A Global Generation on the Move: Transnational Youth, Mobilities and Belongings

Abstract (English)

In an increasingly interconnected world, youth mobilities - especially those of the descendants of migrants - have become a crucial area of study (Mazzucato, Odgen, 2025; Mazzucato, Haagsman, 2022; Reynolds, Zontini, 2016). These young people find themselves at the intersection of multiple cultures, identities, temporalities and socio-political contexts (Cheung, Blazek, Esson, 2020). Their experiences of mobility - whether through diasporic connections, tourism, new migrations to ‘third countries’, or movements within host societies - offer valuable insights into how mobility is lived and experienced across generations (Wagner, 2023). This panel aims to explore the mobilities of youth from migrant backgrounds through a global, intersectional and ethnographic lens, highlighting how their movements shape and are shaped by local and global processes of cultural hybridity and social transformation. The focus will be on understanding how young people of migrant descent navigate complex transnational spaces, balancing their own desires and aspirations, family expectations, host society challenges and opportunities, and the broader context. In doing so, it seems useful to move beyond an ethnic and generational lens and adopt ‘mobility-based categories’ that offer new possibilities for methodological and theoretical exploration and innovation (Mazzucato, 2024; Robertson, Harris, Baldassar, 2018, Van Gell, Mazzucato, 2018).
We invite contributions that use ethnographic and creative methods to explore how these young individuals engage with mobility across multiple dimensions - geographic, social, cultural, and digital. How do the legacies of their parents' migration influence their own mobility choices and experiences? How do they perceive and negotiate issues of identity, belonging, and citizenship in a globalized world? How do the intersections of race, class, and gender affect their mobility practices? How do their mobility practices differ from or converge with those of ‘native’ youth or other types of transnational youth (e.g., unaccompanied minors)?
The panel will also explore how their mobility experiences vary across global contexts, bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and Europe. Theoretical discussions on youth as a dynamic social construct, mobility turns and the impact of digital globalization will inform the debate, while ethnographic case studies will provide new insights into the lived experiences of migrants’ descendants in today's increasingly trans-locally connected world. The panel will present a research agenda that contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the role that mobility plays in the lives of transnational youth in both the Global South and North.