Migrant Youth, Education, Culture & Identity

Thematic research fields

In the year and a half of the network’s operation (January 2022–May 2023), three overarching thematic research fields have emerged in relation to migrant youth, education, culture, and identity:

1. transitions between compulsory education and secondary education for young people in disadvantaged areas
2. “languaging” and/or language didactics in relation to migrant youth and their school trajectories
3. gender and sexuality issues in relation to migrant youth

These three themes will constitute frames dividing the network’s future activities into three distinct learning communities under the MYECI umbrella.

• Learning community 1, Young Migrants, Identity, School Trajectories & Transitions, will be coordinated by Dr. Jonas Lindbäck (GU) as head coordinator together with PhD student Charlotte Lange Hald of the School of Education, Aarhus University.
• Learning community 2, Young Migrants, Languaging, Identity & Education, will have Dr. Frida Siekkinen (GU) as head coordinator together with postdoctoral researcher Jonas Yassin Iversen from Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences.
• Learning community 3, Young (Queer) Migrants, Sexuality & Gender, will have Dr. Jenny Bengtsson (GU) as head coordinator together with postdoctoral researcher Lena Sotevik from University West.

Upcoming activities

During 2024 and 2025 the network aims to expand its focus on migrant young people’s conditions of life in structurally disadvantaged areas, which will involve further comparative analysis of underexplored subgroups among migrant young people, such as queer migrants, who are likely to experience several forms of precarity and vulnerability. This work will also deepen our knowledge of migrant youth in relation to important aspects of daily life, culture, language, identity, and educational and schooling trajectories. More practically, the collaboration aims to analyze and contrast existing research, develop comparative research ideas, and draft research applications to further expand this field of knowledge.

Previous activities

During 2022 and 2023 the MYECI collaboration has successfully:

• Held four network meetings in 2022 and 2023: a start-up meeting in Gothenburg (9–11 March, 2022), one in Reykjavik, Iceland at the Iceland School of Education (17–19 August, 2022), one in Copenhagen at the Aarhus University School of Education (7–9 December, 2022), a network meeting in Hamar (10–12 May, 2023) and a final conference in Gothenburg (6-8 December)
• facilitated the writing of a joint Springer anthology (Hammarén, Ivemark & Stretmo, forthcoming) to be published early in 2024
• invited prominent speakers, such as Newcastle University professor of social and cultural geography Anoop Nayak (in Gothenburg, March 2022), Danish journalist Aydin Soei, a sociologist with a specific interest in the topics of citizenship, “gangs,” anti-school culture, and marginalization (in Copenhagen, December 2022) and professor Les Back, at University of Glasgow (in Gothenburg, December 2023)
• participated in several workshops and seminars during the network meetings
• constructed a specific PhD stream for the doctoral students involved in the network
• launched a PhD course, Critical Perspectives on Migrant Youth, Education, Culture, and Identities (7.5 credits), which was offered from 2 March 2023 through 4 May 2023