Aspirations Of Youth Research Articles

Social networks and perceptions of intergenerational difference among migrant youth in Australia

‘Intergenerational difference’ has become a lens through which to view issues of identity, social connectedness, belonging and agency in migrant youth research, highlighting that differences in the aspirations of migrant youth and their parents shape young people’s experiences. The article will present findings from a mixed methods study of social network participation among three migrant youth cohorts in two Australian cities to address a perceived ‘gap’ among migrant youth and parents’ aspirations for social network formation and participation. The paper will first examine current theoretical approaches to intergenerational challenges in migrant youth research. It will then introduce ‘intersectionality’ as a concept offering a more nuanced understanding of the challenges and hopes of migrant youth for whom social networks can be a gateway towards belonging and connectedness. This, however, requires a negotiation of complex structural, social and cultural factors.

Youth, the Labor Market, and the Expansion of Higher Education

This article presents data about the aspirations of youth in relation to education and work, and it attempts to forecast the likelihood of fulfilling those aspirations. We have found that youth prefer enrolling in institutions of higher education to other educational trajectories; this is true of children whose parents have different socioprofessional statuses. Young people choose education because they want to obtain work that corresponds to their interests and aptitudes, is high-paying and prestigious, and makes it easy to find work in our country and to become a competent worker. However, most students in the ninth and eleventh grades had not made a decision about their future occupation or could not explain the reasons for their choice, and some were not sure of the correctness of their choice. [The Russian secondary school system goes through eleventh grade—Trans.] The authors do not share the belief that youth are behaving irresponsibly in charting their own future, but we do note a lack of appropriate communication between the labor market and its prospective personnel resources. Study of the opportunities for youth to realize their aspirations leads us to conclude that there is persistent differentiation in education, defined as an inequality of opportunities. The increase of a scarce resource (the number of places available in institutions of higher education) primarily increased the opportunities available to “strong” groups. With tightening conditions in the labor market, workers who received a pseudo-education will be replaced by qualified specialists. Differentiation in education will manifest itself in the labor market even more strongly than before. In conclusion, we draw attention to the fact that the aspirations of youth in educational institutions is consistent with global trends, and their positive motivation to work is the guarantee of progress and an important value component of social well-being.

An Evolutionary Understanding of Aging.

The art of intervention for rejuvenation is a major area in cosmetic surgery, and as Korea moves rapidly into an aging society, this area will gain more momentum. Human beings recognize the inevitability of their deaths; nevertheless, they still yearn for immortality and will not cease to strive to transform their aging appearance into youthful looks. However, we are not capable of the art of making faces look younger until we comprehend not only the anatomy of the face but also, more importantly, the aging process of the face. This is likewise true of the rest of the anatomy. It is natural to pose questions about what the fundamental reason is for aging and why it occurs in the first place. In addressing the causes of aging, human beings have been seeking ways of increasing longevity, and preventing or delaying the aging process, even if immortality cannot be achieved. Therefore, since the inception of civilization, evidence of human efforts to reach those goals has been found in every human society. These efforts have been sustained from the recent past up to the present era. However, despite the long history of human aspirations for perpetual youth, not a few scientific studies have shown that increasing longevity and the prevention of aging remains terra incognita. From the mythical secrets of ancient figures such as King David, Alexander the Great, and Shih Hwang Ti of the Chin Dynasty, to the Philosopher's Stone and alchemy in the Middle Ages, the stories of Prester John in the eleventh and twelfth century, to the search for the fountain of youth that motivated the voyages to the Caribbean in the sixteenth century, to hormonal treatments and the transplantation of animal testicles and ovaries into humans, a wide variety of methods of rejuvenation have been attempted in conjunction with corresponding medical developments. Hope is always directed toward the future, and giving up on finding a treatment method is tantamount to renouncing our future. Furthermore, the scientific mindset, which essentially casts fundamental into the shadows of doubt, has seen a transformation from a world governed by determinism designed by Newton, to a world based on principles of uncertainty provoked by Heisenberg. Despite the paradigm shift in the understanding of some physical phenomena, some fundamental laws governing the physical world, such as the law of conservation of mass and energy, are not presumed to be subject to change. It is possible for modern science to lengthen the lifespan of fruit flies by intervening in the fruit fly genome. But even launching research on the lengthening of the lifespan or the prevention of aging of human beings is a herculean task. Although we may eventually solve every mystery of the mechanisms of the human body at some point in the future, at the moment, the physicality of a human being is a complex system, which stubbornly refuses to be unraveled.

Migration aspirations of European youth in times of crisis

ABSTRACTIn recent years, the European Union (EU) passed through a significant economic crisis. All across Europe, European young people are among the groups which are hit hardest, with youth unemployment rates rising to over 50% in member states such as Greece and Spain. In the classical migration literature, it is suggested that such unfavourable economic climate would make people more likely to move abroad. Whereas in press releases we are regularly confronted with stories about South European young adults with tertiary education working in bars in Northern European cities, limited empirical evidence exists as such on the relationship between the recent Euro-crisis and migration aspirations. This paper addresses this gap in the academic literature. Using data from Flash Eurobarometer 395, I investigate which micro- and macro-level characteristics influence migration aspirations of young people across the member states of the EU. The results reveal the importance of individual characteristics and feelings of discontent with the current climate in explaining migration aspirations. Furthermore, I detect a negative relationship of relative welfare levels with migration aspirations, and a positive relationship of the youth unemployment ratio. Together, the results suggest that potential young intra-EU movers are positively selected from the population.

The Complex Decision-Making Processes of Rural Emerging Adults: Counseling Beyond Dualism

Rural adolescents approach the transition out of high school with individual concerns about making an emotionally or financially expensive “mistake,” family concerns about young people leaving home, and national and local concerns about declining rural economies and out-migration. The literature concerning this topic considers factors that influence youth aspirations in rural areas, such as economic barriers, the way higher education is valued, and perceptions of rural places as lacking in opportunity. However, there has been little study of the myriad interpersonal, emotional, and self-identity inputs that are part of the decision-making processes of rural emerging adults, and little is known about how the aspirations of rural youth play out over time. This article, based on the findings of a qualitative longitudinal study, considers the way rural emerging adults weighed options, understood constraints and opportunities, and took action on behalf of their aspirations to make something meaningful of their lives. Research participants were engaged in a process of decision making that was multifaceted, nuanced, and purposeful, and the results of the research made it clear that we need to think beyond the dualisms of staying or leaving, college or not. Counselors must be prepared to “stay complex” and help rural emerging adults anticipate ecological transitions, find coping mechanisms, and cut through binaries to explore alternative pathways, creative identities, and multiple meanings of success.

Occupational aspirations and ethnic school segregation: social contagion effects among native German and immigrant youths

ABSTRACTIn this study, I broaden the perspective on young immigrants’ aspirations by looking at their social embeddedness in the host society in terms of their institutionally predefined ties to school peers. In particular, I investigate the relationship between the aspirations of immigrant and native youths with special regard to the social mechanisms that may underlie peer influences. My analyses are based on multilevel data on ninth graders from the German National Educational Panel Study. The results show that a high ratio of immigrants in schools positively influences the aspirations of both immigrant and native German youths by way of school climate. However, the same context has different effects on different groups of origin. For those of Turkish descent, ‘ethnic schools’ are of twofold significance: first, the aspiration gap between Turks and native Germans decreases with increasing segregation, an effect that may be attributable to less perceived discriminatory experiences in school. Second, Turkish young people's stronger adaptation to the climate in ethnically segregated schools reinforces the protective effect of ethnic segregation and, additionally, lowers the aspirations of these youths. That is, immigrants’ stronger orientation towards their in-group seems to contribute to a buffer against discrimination.

Africa's Got Work To Do: A Diagnostic of Youth Employment Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is not only the poorest region of the world, it is also the youngest. This realisation is fuelling concern about the youth employment challenge. However, these discussions often lack context, owing to the absence of labour market data and analysis. This article remedies that gap through an analysis of the macroeconomics of the youth employment problem in the low and lower middle income countries of SSA. This analysis concludes that the youth employment problem is just a subset of the overall employment challenges in SSA, which stem from the sluggish pace of the demographic transition—which is why so many youth are coming into the labour market in the first place—combined with slow development of a modern, export-oriented enterprise sector, which leaves the majority of youth entering the labour force no employment option except household farms and firms. In these segments, earnings and productivity are usually low. This has resulted in a large gap between the aspirations of youth (and their parents) and the economic opportunities available. A recognition of realities of the current employment structure and the limited prospects for a major change could bring better focus to current youth employment strategies and illuminate the most promising directions for public and private interventions. In particular, strategies should focus more on how to raise productivity and earnings in the sector where most of the labour force works, instead of just concentrating on the urban wage employment sector.

Love and Betrayal: The Political Economy of Youth Violence in Post-War Sierra Leone

ABSTRACTYouth unemployment is often presented as a security risk in post-conflict countries, yet the relationship between labour market exclusion and engagement in violence remains little understood. This paper opens up one aspect of this relationship, analysing how the employment aspirations of Sierra Leone's marginal youth relate to their decisions to take part in political unrest. Telling the stories of urban youth involved to varying degrees in violent episodes shows how violence is used as a tactic to signal loyalty to political strongmen. Such loyalty is hoped to result in the establishment of relations of reciprocity that will offer a road to socially valued employment. Comparing the experiences of two groups of young people, similar in their socio-economic background and experience of violence but different in their collocation in political networks, reveals two things. Firstly, availability for violence was insufficient to achieve durable incorporation, as pre-existing social ties determined the nature of recruitment. Secondly, as even those embedded in politicians’ networks of reciprocity appeared ultimately unable to escape marginality, their experiences cast doubt on the expediency of using violence as a way into the labour market, making the exploitative nature of these relations starkly evident.

DOES RURAL-TO-URBAN MIGRATION PLACE ADOLESCENTS AT RISK OF DELETERIOUS SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH OUTCOMES? EVIDENCE FROM HAITI.

This study examines the links between migration and sexual and reproductive health among rural-to-urban migrant youth in Haiti. It evaluates behavioural, knowledge and attitudinal components from the perspective of three competing explanations for migrants' behaviours: adaptation, disruption and selection. Discrete-time event history analysis is employed to compare these hypotheses using Haiti Demographic and Health Survey data (N=1215 adolescent girls, N=829 adolescent boys). Multi-level models are used to compare changes in knowledge and attitudes in individuals using data from the Haiti Youth Transitions Study (N=223). The findings reveal that disruption is the most plausible explanation for the timing of migration and first sex among girls. However, contrary to the assumption that migrant youth risk experiencing first sex earlier, girls are less likely to experience first sex near the time they migrate, and rural-to-urban migrant boys may experience first sex at later ages. The high aspirations of migrant youth provide a likely explanation for these findings. Furthermore, male migrants accumulate less protective knowledge, which is consistent with the disruption hypothesis, and migrants endorse premarital sex similarly to non-migrants. Sexual and reproductive health curricula should be adapted to the unique needs of migrant youth, and youth should be targeted before they migrate.

The influences of community attachment, sense of community, and educational aspirations upon the migration intentions of rural youth in Texas

Data drawn from the Rural Youth Community Survey were used to examine the associations of community attachment, sense of community, and educational aspirations of rural youth in Texas with their migration intentions. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that the three measures are independently and significantly associated with students’ intentions to migrate. Based upon these findings, several recommendations for community leaders hoping to retain youth in rural areas and/or encourage young people to return to their home communities after receiving post-secondary education or training are offered. Possible implications of these findings for community developers, public leaders, Cooperative Extension personnel, and other practitioners are addressed, as are suggestions for future research.

Aspirations of rural youth towards self-development

The present research “Aspirations of rural youth towards self-development” was conducted in Ramtek and Kamthi taluka of Nagpur district of Maharashtra State. 100 youth were selected randomly from 10 villages. The data was collected by personal interview of the rural youth with the help of interview schedule. In case of profile of rural youth nearly half of respondents (46.00 %) had medium age (24 to 28 years). The 30.00 per cent of rural youth educated up to college level. Majority of respondents (71.00 %) had medium experience in farming (4 to 7 years) and 72.00 per cent had medium family size (4 to 7 members), majority of respondents (56.00 %) had semimedium (2.01 to 4.00 ha) land holding, 40.00 per cent respondents had high social participation and 46.00 per cent had medium extension contact, whereas 44.00 per cent respondents had high mass media exposure and majority of respondents (59.00 %) had medium cosmopoliteness. It was observed that majority of respondents (51.00 %) performed medium level overall role in village development activities. In case of role of rural youth in agricultural development activities majority of respondents (56.00 %) were played role in sowing, drilling, dibbling, etc. activities, in case of rural youth role in social development activities of village majority of respondents (52.00 %) played role in cultural and recreational programmes. In case of role of rural youth in economic development activities over two fifth of respondents (43.00 %) were participated in work of marketing of agriculture product.

Celebrity culture and young people’s aspirations: A resource for careers education?

This article presents findings from the research project ‘The role of celebrity in young people’s classed and gendered aspirations’ (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council). Drawing on interviews with 148 young people in England, the project addresses concerns about the impact of celebrity culture on youth aspirations. The article presents selected findings to demonstrate how celebrity culture variously informs the ways in which young people think and talk about their futures in work, and makes some suggestions about how careers education might engage critically and generatively with celebrity.

Youth aspirations, participation in higher education and career choice capability: where to from here?

Over the last few decades, youth aspirations and post-school transitions have become the focus of much research, particularly in economically-developed countries such as Australia. In October 2010, Australia’s National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education organised and held a conference with the theme ‘Aspiration, Mobility, Voice’. The event was followed by a special issue of Critical Studies in Education (CSIE), which included articles and discussion notes by the contributors and keynote speakers of the conference. The main aim of the CSIE special issue was to enhance thinking on efforts to widen participation in higher education (HE) and improve student equity (Gale 2011). Its authors discussed new ideas and opinions about student equity in HE (Sellar and Gale 2011), with an emphasis on disadvantaged students (Parry 2011). A number of contributors highlighted how, despite good intentions, the modern conceptualisation of ‘aspiration’ risks establishing disadvantaged young people with dreams that are different to the dominant culture as ‘outcasts’ (Hockings 2011; Kenway and Hickey-Moody 2011; McLeod 2011; Smith 2011). The topic of youth aspirations and post-school transitions has also been of concern for government. With levels of youth unemployment increasing steadily since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (Brotherhood of St. Laurence 2014), state and federal government have implemented initiatives to address this problem and to encourage young people to engage in further education and training. The Higher Education Participation and Partnership scheme, for example, involved both universities and schools in raising disadvantaged school students’ desire and capacity to obtain tertiary degrees (Australian Government Department of

New Dynamics in Latin America

The dramatic massification of Latin America's higher education is leading to a social revolution with new demands on government for greater and more effective regulation. However the sector's market development, based on private as much as public institutions and funding, cannot be easily organized. Facing increasing political demands, governments and stakeholders will have to ensure-through innovative instruments and policies-greater quality, employability while adapting funding and curricula to massification, in order to meet the aspirations of Latin America's present and future youth.

Dowries and Debts: Fuzhounese Youth Geographies of Fear, Resentment, and Obligation

Chinese family networks are often lauded as the source of Chinese American success in education and used as a bolstering tool to propagate myths of the model minority. This study of Fuzhounese youth, however, reveals that many Chinese American youth view getting married and having children as more important than educational status for establishing place and face in the United States. Against the backdrop of growing privatization of the nation’s economy and its emphasis on personal responsibility and worker flexibility, my analysis of the effects of familial obligations as a national and transnational debt complicates caricatures of Asian American families as the model minority. By calling attention to the negotiations that Fuzhounese youth make in order to forge economic relationships that take into consideration familial expectations, this article underscores the ways in which filial piety and obligations shape the marriage and educational aspirations of Fuzhounese youth.

Youth and peacebuilding in Sri Lanka

Youth are often thought as perpetrators of violence and those who are easily coerced into participating in armed conflicts. Youth who participate in armed conflict or violence are often those who are deprived of basic amenities or have been victims of violence at a particular period of time within their societies. In this article, I posit that youth can be positively engaged in post-conflict scenario by examining the Sri Lankan case. This article provides definitions of youth, theories which support the perception that youth are more often perpetrators of violence, youth bulge and an assumption that youth can be engaged in the peacebuilding process. More often the problem in Sri Lanka is not seen as centred around the aspirations of youth in the country - more particularly Tamil youth. Thus, I argue that if youth are engaged in the peacebuilding process in Sri Lanka, it could provide a situation where there could be lasting peace in the country and thereby preventing a relapse into war between the Sinhalese and the Tamils.

Problematizing the Discourse: A Quantitative Analysis of African American High School Students’ Academic Aspirations and Motivation to Excel

The influence of environmental and contextual factors on human development and behaviors among adolescents is well documented in the literature. The discourse surrounding urban African American high school students has largely failed to take into consideration how these factors relate to the postsecondary academic aspirations and motivations, performance, and success of these students. Stewart, Stewart, and Simons (2007) assessed the extent to which the neighborhood context predicts the college-going aspirations of African American youth and found that living in a disadvantaged neighborhood context lowers, albeit slightly, the college aspirations of this group. However, these authors fail to place these findings in a broader analysis of the relationship between aspirations and the contextual factors that impact on and manifest in the neighborhood context, particularly in low-income urban communities. Using an ecological perspective of development in this study, the authors carefully interrogate the relationship between urban African American high school students' academic aspirations and motivations regarding college and the various environmental and contextual factors that impact the communities, families, and peer networks of which they are a part. The work is situated within Bronfenbrenner's (1977 1994, 1999; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) model of human ecology, process-person-context-time (or PPCT). This ecological model centralizes the processes particular persons undergo within certain contexts and provides a framework for exploring how contexts ultimately facilitate or inhibit development over time.To date, ecological perspectives have been used extensively in studies on college students: academic success of first-generation ethnic minority students (Dennis, Phinney, & Chuateco, 2005); campus ecology (Dey & Hurtado, 1995); and, peer counseling and financial aid (Tierney & Venegas, 2006) to name a few. Additionally, studies on child development and social and emotional learning (Durlak et al., 2011), bullying and victimization (Cook et al., 2010), mentoring in the workplace (Chandler, Kram, & Yip, 2011), and classroom ecology and misbehavior (Supaporn, Dodds, & Griffin, 2003) have employed an ecological lens.The authors incorporate this theoretical lens in their work to interrogate the relationship between neoliberalism, school reform policies and practices, familial and social networks and the academic aspirations and motivations of urban African American high school students in California. The discussion of human ecology starts at the macrosystems level (e.g., neoliberalism) and at the exosystems level (e.g., current education reform policies and practices) to frame the context of urban communities in California. The quantitative analysis is limited to the microsystems level (e.g., family, peer and co-curricular determinants) where the authors assess the predictive relationship between these contextual factors and students' postsecondary academic aspirations and motivations.The aim of this study is to explore the extent to which family and social determinants, as well as co-curricular engagement, predict urban African American adolescents' personal determinants of academic success. For the purposes of this study, the authors conceptualize family determinants as the expectations a student's family has for him or her regarding secondary and postsecondary educational attainment, experiences with housing displacement, and low educational attainment among siblings. Furthermore, peer relationships, peer expectations and peer support in the schooling process is identified as positive peer support and more broadly, as a measure of social determinants. The outcome variable, personal determinants of academic success, is defined as a student's academic motivation, future aspirations, and personal expectations of academic success. The following questions guide this research:* What is the relationship between family determinants, co-curricular engagement, social determinants and urban African American students' personal determinants of academic success? …

“We Didn’t Let the Neighborhood Win”: Black Male Students’ Experiences in Negotiating and Navigating an Urban Neighborhood

Research on Black males and their education reveal a complex interplay of individual, structural, institutional, and policy factors that concomitantly affect their experiences (Ferguson, 2000; Howard, 2003; Noguera, 2008; Swanson, Cunningham, & Spencer, 2003; Toldson, 2008). Examining these various factors help to provide a broader canvass from which to explore student successes and the challenges they face. Earlier studies on Black males argued that their opposition to school negatively impacted their educational outcomes (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). This framework problematized the students without examining some of the contributing factors to their behaviors and outcomes. A number of more recent studies not only criticize this early work for lacking statistical significance (e.g., Ainsworth-Darnell & Downey, 1998; Harris, 2006), but they also show how schools impact Black males' identity development and performance (Ferguson, 2000; Howard, 2003), how neighborhoods matter (Catsambis & Beveridge, 2001; Turley, 2003), and how peer status contributes to schooling outcomes (Staff & Kreager, 2008). Findings from this research suggest that myriad factors complicate students' educational aspirations and, particularly germane to the current study, more attention is needed on the effect of neighborhood context on Black males' schooling experiences. Stewart and colleagues (2007) contended that many studies focused on educational aspirations often neglect to investigate the impact that different dynamics of neighborhoods (type, ecology, etc.) have on educational aspirations of youth. A lack of attention to these types of contextual factors limits one's understanding of students' attitudes, behaviors, and performances both during school and out-ofschool hours.Research on the lived experiences of Black males is important to consider as well since it demonstrates the need to nuance their experiences across the intersections of their race, gender, and class (Anderson, 2008; Jenkins, 2006; Johnson & Leighton, 1995; Young, 2004). For instance, Johnson and Leighton (1995) focused on the disproportionate death rates among poor Black men, which they examined as one of a number of products of social deprivation. The authors asserted that social deprivation subjects Black males to many disabling conditions that restrict opportunity, inflict pain and suffering, and shorten their (p. 2). Similarly, Anderson (2008) asserted that many young Black men who are poor are up against the wall.1 He contends that the social condi1The tions in their neighborhoods require Black men to develop a variety of coping styles and strategies in efforts to mitigate some of the risk factors they face. In considering this context for the Black males in the current study, the majority of whom self-identified as low income (N = 13), taking account for their out-of-school experiences in navigating the neighborhood and its effects is critical in appreciating their resilience and persistence efforts (Carter, 2005; Floyd, 1996; Young, 2004).Similar to Ginwright's (2009) offering, more work is needed that allows space for selfexploration and healing for Black young men. This work has the potential to transform their lives and their communities. The current case study seeks to contribute to the literature by exploring the lived experiences and perceptions of young Black men. The goal of this research is to learn what the students experience and investigate how urban neighborhoods matter in their experiences. While a great deal of attention has been paid to urban violence in cities such as Chicago, Flint (MI), and Camden (NJ), and what is not working in inner-city schools, this project is timely in that it offers an opportunity to hear the narratives of young men who successfully navigated the streets, felt supported and valued in school, and are thriving academically.BLACK MALES AND URBAN EDUCATIONVarious studies have identified numerous factors that affect how Black male students experience school, which ultimately impact their academic achievement (Ainsworth, 2002; Flowers, Milner, & Moore, 2003; Marsh, Chaney, & Jones, 2012; Noguera, 2008; Swanson, Cunningham, & Spencer, 2003; Toldson, 2008). …

Youth Politics: Waiting and Envy in a South African Informal Settlement

From the mid 2000s, militant local political protests have been widespread in poor townships and shack settlements across South Africa, recalling mobilisations of a previous decade. Youth have been at the forefront of these protests, as the weight of the job and housing crisis has fallen disproportionately on those under 35. Similarly to the 1980s, this has created fears over a youth-led rebellion, with youth portrayed as militant, angry, disillusioned and available for direct action. Significantly, very little research has captured the role of youth in these urban uprisings from the perspective of youth themselves. This paper provides insight into the lives of a number of youth who participated in the 2011 protests in Zandspruit informal settlement, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Situating the protests within a larger context allows an exploration of the complex web of structural factors which motivate youth involvement, and the ways in which youth actively shape and transform their social reality. This includes an understanding of the nature of youth unemployment, the politicisation of access to resources and services, and the relationship between leaders and youth. Through an analysis of the shared grievances and frustrated aspirations of youth within a context of perverse social inequality and intense competition for power and access to resources, the motivations of youth are analysed through two key concepts: waiting and envy. This paper draws attention to the changing nature of political action among youth and the implications for broader politics and society in South Africa.

Between global dreams and national duties: the dilemma of conscription duty in the transnational lives of young Korean males

AbstractIn this study, I examine the dilemmas arising from the tension between citizen duties and youthful aspirations in a globalizing world. The state's requirement of military conscription structures the transnational lives of young Korean male migrants. More particularly, the timeline for serving the duty works as a primary temporal reference for the males' initial migration planning and future projections. Drawn from ethnographic fieldwork and in‐depth interviews among a community of young Koreans in New Jersey, USA, my research reveals that their life planning in accordance with this institutional schedule is vulnerable to unexpected changes. The consequences are potentially detrimental to their futures, which not only differ from their individual ideals but also contain a high risk of marginalization both in Korea and in the USA. Building on the transnational migration literature, which focuses predominantly on spatiality, individual rights/agency and the marginalization of women migrants, I am concerned with temporality, citizens' duties and the constraints of masculinity as important parts of unravelling the complexities of transnational life.