Understanding the structures of transnational youth im/mobility: A qualitative network analysis

Abstract

Social network research on migration and mobility suffers from two drawbacks. On the one hand, network studies are often confined to specific types of relationships (e.g. to persons, to organizations) and do not see relationships of different types as part of the same structure. On the other hand, qualitative network approaches are only just beginning to address supradyadic structures. Presenting our study on transnational youth mobility, we show how qualitative network analysis allows researchers to study how mobility is dynamically interrelated to social network structures consisting of different types of relationships. Taking the example of youth mobility in Europe, we apply qualitative structural analysis (QSA) to analyse relationships not only with others but also between others. The article presents a qualitative network approach for migration and mobility research and shows how im/mobility is structured by relationships with and between various entities.