youth transitions, international student mobility and spatial reflexivity: being mobile?

© David Cairns 2014

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vii

List of Tables viii

Preface ix

Acknowledgements xi

1 Introduction 1

2 Mobile Being 10

3 Becoming Mobile 41

4 The Mobility Promise 94

5 A Mobile Future? 107

Notes 125

References 134

Index 147

Contents



1

This introductory chapter begins with a partial health warning: for readers in the main metropolitan centres of Europe, this book is going to provide a somewhat strange and often disconcerting account of student mobility; for those familiar with the lives of tertiary- educated young people in peripheral societies and their need to be mobile, there will be no such difficulties. This is a discussion that takes as its research foci university- educated young people in three different societies, each of which is characterized by its own peculiar social, economic and political limitations; limitations that mean international mobility is, at least for many of those with ambition, de rigueur in order to successfully reach personal and pro-fessional goals. In this sense, this is a study of student mobility in contexts where such movement is of fundamental importance to finding a position in society rather than being an additional supple-ment to enhance an already healthy state of employability.

My thematic choice means this book cannot by any reasonable stretch of the imagination be regarded as representing the domi-nant experiences of how students enter the youth mobility field in Europe, limited as the discussion is to Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland; there are hence no pretentions towards becoming a ‘classic’ text in this academic area. Nor does the research engage with the full spectrum of youth in these locales, preferring as it does to concentrate upon those presently studying at tertiary level educational institutions in Lisbon, Dublin, Cork and Belfast. The book is, however, intended to be interesting, original and challenging, through bringing to light new perspectives on student

1Introduction



2 Being Mobile?

mobility as well as being engaged with contemporary academic and policy debates in this field. These debates include the struggle to understand transitions between education levels and movement from education to work in late modern and increasingly neoliberal societies, the role of mobility in personal and professional develop-ment and the geo- political meaning of the transnational circulation of young people.

In regard to theoretical context, or contexts, the discussion that follows is grounded in ideas from European Sociology, Social Policy and Geography as well as new perspectives emerging from research findings. More specifically, this book will have a special, if occasion-ally antagonistic, relationship with the interdisciplinary fields of Migration Studies and Youth Studies. Much has been learnt from the accumulated literature in these areas but there is also a need to recognize a few basic limitations. As has been previously noted (King, 2002), youth have traditionally been absent from studies of migration and other forms of geographical mobility, and while some research on youth transitions has recognized the importance of spa-tial inequalities (Furlong and Cartmel, 1997; Jones, 1999; Jamieson, 2000; Henderson et al., 2007), most youth scholars still assume that the young people they study and make policy recommendations about will be geographically static as they move between educational stages and, hopefully, into the labour market. This sedentary bias can be seen as part of a larger problem within Sociology and cognate disciplines; a problem that is seemingly imperceptible to researchers and theorists living and working in the European ‘centre’ but pain-fully obvious to those of us from periphery.

On a more optimistic note, looking towards the area of youth policy and those involved in the practice of youth work, in spite of a frequent failure to consider geographically marginal youth in policy interventions, it does need to be acknowledged that vast strides that have been made in recent years, principally at European level, towards recognizing the need to open- up the international field of tertiary education to a broader range of young people (Teichler, 2004; Brooks and Waters, 2011). This includes the provision and expan-sion of institutionalized forms of student mobility, for example, the European Commission’s (EC’s) highly visible Erasmus programme (Teichler, 1996; Maiworm, 2001), and the globalization of tertiary educational platforms via developments such as the Bologna Process



Introduction 3

(Wächter, 2004). Since this area has been well- trodden by other writ-ers, this debate will not feature prominently in this book, but it is important to acknowledge that while it remains an incomplete pro-ject, the institutional encouragement of student mobility has been a qualified success.

Being mobile

This slightly unorthodox beginning leads directly to the asking of a very important question: if this book is not a straightforward account of student mobility then what is it about? Quite simply this is a dis-cussion about being mobile, with particular emphasis upon university- educated youth outside the main metropolitan centres, that is, not those living in regions such as France, Germany, Great Britain or the Nordic countries. This phrase, being mobile, has been chosen quite deliberately. It is an attempt to incorporate recognition of what has been referred to in Migration Studies as the ‘mobility requirement’ ( Morano- Foadi, 2005, p. 146) into the more sedentary world of youth transitions. We might somewhat pretentiously regard this as the ontological dimension of this investigation, but before this book can be tossed aside in disgust by those fearing a lengthy engagement with ill- conceived, over- complicated and self- reverential theories, in more straightforward terms this can be explained as simply recogniz-ing that the role of geographical movement in attempts to secure better, or at least different, transition outcomes will be acknowl-edged. This can be in the form of securing access to the global field of postgraduate education, entering a foreign labour market at a level commensurate to skills and qualifications or finding other less tan-gible forms of personal fulfilment via foreign dislocations. In what follows, aside from considering this theme at a conceptual level in Chapter 2, there will be explanation of a more concrete aspect of being mobile in Chapter 3, which relates to the study of how mobility processes are initiated among various student respondents. Added to this, in Chapter 4, is elaboration of current policy and provision for institutionally mediated mobility in Europe and the role of this form of movement in the political project of uniting Europe.

The empirical part of the investigation involves looking at the results of a number of research projects conducted with a view to assessing the relative importance of personal and societal factors in



4 Being Mobile?

predicting likelihood of moving abroad for the next educational or occupational step. Pertinent issues here include preferred destina-tions (the question of where to go), anticipated durations of stays for those intending to leave (when to go, how long to stay and whether or not to return) and identification of real and imagined barriers among those intending to stay (what stops mobility processes from being initiated or limits their chance of success). The policy aspect of being mobile is ultimately concerned with the extent to which mobil-ity can become a youth cohort experience for the tertiary- educated population via institutional means, neatly dovetailing with issues such as the establishment of European citizenship and enhance-ment of employability prospects. It will ultimately be argued, in Chapter 5, that despite some promise, there is still much room for improvement.

Locating mobility

Returning to the idea of synergizing various elements of Migration Studies with youth transitions paradigms, the discussion in this book can be specifically located at the period in the life course character-ized by the undertaking of various socio- developmental tasks, which when realized constitute, more or less, an arrival at a state of adult-hood. Given substantial differences across different countries and regions, it is not possible to define this period with precision in terms of age; however, the majority of respondents covered during field-work were aged between eighteen and their mid- to- late twenties, an age band which can reasonably be accepted as normative parameters for constituting an engagement with the ‘youth’ or ‘young adult’ population.

As everyone who has ever worked in the field of Youth Studies knows, youth transitions is an area in which a vast amount of lit-erature has accumulated, only a modicum of which will be reviewed in Chapter 2. But we know from this work that while the transition phase has many facets it also has one universal feature: it represents a period of profound significance in the life course due to the large number of later- life defining decisions being taken. This includes making educational choices, deciding upon a career path, work-ing out how and when to leave the parental home, who to have meaningful relationships with and whether or not to have children.



Introduction 5

However, as pointed out in previous articles on this theme by the author (see especially Cairns, 2008), existing paradigms of youth transitions do not generally interpolate the question of precisely where is it that these choices are to be enacted. It just tends to be cas-ually assumed that this will be close to home. Therefore, in respect to providing a contribution to the state of the art in youth transitions, making a case for this crucial spatial amendment will be the main advance of this book.

Like all empirical studies, the evidence discussed in the subsequent chapters has a specific geographical and temporal context, as well as an educational setting. As is clear from the title, this is a book about tertiary- educated young people involved in incipient processes of International Student Mobility (ISM), predominantly undergradu-ates studying at a variety of university institutions in three European regions. Each of these locales has its own set of social, economic and political contextual specificities, although there are also a number of important commonalities which cross national boundaries. And while influenced by research conducted by the author prior to this time, discussion will be rooted in the results of fieldwork which took place between 2010 and 2013, thus encompassing events such as the global financial crisis and subsequent recession; an affair that has had both predictable and not so predictable impacts on mobility intentions.

Theorizing mobility and immobility

Looking back at the research agendas of the three empirical studies conducted by the author, while regionally specific issues were always present, and will be discussed where relevant, the issue of mobility decision- making was central to respondents in all three contexts. For the relatively small numbers of young people with very definite plans to leave, it is usually possible to identify reasons why this is the case, with these scenarios illustrated through the use of case study evi-dence and some off- the- shelf theoretical tools, including the concept of ‘habitus’, an idea most frequently associated with Pierre Bourdieu (e.g., Bourdieu, 1990; Bourdieu, 1996); this notion was previously introduced by the author to the discussion of ISM in an article pub-lished in the British Journal of Sociology of Education (Cairns et al., 2013) and a related paper presented at a European Commission/Council of



6 Being Mobile?

Europe Youth Partnership conference (Cairns, 2013). Of equal impor-tance to understanding why some young people are more willing and able to leave than others is the mirror issue of immobility; this again is elaborated via case study evidence with emphasis upon the ground-ing influence of a family habitus.

The interpretation of the results emerging from the analysis of primary empirical data will be further aided via the development of a relatively new theoretical concept, referred to as ‘spatial reflexivity’. This idea, first introduced by the author in an article published in the Journal of Youth Studies (Cairns et al., 2012), refers to the extent to which young people incorporate a geographical dimension into their transitions to adulthood. As discussed in this theoretically embry-onic paper, the act of being mobile can be understood as using geo-graphical mobility to move towards better transition outcomes, thus linking spatial movement with socio- economic self- advancement. This includes the process of securing employment that matches one’s qualification and skill level or finding a job within an occupational field that is inaccessible or non- existent at home. Alongside such considerations may be the more straightforward desire to find better remunerated work or more secure working conditions. There is also recognition of the desire to live in a society with a better standard of living, and free of economic hassles and political instability. Alternatively, the main aim of being mobile might just be to avoid unemployment or one of the numerous forms of underemployment and job precariousness that now seem to define the contemporary youth experience in many countries (Standing, 2011).

These are just a few of what we might regard as the subjective level justifications in spatial reflexivity; and there are other equally important personal considerations not covered here, such as start-ing or ending a romantic relationship and reuniting with or getting away from a family, that no doubt are of significance for many young people. We also know from prior studies of youth transitions that success and failure in late modern societies was influenced not only by individual choices made in respect to work and study but also by societal structures of opportunities, which could be in turn shaped, enabled and constrained by gender, social class and ethnic identity issues (Roberts et al., 1994; Furlong and Cartmel, 1997; Schoon et al., 2001; Côté and Bynner, 2008). Whether or not such structures stay salient in our research contexts remains to be seen, but the



Introduction 7

importance of gender and socio- economic background will certainly be considered. What is less contentiously accepted from the body of Youth Studies theory is the idea that to successfully enter and remain within the labour market, and overcome structural deficits and disadvantages, young people must plan their futures effectively (Leccardi, 2005). This is especially important at times of economic scarcity and political instability, and this planning process can potentially include an incorporation of spatial reflexivity.

The basic argument is that making the right mobility choices can make a difference to transitions outcomes. An inability to become mobile also has consequences beyond an injury to career progress. At a personal level, the refusal to move can mean failure to self- realize, manifest in conditions such as prolonged emotional dependency upon family. Immobility will also have its societal costs, for example, in the short- term failure to capitalize upon what may have been sub-stantial investments in tertiary education, that is, ‘academic capital’ (Bourdieu, 1984), and a long- term missing- out on the benefits to be accrued from processes such as brain circulation (Gaillard and Gaillard, 1997; Baláz et al., 2004; Jons, 2009). A further penalty can come in the form of encouraging brain drain processes through the mismanagement of, or not managing at all, mobility processes at a time of labour market difficulty (Guth and Gill, 2008; Labrianidis and Vogiatzis, 2012). Many young people also run the risk of making serious mistakes that may imperil their ontological integrity though taking the wrong mobility paths, be this heading towards foreign destinations when dangerously underprepared, moving to the wrong places at the wrong times or simply encountering unforeseen prob-lems and barriers that result in personal unhappiness and distress.

Researching mobility

The need to look forward rather than back is recognized in respect to the research design of the three studies which form the basis of Chapter 3. This is important when producing knowledge for policy-makers and practitioners who work in the field of youth mobility, considering that the future can be changed via effective interven-tions but the past cannot. The need for a prospective research design explains the decision to concentrate upon those who have not as yet moved, although in a few exceptional cases, prior mobility experience



8 Being Mobile?

was in evidence. The main focus will also be on undergraduates (ISCED level five) since, according to King and Ruiz- Gelices (2003), such students make particularly good subjects for investigating mobility as they are, in theory, open to becoming geographically mobile and acting as potential pioneers in establishing migration flows. Therefore, little time will be squandered trying to conduct futile secondary analysis using what may be less than pristine data on the ever- changing numbers of tertiary- educated young migrants in Europe today, with the notable exception of figures relating to actual prevalence of student mobility at the beginning of Chapter 3 (UNESCO, 2013). Quantifying youth mobility is, as most migration scholars already know, an utterly futile exercise given both the fluid and ‘fuzzy’ nature of such population flows ( Murphy- Lejeune, 2002, p. 6; see also Favell, 2008, pp. 100– 101). This is even before introduc-ing the methodological challenges inherent in conducting research with any section of the youth population due to their often peripa-tetic lifestyles and notorious capacity for failing to keep interview appointments.

The final part of the mobility jigsaw can be found in the policy arena, with specific emphasis upon understanding mobility regula-tion at European level, and the only part of this book based predomi-nantly on the analysis of secondary materials. This evidence consists of various ‘grey area’ materials produced by the EC and other related bodies which elaborate upon contemporary youth mobility policy. In terms of this discourse, the Commission has been extremely adept at emphasizing the importance of youth mobility, and the more general principle of relatively free movement between Member States, to the European project, for instance, as a means of enhanc-ing competitiveness within the European Research Area (ERA) and fostering employability via short- term student exchanges. Added to this are related concerns such as the encouragement of identifica-tion with a singular, if somewhat idealized, Europe. In practice, the glossy picture presented by the EC is not entirely representative of what is happening at ground level. One reason is the concentration of resources upon certain forms of mobility at the expense of others, leading to a resource imbalance between what is termed ‘credit’ mobility, meaning movement within undergraduate degree courses, and other less recognized modes of movement, such as longer forms of mobility that take place after the completion of diplomas.



Introduction 9

Recognizing this apparent imbalance is important to the present discussion as laissez faire post- diploma level travel is more crucial to young people in peripheral societies than the EC’s partially pre- paid short- term exchanges, thus raising serious questions in regard to the relationship between mobility programmes and rising levels of social inequality between European nations.



147

Amsterdam 57Andorra ixAnglophone bias 26Anglophone destinations 112Angola 60Anthropology 12, 27Anticipated durations of stays

abroad 4, 51, 60, 62, 63, 76, 77, 78, 88, 89

Asia 14, 34Austerity 20, 36, 37, 40, 48, 53, 58,

59, 62, 67, 70, 81, 105, 108, 119, 121, 127, 128, 133

Australia 14, 47, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 81, 90, 91, 130

Barriers to mobility 4, 7, 29, 52, 108, 111, 113

Barroso, José Manuel 197Beck, Ulrich 25Belfast xi, 1, 30, 38, 39, 51, 82, 85,

87, 88, 89, 90, 130, 116Bologna Process 2, 19, 37Bonding social capital 29, 38,

88, 92Bourdieu, Pierre 5, 7, 18, 27, 32,

41, 110, 127Brain circulation 7, 13, 52, 62,

63, 70Brain drain 7, 13, 46, 52, 59, 62,

63, 96, 102Brazil 47, 60, 62Bridging social capital 29, 88British Journal of Sociology of

Education 5, 110

Canada 62, 77, 81, 90, 91, 130Cape Verde 62Casino funding 102Celtic Tiger 72

Centre for Studies and Research in Sociology xi

China 47, 62Choice Biography 26Circularity 29Coelho, Pedro Passos 58Coleman, James 41, 127Conditionalities 58Constitutional Tribunal 58Cork xi, 1, 50, 51, 58, 72, 73, 76,

77, 78, 80, 89, 133Cosmopolitanism 24Cost-benefit analysis 32, 113Council of Europe xi, x, 96,

125, 126Credit mobility 8, 14, 15, 16, 17,

18, 19, 31, 32, 37, 42, 101, 103, 114, 116, 117

Denmark xi, xii, 34Diploma Mobility 14, 18, 19, 20,

21, 118Dublin ix, xi, 1, 33, 50, 51,

72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 89

Employability 1, 4, 8, 11, 57, 74, 94, 95, 96, 97, 100, 101, 101, 104, 105, 120

Erasmus Programme 2, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 32, 37, 44, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 109, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 131, 132, 133

EUAXESS 119EURES 14, 119, 132Europe 2020 14, 97European Credit Transfer and

Accumulation System 125European discourse 15, 94

Index



148 Index

European identity 99, 100, 101European Platform on Learning

Mobility 96, 125European Research Area 8, 95,

105, 117European Research Council 102European Science Foundation 102European Voluntary Service 14European Youth Card

Association ix, 96

Foucault, Michel 27France 3, 12, 47, 60, 62, 64, 69, 87,

103, 128Free movers 29, 98, 99, 102, 105

Gap Year 19, 33Geography 2, 72, 126Germany 3, 12, 24, 47, 59, 60, 62,

64, 69, 78, 101, 103, 123Giddens, Anthony 25, 28GINI Coefficients 43Greece 63

Habitus 5, 6, 32, 38, 43, 99, 106, 110, 111, 113, 130

Hong Kong 62

Incomplete modernism 26India 31, 32, 47ISCTE-University Institute of

Lisbon 50

Japan 35, 47Joyce, James 129

Kinship ties 41Kneejerk mobility 108

Lifelong Learning Initiative 97, 98, 132

Lisbon Metropolitan Area 49Leonardo da Vinci Programme 14,

97, 103, 132London 33, 35, 61, 62, 74, 75, 77,

78, 81, 83, 111

Lusophone destinations 60, 62Luxembourg 47, 60

Marie Curie Fellowship Programme 102

Media tropes 53, 60, 128Merton, Robert K. 37Mexico 31, 32Migration Studies 2, 3, 4, 10, 11,

12, 13, 45, 62, 63, 65, 112, 113Migratory Elite 17, 115Missing middle 121Mobility capital 17, 18, 95, 96,

99, 106Mobility imperative 46, 83, 110Mobility multipliers 29, 96Mobility requirement 3, 12Mobility role model 34, 39,

115, 116

Neo-liberalism 20, 118Netherlands, The 12, 62New University of Lisbon 49New York 35New Zealand 47, 74, 90Nordic countries 3Nordic Youth Research

Symposium ixNot in Employment, Education or

Training 120, 131

Partitionism 71Popper, Karl 27Political repression 112, 113Political Science 12Post-diploma mobility 14, 20, 40,

51, 59, 72, 82, 108, 118, 119, 123Precarity 6, 12, 26, 36, 44, 65, 95,

123, 126, 131Preferred destinations 4, 60, 76,

77, 88, 89, 90Pull factors 112Push factors 112

Racism 84, 128, 129, 130Recibos verdes 66



Index 149

Reflexive modernity 26Reflexivity 27, 28, 126Religion 11Risk society 25

Secondary data 19, 44, 45, 53Sectarianism 83, 84, 91, 130Sedentary bias 2Shankill, The 38Short-term mobility 14, 18, 20, 78,

94, 117 Simpsons, The 85Social capital 29, 38, 41, 88,

92, 127Social Policy 2, 10, 12, 30Social Work 10, 30, 81Sociology xi, 2, 10, 13, 23, 27,

30, 63Sócrates, José 58South America 31, 32Spain 47, 105, 128Spatial reflexivity 6, 7, 27, 28, 29,

30, 32, 70, 80, 91, 93, 108, 111, 113, 122, 127

Spontaneous mobility 31Strasbourg xStructured individualization 23, 120Sussex Centre for Migration

Research 13, 15Switzerland 15, 47, 60, 131

Technical University of Lisbon 49Times Higher Education

Supplement 61Trinity College Dublin xi, ixTroika, the 53, 58, 73, 79, 129

Underemployment 6, 65, 96Unemployment 6, 23, 24, 43, 44,

53, 64, 67, 81, 95, 96, 97, 99, 101, 102, 118, 120, 123, 127, 131

UNESCO 8, 29, 46, 47, 127, 128, 131

United Kingdom 19, 47, 48, 60, 61, 82, 123, 125, 126

United States 12, 32, 47, 62, 77, 85, 91, 111, 123

University of Lisbon ix, xi, 49University of Ulster ix, 51

World Bank 43

Youth on the Move Initiative 14, 97, 109, 121

Youth in Action 14, 98 Youth Partnership 6, 125, 126Youth Studies 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, 22, 23,

120, 121Youth transitions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 22,

23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 36, 72, 120, 126



youth transitions, international student mobility and spatial reflexivity: being mobile?

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