Transnational resources through trajectories and temporalities of migrant youth mobility between Ghana and Europe

Bibliographic Data

ID7843873
AuthorsLaura J Ogden (0000-0001-8145-9873), Gladys Akom Ankobrey (0000-0001-5946-3294), Sarah Anschütz (0000-0002-4944-4361), Valentina Mazzucato (0000-0002-3008-6541)
Year2025
Volume51
Issue6
Pages1489-1507
Publication date2025-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2024.2441583
OpenAlexW4407030582
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited52

Research on migrant youth makes two longstanding assumptions: that they are immobile following their own or their parents’ migration and that their resource environments are confined to their country of residence. Recent investigations of transnational youth mobility question both assumptions, showing that migrant youth – including the first and second generations – are highly mobile, and that their mobility has multiple impacts on their lives. This paper seeks to add to this growing literature by conceptualising as ‘transnational resources’ the perspectives, values, knowledge, and skills that migrant youth gain from their mobility between their countries of origin and residence and which become meaningful in various aspects of their multi-local (or what we call transnational) lives. Drawing on ethnographic data with 81 young people who are mobile between Ghana and three European countries (Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands), we analyse the three main transnational resources we identified – enhanced sense of self, adaptability, and future outlook. Engaging the dual analytical lenses of temporalities and trajectories, we show both how transnational resources are gained through embodied mobility experiences and how they become meaningful in migrant youth’s lives across time and space

Economic geography · Embodied cognition · Ethnography · Geography · Mobilities · Political science · Residence · Resource (disambiguation · Social science · Sociology · Temporalities · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access