Transnational youth transitions: becoming adults between Vancouver and Hong Kong

In the context of the academic interest shown in the enduring transnationalism of contemporary migrants and in the modes of transitions to adulthood in different global settings, in this article we examine the transnational lives of adolescents moving between Vancouver (Canada) and Hong Kong. While there is a lot of literature on the parents' political and economic calculations, there is very little on how adolescents in these situations articulate their geographical sensibilities. We draw on three periods of fieldwork undertaken in 2002, 2008 and 2010 during which we employed a transnational methodology to interview young people in Vancouver and Hong Kong. We argue that becoming an adult involves a process in which, in their discussions about the geographical and emotional distance between themselves and their families, young people articulate their own complex emotions towards specific places in their transnational social field. Their families sporadically interrupt the adolescents' otherwise independent lives with fragmented modes of supervision. By examining the complex intentions and emotions behind circular migration from the perspective of transnational youth in a community of split families, we advance the discussion on transnational geographies, particularly of the family in the context of a flexible global economy.     

Return visits and belonging to countries of origin among young people from refugee backgrounds

In this article, we explore the return visits of resettled young people from refugee backgrounds to their personal and/or ancestral countries of origin. We draw on qualitative data from a longitudinal study of people who fled their country of origin at an early age, many of whom were born or lived for protracted periods in countries of asylum, and resettled in Australia. We demonstrate that return visits are not simply a homecoming; the young people's narratives reflect ambivalent relationships to the homeland experienced across multiple domains of belonging. Accounts of return visits refer to three core domains of belonging – practical national belonging, family connection, and attachment to material places. We argue that a return visit gives these youths a valued opportunity to negotiate and develop their homeland connections, though not necessarily an unambiguous opportunity to belong.     

The transnational lives and third space subjectivities of British Nigerian girls

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in 2012 on British Nigerian young women who have gone to boarding school in Nigeria and returned to attend university in the UK, I use the concept of third space as a heuristic device for understanding their transnational subjectivities and practices. I argue that, for some, this third space is a transgressive one in which they can craft alternative subjectivities and narratives about African culture and political economy. Applying insights from decolonial theory, I seek to build on the transgressive nature of this third space. In positioning themselves variously as Londoners, Nigerians, dual and post‐nationals, they express key features of contemporary transnational European subjectivities. Yet, parental expectations that they marry Nigerians and members of the Nigerian diaspora serve to reproduce the racial distinctions and nationalist rhetoric of colonial modernity that their third space subjectivities contest.     

Segmented pathways of educational mobility: English language schools,working holidays,and divergent prospects among South Korea's global youth

Using participant‐observation and 58 in‐depth participant interviews, this study examines South Korean youth who undertake overseas English language acquisition across the Philippines, United States, New Zealand, and Australia. This research introduces a concept I call ‘segmented pathways of educational mobility’, which describes the multi‐dimensional and complex levels of stratification within regional educational mobility flows that reinforce existing class inequalities for many migrants. However, segmented pathways also reveal that while resource‐constrained youth understand that their migration choices are more limited, they seek to accrue alternative cultural resources across varied destinations to gain the experiences and credentials necessary to advance in the South Korean labour market. Despite increased opportunities for English study abroad via market liberalization, this research contends that it also produces more levels of stratification within and among youth migrants.     

‘Cukup for me to be successful in this country’: ‘staying’ among left‐behind young women in Indonesia's migrant‐sending villages

By examining the aspirations of young, rural Indonesian women who, unlike their parents, want to stay behind rather than migrate for work, we look at how these women's experiences of feeling left‐behind affect their quests for alternative futures. Using a household relational lens, we employ the mediating concept of enough (cukup) to analyse the aspirations of young women wishing to remain at home. By focusing on their commitment to inter‐generational continuity and care rather than a lack of choice, we are able to offset the discourses associated with the culture of migration and its accompanying remittance euphoria. Our findings showed three main reasons for their choice. First, these young women pursue remittance‐funded higher education as a counter to parental sacrifice. Second, staying allows them both to provide the hands‐on care they themselves were denied as children and to pursue meaningful local careers. Third, the idea that migration has been ‘enough’ is a rational response to the social risks with which migration confronts a family.