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Authors: Ádám Németh, Elisabeth Gruber

In order to create a ‘common language’ within the project, a Conceptual Framework was created to define the relevant terms, clarify its core concepts and evaluated challenges and potentials from a scientific point of view. The process of defining this common framework for the project started from the kick-off. A profound literature review and discussions and feedback from the partners have led to the now final framework, published as a working paper – the first paper of four in the series “YOUMIG Working Papers”.

Understanding the migration of youth in the Danube Region

Youth migration is not different from migration in other age groups in general, but some motivations are more pronounced for younger people than for others: besides education and labour-driven reasons, a the thirst for adventure plays a role in migration at the age between 15 and 34. With a revised version of the ‘push and pull model’ and a life course-specific perspective, the authors tried to explain all factors on the micro-, meso- and macro-level in order to understand why young people migrate. The conceptual framework offers a typology of youth migration which is relevant for the classification of migration in the case studies of the YOUMIG project.

Youth migration and its effects

The authors underlined that while in recent decades there has been a growing public and political interest in understanding what motivates people to migrate and what the social, economic and political outcomes could be, optimistic expectations, justified and exaggerated concerns are also often coupled with the topic (growing cultural diversity and increasing demand for welfare state services in host countries, fear of the loss of educated people or even depopulation in countries of origin and so forth). This is especially true for Central Europe where the fall of the Iron Curtain and the recent EU enlargement have created a new situation: within a short period of time, high-wage labour markets opened up to the labour force of post-socialist transition countries.

Focusing on the triple-win

Although youth migration is often viewed as negative, especially from the countries of origin, the paper tries to bring forward the idea that with appropriate policies, youth migration can be transformed from a challenge into an opportunity. The paper presents examples of relevant policy measures pointing in that direction, including, for instance, remittances and diaspora policies, programmes for return migration or mobility partnerships for labour recruitment. Focusing on policies that can initiate transnational lifestyles or even return can turn a win-loss situation into a triple-win, benefitting the migrants, the countries of origin and the countries of destination.

Proposing a further understanding of migration in the region

The working paper is a result of a one year-long research activity within the respective work package, coordinated by the University of Vienna and its thematic experts: Heinz Fassmann, Elisabeth Gruber, and Ádám Németh. As the title suggests, its scope was to build up a solid theoretical background for the whole YOUMIG project to serve as a compass for all subsequent project activities. The paper was therefore developed with the feedback and support of all partners. It not only aimed to bring together up-to date literature on migration, but also to help all stakeholders in the project to get a broad understanding of ‘youth migration’ and its impacts on the migrants themselves and the locations of arrival and origin.