Youth Mobility Research Articles

Negotiating the modalities of time – individual and institutional, migratory and marital: a temporal ‘double-bind’ for Chinese migrant women in the UK

ABSTRACT Complex migration and life course trajectories entangle in the youth mobilities of increasing numbers of educated, middle-class Chinese migrants to the UK. This article argues that intersections between individual and institutional framings of time shape temporary migrants’ experiences and rhythms of transnational marriage formation. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with 51 informants, this article examines how migrants’ desire for, timing of and decisions relating to transnational marriage are shaped by the interlocking forces of time and timing embedded in intersectional visa regime, marital institution and gender order. The British visa regime determines the duration of time that a temporary migrant is allowed to stay; the institution of marriage prescribes a socially expected time to marry; and the Chinese state’s gender discourse stigmatises women’s late marriage. Unpacking this intersection, this research seeks to advance understanding of the complex relations between various socially constructed modalities of time in producing specific experiences for migrants, who may experience an accelerated and decelerated sense of time during the process of transnational marriage negotiation.

Sayaka Chatani. Nation-Empire: Ideology and Rural Youth Mobilization in Japan and Its Colonies.

In Nation-Empire: Ideology and Rural Youth Mobilization in Japan and Its Colonies, a strikingly original new work on pre-1945 Japan and its empire, Sayaka Chatani begins by posing a simple but compelling question: Why did tens of thousands of young men across the Japanese empire in the 1930s and 1940s, not only in Japan but also in colonies such as Korea and Taiwan, embrace the military mobilization of the period and even seek to enlist voluntarily in the Imperial Army? Chatani frames her answer around a conception of Imperial Japan as a “nation-empire,” an attempt “to form a nation across imperial domains” (4) through a radical and atypical process of imperial ideological assimilation in which Japan sought to make its colonized subjects “similar” to the colonizer and to integrate them into the Japanese “Yamato race.” She takes as her main focus the government-sponsored “village youth associations” (seinendan) (22) that proliferated throughout the empire, which she regards as the most important top-down vehicle for youth mobilization. And here Chatani makes the first of several bold interventions in the existing scholarship. Since Andre Schmid’s famous critique twenty years ago of Japanese historiography for its neglect of empire (and of Korea specifically) as part of the study of Japanese modernity, the field has been greatly enhanced by many studies of one or more aspects of Japanese imperialism. But there have been few studies, especially in English, that look at the empire holistically through the lens of a common question or theme. One reason for this is the daunting linguistic challenges such studies face. At a minimum, the responsible scholar must be able to handle not only Japanese but also Chinese and Korean. Chatani appears to excel in this regard, drawing deeply from primary and secondary sources, including personal interviews, in all three languages, as she takes readers chapter by chapter from seinendan in Japan and Okinawa to those in Taiwan and Korea, highlighting “translocal” similarities but also pointing out key differences in each case. In focusing on the youth associations, moreover, which were all located in the countryside, Chatani makes another important scholarly intervention. The histories of modern East Asia have for the most part been studies of urban change and modernity, but as Chatani rightly notes, the vast majority of the populations in the Japanese empire were farmers living in rural areas, and to neglect this key demographic is to leave out a crucial part of the modern story. In the case of Korea, for example, where more than 80 percent of the colonial population were peasants, the dominant “colonial modernity” scholarly paradigm has to a great extent ignored the rural population, seeing “modernity” as essentially an urban phenomenon.

‘Our time to recover’: young men, political mobilization, and personalized political ties during the 2017 primary elections in Nairobi

ABSTRACT In this article, we show how youth groups in Nairobi’s poor settlements engage with politics while carving out a political space for themselves and providing a livelihood. In doing so, we challenge dominant neo-patrimonial narratives of youth radicalization and instrumentalized youth mobilization in relation to electoral processes. Based on long-term ethnographic engagements, we argue for more complex dynamics between local youth groups and politicians; dynamics informed by differently situated understandings and diverse experiences of democracy. We follow the emic use of the term kupona (Kiswahili word meaning recovery or healing) to approach youth’s political engagements along lines of participation, recognition, and re-distribution, which all in different ways express demands for social recovery. Empirically, the article draws on events and examples from the primary elections in 2017, which provide a privileged frame for investigating local politics and responses to the recently initiated devolved government structure.

Is It Possible to Repeat the Experience of East Asia? The External Factors of East Asian ‘Miracle’

The paper focuses on the widespread presupposition about a possibility for the developing countries beyond the East Asian region to follow the development path of the newly industrialised countries (NICs) of East and Southeast Asia known as ‘tigers’. The author underlines that the ‘tigers’ success story was the effect of fortune combination of the external and internal factors of fast modernisation of the countries under scrutiny. The subject of the given paper is a set of the external factors of the East Asian ‘miracle’. In the author’s opinion, there were three main external factors of successful development in the East Asian NICs. Firstly, there was a strong influence of cold war in the region. Since the early‑1960s the rivalry between the USSR and USA was here ‘supplemented’ by pretensions of the Maoist China to the role of ‘torch’ for the poor and wretched peoples of Asia. Thus, there was the specific triangle of foreign forces that operated in the region. The US ruling circles conceived that the best way to ‘the containment of communism’ was to create a show case of ‘good capitalism’: to eradicate mass poverty, to build contemporary effective economy, to open the channels of vertical social mobility for youth, and, thereby, to erode the social soil for the Leftist ideas. Secondly, the business and political leaders of the considerable countries understood a necessity to modernise their economies. The local elites, being in vassal dependency on the American protection, were obliged to follow the path of development that corresponded mostly to the interests of US. This circumstance determined, to a big degree, a choice of the outward‑looking industrialisation. Thirdly, the export‑oriented industrialisation in East Asia coincided with profound structural changes in Western economies. The NICs could occupy niches at the internal markets of industrial countries, exporting their manufactured goods to the West. It provided the growth of incomes for further accumulation. The neoconservatism in politics and neoliberalism in economics in the West helped to the East Asian ‘tigers’ to carry out their modernisation. Since the called external factors of East Asian ‘miracle’ do not recently exist in other developing regions, the author comes to conclusion that none of these regions can repeat the success story of the Asian NICs.

The Komsomol of Mordovia held festivals of youth and students in the second half of the 1950s.

Introduction. Festival forms of socio-cultural behavior, as an algorithm for displaying agitation, educational, and entertainment functions during mass events, have recently become the object of study. The need for scientific generalization creates an environment of mutual understanding to strengthen intercultural dialogue, have highlighted the attention to historical experience of such cross-cultural events, for analysis of strategies and mechanisms of translation of information and forms of behavior to create understanding in society and among the participants, promoting a positive image of the country. The subject of the study was the methods of youth mobilization used by the Komsomol in the Mordovian ASSR, during the VI (Moscow, July 28 – August 11, 1957; 3,400 participants; 131 countries; the motto “For peace and friendship”) and VII (Austria, Vienna; 18,000 participants; 112 countries; motto “For peace, friendship and peaceful coexistence”) of the World youth and student festivals (WFMS). Materials and Methods. Materials from the archives of the Republic of Mordovia, statistical data, as well as scientific literature were used to solve the research tasks. The research was conducted on the principle of historicism, objectivity and consistency. The statistical method was used for data processing. Results. Based on the study of archival sources and available scientific literature were the main problems of the festival movement, as well as the participation of Mordovia Komsomol festivals of youth and students in the second half of 1950-ies. Against the background of increasing participation of the Komsomol in the festival movement, the processes of self-organization and innovative activity of Komsomol organizations in conducting youth policy are shown. Discussion and Conclusion. As you know, such festivals have been held since 1947. They are organized by the world Federation of democratic youth (WFDY) and the International Union of students (IUS). The decision to create the WFDY and hold festivals was made at the world conference of youth and students in London in 1945. The tradition of holding irregular festivals of left-wing youth organizations is still attractive in modern youth politics. The XIX festival was held in Russia (Moscow/Sochi; October 14–22, 2017, 185 countries, the motto “For peace, solidarity and social justice, we fight against imperialism-respecting the past, we build the future”. VI world festival of youth and students 1957 (Moscow), still perceived as a unique event for the Soviet Union in the framework of international cultural policy during the cold war. In the article, through the activities of the Komsomol of Mordovia, an attempt is made to consider the goals and objectives of the VI and VII world festival of youth and students, in the context of the youth festival policy in the Soviet Union. As it is known, in the 1950s, the festival movement was organized in the format of traditional political, social and cultural events for the Soviet society. However, it should be taken into account that during their implementation, new forms of communication, methods of mobilization, and broadcasting of information were also born to create mutual understanding among young people.

Differences in self-regulation motivation between social network service and gaming groups in the use of youth mobile phones

Differences in self-regulation motivation between social network service and gaming groups in the use of youth mobile phones

Challenging Youth Unemployment Through International Mobility

Abstract Youth unemployment is a challenge in many European countries – especially since the financial crises. Young people face difficulties in the transition from education into employment. This article focuses on young mobile Europeans from six countries (Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania and Spain). The research question is whether and to which extent international mobility has an impact on employability and therefore reduces youth unemployment. By using a cluster analysis of personal adaptability, social and human capital and career identity, the importance of mobility experiences for employability is analysed in a recent dataset of 5,272 young (formerly) mobile respondents. Youth mobility is established as a strong characteristic for the employability cluster. Mobility is however not the long-term aim of most of the mobile young people, since most of the mobiles choose to return to their home countries after one or more stays abroad.

Anatomy of a crisis: governing youth mobility through vulnerability

ABSTRACT In 2018, the Italian Coast Guard rescued 190 migrants onboard an overcrowded vessel from Libya. Held at sea for five days, the Italian government finally permitted the Coast Guard to dock in Catania, Sicily, yet refused to allow the migrants to disembark. This article begins by dissecting the anatomy of this crisis, tracing the diverse actors and institutions involved in its creation and resolution through first-hand accounts. Multi-sited ethnographic research reveals how a diverse set of actors enlisted a hierarchy of vulnerability to secure the release of migrants onboard, privileging unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in particular. The article examines how this hierarchy has proven effective in legislating specialised protections and services and accessing limited humanitarian aid. However, a hierarchy of vulnerability has two paradoxical yet mutually reinforcing consequences. First, focusing on the vulnerabilities of increasingly narrow categories of individuals, such as unaccompanied children, distracts from examining how state policies produce vulnerability. Second, the humanitarian organisations’ emphasis on vulnerability re-inscribes social boundaries, making state protections and services progressively difficult to access. In so doing, both the state and humanitarian organisations govern youth mobility through vulnerability.

Право на город: повседневные практики молодежи и партисипация в производстве городского пространства

В исследовании поднимается вопрос о реализации права на город в оценках молодого поколения крупного промышленного города сквозь призму повседневной жизнедеятельности и участия в производстве и воспроизводстве городского пространства. Город как «среда обитания» становится важнейшей сценой поведенческих практик и взаимодействий молодого поколения, а партисипация в производстве городского пространства меняет саму молодежь, которая берет на себя ответственность за место проживания и реализацию своих жизненных планов. Основой эмпирического исследования (Екатеринбург, 2019) стала полиметодическая стратегия. Нами опрошено 750 молодых людей в возрасте от 18 до 30 лет (анкетный опрос, квотный вид отбора). Обработка полученных результатов была проведена с использованием программы SPSS. С целью глубинного понимания потребностей городской молодежи проведено 22 полуформализованных интервью, информантами в которых стали 15 девушек и 7 юношей. Также в рамках проекта опрошено 10 экспертов: специалистов/руководителей молодежных проектов, представителей научного сообщества. Результаты исследования показали, что в ситуации стабильного существования, при отсутствии выраженного вмешательства государственных или региональных властей в сферы, которые молодые граждане оценивают как сугубо личностные или общественно значимые, лишь 5% респондентов оценивают участие в управлении городом как неотъемлемую часть своей жизни. Проведенный качественный анализ позволил наметить три модели поведения молодежи при возникновении противоречий между городскими органами власти и горожанами, стремящимися реализовать свое право на город: модель невмешательства, модель искреннего участия, модель бегства. Эмотивный аспект присвоения города формирует чувство принадлежности к городу и неразрывности своей судьбы и судьбы города. Это воплощается в языковых конструкциях, город становится персонифицированным, о нем говорят, как о человеке. Материалы исследования свидетельствуют о переходе от потребления пространства молодежью к его производству через создание инновационных и творческих форм практик взамен опривыченных и стереотипных. Одной из актуальных практик становятся DIY-инициативы, в которые готовы включиться более половины опрошенных. Благодарность. Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке РФФИ и Свердловской области в рамках научного проекта № 20-411-660012 р_а «“Право на город”: социальная активность, мобилизация и партисипация молодежи»; РФФИ и АНО «Экспертный институт социальных исследований» (№ 19-011-31151).

Миграционные намерения молодежи с миграционным бэкграундом и без: российский случай

Стабильная благоприятная демографическая ситуация предполагает, что привлеченные в страну мигранты хотят остаться, а местное население не намеревается уезжать. В статье предпринимается попытка оценить, насколько разные сегменты самой миграционно подвижной группы — молодежи — склонны рассматривать Россию как страну для будущей жизни. В фокусе внимания следующие группы молодежи 18—30 лет, проживающие в России: (1) работающие мигранты, (2) иностранные студенты, (3) мигранты второго и полуторного поколения из Средней Азии, а также (4) местная молодежь. На основании опроса (N = 1143), проведенного в 2020 г. с помощью таргетинга в социальной сети «ВКонтакте», авторы рассматривают, во-первых, миграционные намерения разных групп молодежи в пятилетней перспективе, во-вторых, факторы, связанные с планами жить через пять лет в России или в другой стране, в-третьих, условия, при которых не собирающиеся через пять лет жить в России готовы изменить планы. Жить в России через пять лет планируют около половины иностранных студентов, работающих мигрантов и местной молодежи, а также две трети мигрантов второго и полуторного поколения. Результаты исследования подтверждают предположения, что «объективные» экономические показатели благосостояния, такие как размер заработной платы, менее значимы для миграционных планов работающей молодежи, чем показатели «субъективные», такие как удовлетворенность доходом, экономическим положением или работой в целом. Фактор, «выталкивающий» из России молодежь независимо от ее рода занятий и миграционного бэкграунда, — ощущение правовой незащищенности. Кроме того, для каждой группы весомы свои факторы. Для иностранных студентов это привязанность к родной стране и уверенность в трудоустройстве в России, для студентов из числа местной молодежи и мигрантов второго и полуторного поколения — наличие связей с людьми, живущими в России или других странах, для работающих мигрантов — привязанность к родной стране, а для работающих респондентов из числа местной молодежи и мигрантов второго и полуторного поколения — мнение, что в другой стране они были бы более состоятельными. Благодарность. Исследование выполнено за счет гранта Российского научного фонда (проект № 18-78-00019).

The construction of “post-hegemonic multipolarity” in Eurasia: A comparative perspective

The 2000s witnessed tectonic changes in the pattern of international relations. Central to these changes is the crisis of global governance and the multipolarization of world politics. Against this backdrop, Eurasian regionalism led by China and Russia is rising as a major force in geopolitical multipolarization. Recent research in international relations attests to growing interest in Eurasian regionalism, with case studies focusing on individual regional mechanisms. Almost entirely absent, however, is comparative research as to how alternative initiatives may promote Eurasian cooperation in a post-hegemonic direction. My research seeks to advance both our empirical and theoretical knowledge of this emerging area. How do geopolitical and economic realignments shape Eurasian cooperation and conflicts in a post-hegemonic direction? What are the historical and institutional settings that are helping Eurasian countries to implement a post-hegemonic agenda of regional cooperation? Using incorporated comparison, this article focuses on the cases of the SCO, the CSTO, the EAEU, and the AIIB; these are regarded as the most coherent and inclusive alternative governance initiatives in the Eurasian region. I argue that post-hegemonic multipolarity in Eurasia finds its strongest expression in regional governance focused on security and economic cooperation at the expense of US global hegemony. These governance mechanisms arise from several competing but complementary initiatives led by China and Russia. A striking characteristic of these mechanisms is that their institutional design reflects a nontraditional security approach, combining conventional security governance with efforts at market and financial and academic integration, business community building, and youth mobilization. The post-hegemonic character of Eurasian regionalism mainly lies in how it provides competing, but coalescing and coexisting schemes for regional governance, which redress Sino-Russian competition into a peaceful framework and do not call for a frontal attack on the US. Their prospects are threatened by Russia and China’s current economic challenges.

Nation-Empire: Ideology and Rural Youth Mobilization in Japan and Its Colonies

Nation-Empire: Ideology and Rural Youth Mobilization in Japan and Its Colonies

Settling down in time and place? Changing intimacies in mobile young people's migration and life courses

AbstractTransnational mobility is increasingly presented to middle‐class youth globally as a way to secure economic futures in precarious times by enhancing educational and employment opportunities. However, little is said about the benefits and impacts of mobility for social and intimate life and specifically how it is situated within, disruptive of, or incorporated into young people's ideas about relationships as they navigate uncertain pathways to adulthood. This paper critically reviews and integrates migration and youth studies scholarship to consider how contemporary youth mobility can be understood as disrupting standard migration‐ and life‐course conventions about intimate relationships. It focuses particularly on questions of temporality, proximity and synchronicity or orthodoxies of ‘the right time’ and ‘the right place’ to ‘settle down’, in the construction and maintenance of both intimate connections to people and attachments to places. It explores how contemporary youth mobility can be seen to complicate notions of the appropriate staging and chronology for establishing different relationships. It raises questions about synchronicity, continuity and proximity as conditions of intimacy and considers how mobility potentially disrupts gendered and heteronormative life courses to provide both welcome freedoms and new challenges, as well as the emergence of new processes of transnational intergenerational care circulation.

Managing the professional mobility of the Russian youth: specifics of scientific discourse and methodological landmarks

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to determine the specifics of scientific discourse in the sphere of managing professional mobility of the Russian youth and to develop a cognitive scheme of sociological research of this problem.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use the potential of the stratification and activity approaches, the theory of multiplicity of professionalization, and multidimensional analysis as the most perspective method for sociological measuring of phenomena and processes in the professional sphere in the conditions of society's transformation.FindingsThe authors determine and study the key directions in the sphere of studying the professional mobility of the Russian youth and managing this process; substantiate the conceptual and methodological underdevelopment of this problem and offer the proprietary methodological strategy of its sociological study through distinguishing three stages of professional development of youth; substantiate the perspectives of its usage in studying the professional mobility of youth and constructing the effective policy of managing this process; outline the role of state and education in overcoming crisis factors of professional development of youth in the context of domination in the modern world and among the Russian youth.Research limitations/implicationsImportance of this research is predetermined by the need for theoretical consideration of top-priority directions in studying professional mobility of youth and the means of managing this process in view of the factors of crisis professionalization, unpreparedness of youth to adapt in spontaneous and quickly changing conditions of the labor market and absence of the conceptual sociological developments in this sphere.Originality/valueThe materials of the research and the offered cognitive scheme are aimed at formation of the methodological basis of studying the problem of managing the professional mobility of the Russian youth for the purpose of overcoming the crisis trajectory of professionalization of the Russian youth and increasing the effectiveness of its professional mobility in the conditions of increased mobility of the whole modern world.

Substance Use Profiles Among Urban Adolescents: The Role of Family-Based Adversities

The purpose of this study is to advance our understanding of family-based adversities and adolescent well-being by examining variability in substance use profiles among urban, low-income and predominantly African American adolescents (n = 2858). Latent class analysis and regressions were used to identify the nature and correlates of heterogeneity in substance use patterns among adolescents in the Mobile Youth Survey (MYS). Analyses revealed the presence of four underlying subgroups of youth: non-users (48.4%), alcohol users (17.6%), alcohol and marijuana users (31.6%), and polysubstance users (2.5%). Membership in classes varied by age and gender, with older youth and males being more likely to belong to groups characterized by the use of multiple substances. Youth who reported that someone in their household had been arrested were more likely to belong to one of the substance using groups than the non-use group, and youth who reported not having a father figure were more likely to belong to groups characterized by the use of multiple substances relative to the non-use group. Youth who reported living with two biological parents were less likely to belong to either the alcohol or the alcohol and marijuana classes than the non-use group. Results further indicated that youth in classes characterized by the use of multiple substances were more likely to exhibit externalizing problems and internalizing distress than other youth. Findings underscore the importance of identifying heterogeneity even in seemingly homogeneous samples and suggest a number of new directions for future research.

Agency and Structure Revisited with Youth Responses to Gendered (Spatial) Mobilities in the EU

Young people involved in geographical mobility face diverse gendered mobility settings and gender inequalities. How do the youth involved in diverse mobility types deal with adverse circumstances caused by gender beliefs and gender prejudices? To answer this question, problem-centred interviews with young people (18-29) are analysed using Grounded Theory. These young people are European citizens and they are involved in five mobility types: higher education, employment, voluntary work, vocational education & training, and entrepreneurship. We apply Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998) categories (iterational, projective and practical-evaluative) to the analysis of gendered mobility narratives as unequal gender perceptions reveal themselves in the context of different types of youth mobility. The analysis allows to see the ways young people reflect on their actions: refusal of gender beliefs, acceptance or rejection of gendered prejudices, individual vs. collective solutions, demand for equality in numbers, comparison of gendered workplaces and assumption of leadership in initiating mobility. At the same time, we observe how geographical mobilities can increase the critical sensibility of youth towards gender inequalities, contributing to new conceptualisation of agentic responses to structural constraints.

The young protester: the impact of belongingness needs on political engagement

ABSTRACT As institutional forms of political engagement continue to decline, participation in protests steadily become more common. These trends are particularly strong among younger citizens. Previous research indicates that social factors can explain participation in political protests, and that younger citizens’ participation in protests is more affected by social ties than older people’s participation. Even though the desire for social affiliation is a fundamental human need, there are individual differences in the need for belongingness. The aim of the current study is to investigate if part of younger people’s higher level of participation in protests can be explained by individual-level differences in belongingness needs. More specifically, the study investigates whether a larger part of younger people’s participation is explained by need to belong (NTB), as compared to older people’s participation. In line with the hypothesis, results from a survey study of a representative sample of the Swedish population (N = 2034), show that only younger people’s participation is predicted by individual-level belongingness needs; the higher the NTB among young people, the higher the tendency to protest, while this effect is absent among older people. These results have important implications for our understanding of participation in protest activities and youth mobilization.

New Media and Youth Political Engagement

This article critically examines the role new media can play in the political engagement of young people in Australia. Moving away from “deficit” descriptions, which assert low levels of political engagement among young people, it argues two major points. First, that there is a well-established model of contemporary political mobilisation that employs both new media and large data analysis that can and have been effectively applied to young people in electoral and non-electoral contexts. Second, that new media, and particularly social media, are not democratic by nature. Their general use and adoption by young and older people do not necessarily cultivate democratic values. This is primarily due to the type of participation afforded in the emerging “surveillance economy”. The article argues that a focus on scale as drivers of influence, the underlying foundation of their affordances based on algorithms, and the centralised editorial control of these platforms make them highly participative, but unequal sites for political socialisation and practice. Thus, recent examples of youth mobilisation, such as seen in recent climate justice movements, should be seen through the lens of cycles of contestation, rather than as technologically determined.

ЭТАПЫ ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОЙ МОБИЛЬНОСТИ РОССИЙСКОЙ МОЛОДЕЖИ В ЭПОХУ ГЛОБАЛЬНОЙ ИНФОРМАТИЗАЦИИ: ФАКТОРЫ РИСКА

The article proposes a strategy for studying the problem of professional mobility of Russian youth from the perspective of identifying risk factors that are formed at each stage of this process. Among them, the author highlights such as: professional self-determination (professional choice), professional education (training within the chosen specialty, profession) and professional adaptation (entering the profession in the labor market). The research concludes that, first, the professionalization of youth at all its stages is determined by the influence of the global factor of Informatization as a consequence of the paradigm shift in the socio-cultural dynamics of the modern world, otherwise called "mobile turn". This "turn" has significantly transformed the process of professionalization of young people and the concept of mobility, including professional mobility. And, secondly, Russian youth, included in the area of influence of the global process of forming a mobile world, is exposed to purely Russian factors of socio-cultural transformation, which is expressed in the crisis factors of the functioning of the system of professional socialization of youth and the spread of risks of social infantilization of youth. And in the professional development of young people, this negative process finds expression in the most direct way.

Mobility, temporary migration and changing livelihoods in Zimbabwe's artisanal mining sector

This article examines mobility and trans-local livelihood practices linked to artisanal mining, exploring how movement in diverse socio-economic circumstances has profoundly shaped development dynamics in Zimbabwe. Following the fast-track land reforms in Zimbabwe, mobility across resettled large-scale (formerly white-owned) commercial farms created space for reshaping livelihoods across the country, and opened up mineral access to local populations. Beyond understanding mobility linked directly to land reform, we stress the need to appreciate diverse subsequent, interlinking and highly dynamic influences on mobility – as well as what mobility enables. We draw on ethnographic data gathered in three research sites in Mhondoro Ngezi district, in central Zimbabwe, analysing some of the changing socio-economic relations, exploitation concerns and opportunities linked to mobility and artisanal mining activities. As economic challenges have continued to multiply, the importance of artisanal mining – in many regions of the country – has intensified. Understanding mobility requires attention to both temporary and less temporary migration patterns and differentiated ways in which social networks and economic labour arrangements, including risks of mistreatment and new economic possibilities play out. We especially argue for more attention to varied forms of youth mobility and domestic migration around gold mining amid Zimbabwe's deep economic challenges.