladys Akom; Anschütz, Sarah; Ogden, Laura J.; Osei, Onallia Esther

doi:10.1163/9789004522732_003

Cited by 8 publications

(60 citation statements)

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“…We used mobility trajectory mapping along with interviews, participant observation, and network mapping. Youth mobility trajectory mapping entailed collecting systematic data about changes in schools, houses, caregivers, and family constellations throughout youth's lives (Mazzucato et al., 2022). Mobility trajectory mapping allowed us to visualize how family constellations changed with every move, either that of the child or the parent, and how this interacted with changes in schools.…”

Section: The Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming interruptions in educational trajectories: Youth in Ghana with international migrant parents

2022

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Literature on the effects of parental migration on the education of children who stay at origin, what we call 'stayer' youth, mainly focuses on educational outcomes without looking at the process leading to such outcomes. This article addresses this gap by showing how the educational trajectories of stayer youth unfold. Stayer youth may encounter a range of obstacles and interruptions to their education when their parents move overseas, and we explore the agency these youth exert and the support networks they activate to try to overcome them. We employ a youth-centric methodology, based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in three cities in Ghana, with young people whose parents migrated internationally. We find that frequent changes in residence, limited financial means, and lack of academic support cause interruptions in educational trajectories. In response, the young people mobilize support from local social networks to compensate for what they lack from their transnational connections.

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Section: The Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overcoming interruptions in educational trajectories: Youth in Ghana with international migrant parents

2022

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“…Through the use of these methods, the ‘hype’ around mobility to Ghana emerged as an important theme in the research. In order to gain insight into young people's mobility trajectories, mobility mapping (Mazzucato, 2015 ; van Geel & Mazzucato, 2018 ) was conducted with participants, which builds on a technique developed by demographers to capture life‐events more precisely (Mazzucato et al., 2022 ). Mobility mapping involves the systematic collection of data on participants’ moves in space and time by asking them questions indicated in an interview guide.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…( 2020 ) bring youth studies and transnational migration studies together by theorizing the intersection between youth transnational mobility and the domain of intimate life, including friendships and romantic relationships, which have received significantly less attention than labour market outcomes or career prospects (e.g., see King, 2018 ). Inspired by their work and recent research agendas more broadly (Cheung et al., 2020 ; Robertson et al., 2018 ; van Geel & Mazzucato, 2018 ), this paper puts youth mobility trajectories (Mazzucato, 2015 ; van Geel & Mazzucato, 2018 ) at the centre of analysis.…”

Section: ‘Homeland’ Visits Through the Lens Of Temporality And Affectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, such research exclusively focuses on peer practices in young people's local environment. Yet, migrant‐background youth, and irrespective of whether they are ‘first’ or ‘second’ generation, may engage in all sorts of mobilities (Mazzucato, 2015 ; van Geel & Mazzucato, 2018 ) and give shape to transnational peer relationships in the process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Drawing on 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork with young people of Ghanaian background, this paper investigates how participation in leisure practices during trips to Ghana impacts young people's intimate transnational relationships. To that end, I put youth mobility trajectories, that is, young people's moves in space and time (Mazzucato, 2015 ), at the centre of analysis. This allows us to understand young people's experiences through the lens of temporality (Cheung et al., 2020 ) and affect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Following the ‘hype’: The role of leisure practices during ‘homeland’ visits in transnational youth's way of relating to Ghana

Ankobrey

2022

Global Networks

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Drawing on 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands and Ghana, this paper combines 'return' mobilities literature and youth studies to analyse the role of leisure practices during 'homeland' visits in transnational youth's way of relating to Ghana when they are entering into adulthood. Using the notion of mobility trajectories, the paper shows that leisure practices facilitate young people's ability to establish and renew intimate transnational relationships with diasporic friends, and Ghana-based same-generation relatives and romantic partners.Differing from earlier stays in Ghana, young people expressed their emerging sense of independence by exploring alternative sides of the country with these peers, based on common interests and belonging to the same life-cycle cohort. The findings add complexity to the notion of the 'homeland' as a monolithic place of reconnecting with family and roots by drawing attention to the intersection between young people's pathways to adulthood and transnational mobility.

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Pacing mobility trajectories: Temporality and agency in ‘home’ visits by migrant youth

Anschütz,

Mazzucato

2024

Population Space and Place

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Research on transnational youth mobilities has shown the importance of visits to the ‘home’ country for young people's identities, sense of belonging and access to resources. Yet what transpires on these visits and how do young people agentically shape their experiences? This paper brings into dialogue scholarship on ‘homeland’ mobilities, trajectories and temporalities to shed light on how youth experience their attachments to a ‘homeland’ and reveal the mechanisms through which young people's lives are affected by ‘home’ visits. We use the temporal concept of pacing, recently developed in mobility studies, to analyze how young people experience ‘home’ visits at different moments in their lives. Drawing on 18 months of multi‐sited ethnographic fieldwork using mobile methods with Ghanaian‐background youth who live in Belgium, we show that visits to Ghana are experienced differently by youth throughout their life time in relation to how much control they exert over the pacing of their visits. Through their mobility and their practices before, during and after ‘home’ visits, young people craft affective experiences with people and places in Ghana and experience different paces of life across space and time. This ultimately shapes how young people imagine a future ‘good life’ that involves a transnational lifestyle and that has the ‘right pace’ by incorporating aspects of life from both Belgium and Ghana. A focus on pacing and trajectories contributes to acknowledging both temporal and spatial dimensions of transnational youth mobility.

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Mobility Trajectory Mapping for Researching the Lives and Learning Experiences of Transnational Youth

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Overcoming interruptions in educational trajectories: Youth in Ghana with international migrant parents

Overcoming interruptions in educational trajectories: Youth in Ghana with international migrant parents

Following the ‘hype’: The role of leisure practices during ‘homeland’ visits in transnational youth's way of relating to Ghana

Pacing mobility trajectories: Temporality and agency in ‘home’ visits by migrant youth

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