Negotiated Mobility and Belonging among Immigrant and Non-immigrant Youth in Rural Sweden

What is the project about?

An increasing share of Sweden’s foreign-born population is living in small towns and rural areas. Many of these immigrants are young, and many are recently arrived during the 2015 refugee reception that made rural areas into immigration destinations through dispersal policies. At the same time, there is also a general trend of rural emigration, particularly among young people who are drawn to the education and labour market opportunities of larger cities. Young people in rural areas, and immigrant youth in particular, are therefore confronted with conflicting norms and institutional opportunities and constraints to leave or stay, making their transitions to adulthood into negotiations of mobility and belonging.

Against this background, the project will explore how spatial and social mobility intersect during transitions to adulthood among young adults in Swedish rural municipalities characterized by transnational immigration and internal out-migration. To do this, the project will combine a quantitative survey where young adults are asked about their mobility trajectories so far, and in-depth qualitative interviews and ethnographic observations. Through the project’s focus on a context where mobility and belonging is always contested, and by applying an innovative theoretical framework that combines mobilities and careership theory, the project will destabilize sedentariness as a norm and contribute to a deeper understanding of migration and integration processes.

Research questions

• How do spatial mobility influence outcomes of social mobility trajectories among immigrant and non-immigrant youth growing up in rural Swedish municipalities characterized by transnational immigration and internal out-migration?- How, and in what ways, do relations across places influence these processes of mobility and sedentariness, during transitions to adulthood?
  
• The questions will be answered through mixed methods, with the data primarily coming from surveys, interviews, and observations.
• How do past translocal experiences and current social networks relate to these young persons’ sense of belonging during the transition to adulthood?

The questions will be answered through mixed methods, with the data primarily coming from surveys, interviews, and observations.

Participants

The project will be conducted by researchers from Linköping and Örebro Universities. Project leader is Olav Nygård, division for Research on Migration, Ethnicity, and Society (REMESO) at Linköping University. Participating researchers are Lina Sandström, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences at Örebro University; and Karin Krifors, REMESO, Linköping University.

Links to homepages of project participants:

• Olav Nygård https://liu.se/en/employee/olany64 External link.
• Lina Sandström https://www.oru.se/personal/lina_sandstrom External link.
• Karin Krifors https://liu.se/en/employee/karkr76 External link.