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Young adults are on the move, in every sense of the word, including domestic and international geographic mobility in search of experience and identity; mobilizing for causes linked both to the future of their communities and that of other regions of the world; relocation after a change in status through interregional and international experience; emigration; integration within a network; and other reasons. Might the various forms of mobility be redrawing the boundaries and redefining the values that guide new generations?
By its very nature and emergence at a time when means of communication promote geographic mobility, today’s generation of young people will probably be at the center of a change whose outcome we are yet unable to fully conceive. Will low-density communities survive population decline and migration? What culture will emerge from the impact of mobile youth who disregard borders and have become the new nomads of today’s societies? Will young people—now a minority in the northern and western hemispheres, but a majority in the southern and eastern hemispheres—help create a new world?
This symposium is part of a Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) program under the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Why not take this opportunity to reflect on this partnership approach to research?
Through four main themes, this symposium addresses questions regarding both domestic migration and international geographic mobility.
1. The domestic and international geographic mobility of today’s youth and the transition to adulthood
The tendency of today’s youth to pursue more advanced study and their penchant for discovering new places and cultures find expression in all means currently at their disposal. One need think only of electronic communication systems and transportation, not to mention borders that constantly disappear and are redrawn by political reconfiguration (Europe) and by trade and cultural agreements between countries, including those in the southern hemisphere (particularly South America). Although not new in form, these ways of inhabiting the planet are greater in scope and popularity than ever before.
How does the geographic mobility of young people translate, both in societies in demographic decline and those where the under 30 population is stable or increasing? How does geographic mobility affect socialization? What are young people gaining from their travels in terms of building their identity, acquiring social, professional, and cultural capital, etc.? If they return to their home community, what set of experiences and knowledge do they bring back? How can they put it to good use? What place is there for native or minority youth (e.g., young anglophone Quebecers)?
2. The social and professional world of migrants
Young adults also move in search of the roles they wish to or should occupy within communities that are also in flux. They must take on roles in the new places they inhabit, whether as students, workers, or something else. These migrants may see themselves as a minority between generations; they may be happy or unhappy in big cities and even homesick. What does this mean? How are they faring in the workplace, at home, and in other environments that aid their integration?
In other words, how do they rebuild social ties during and after migration? To answer this question, we must also look at how young people are received, both in the stops along their migratory path and when they return. A culture is probably emerging from the meeting of “mobile” and “sedentary” youth. What is this culture? What values do mobile youth convey while they “drift”?
3. Youth participation in community life
Despite their apparent apathy toward traditional modes of civic participation, young people are fascinated with the changing world they will inhabit. We must ask whether this is the world they wish to help build and how they envision the future of small towns and large cities. Whether they stay at home or leave, how committed are they to the place where they live? Do migrants participate in the various issues inherent to membership in a community, or do they leave it up to the “rooted” to define their future? When they do participate, do they go so far as getting involved and even making commitments? How does this happen, and what are the challenges?
Young migrants or immigrants might also remain forever uprooted, foreigners even if they return to their place of origin because they may never be the same. Do they tend to group together in their host community? What relationships do young migrants have with other generations? With institutions? Can their involvement or commitment be compared to that of young people who have not left their community? Is this experience individual, or does it benefit from ties of solidarity forged along the migratory path?
4. A common thread: Research on youth
Over the past decade, approaches to research on youth have gradually emerged: orientations, methodologies, epistemological analyses, interaction in various partnerships, etc. The research groups involved in organizing this symposium have experienced this. It is important to take stock and draw lessons from these experiences for the future. How do researchers define youth? Has their research integrated or attracted youth, or the government agencies and departments dedicated to supporting them? How? What influence have these research partners had? How did they make the research their own? Can we measure the effectiveness of these experiences? Can emerging trends in research on youth already be observed?
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