(Dis)ordered social sequences of mobile young adults: spatial, social and return mobilities

Abstract

ABSTRACT International mobility has become a significant part of the life experiences of a growing number of Polish youths since the enlargement of the EU in 2004, influencing young people’s transitions from education to work or transitions across different labour markets. The key aim of this paper is to explore socio-occupational sequences of young people considering spatial and temporal dynamism of the process of mobility. Focusing on the intersection between youth and migration studies, we aim to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the socio-occupational sequences of young people ‘on the move’? (2) How mobility capacities and imperatives determine the flow of sequences and (3) How mobility patterns collocate with sequences’ shapes? Based on Social Sequence Analysis, we have distinguished four types of ‘mobile sequences’ of young adults: (1) the ‘upward sequence’ when spatial mobility accelerates social mobility; (2) the ‘yo-yo sequence’, where transnational mobility causes ‘return social mobility’; (3) the ‘zigzag sequence’, involving up-and-down patterns in social mobility; (4) the ‘flat sequence’, where spatial mobility has no impact on the objective dimension of socio-occupational sequences, but mobility strongly influences human capital.