Adolescent Migration Goals: An Application of the Aspirations-capabilities Framework.

Abstract

Migration often requires significant monetary and physiological resources. Drawing on the aspirations-capabilities framework, we ask whether these resources are also important in the formation of adolescents' own migration goals and aspirations. Access to resources could be a means for young people to form ambitions to migrate because they expect to have the capability to follow through on these goals. Resources could also allow youth to withstand pressures to migrate so that those with fewer resources face greater needs and are the most likely to form migration aspirations. Using data from the Family Migration and Early Life Outcomes (FAMELO) project, we assess three indicators of the capability to migrate - health, education, and household resources - and the permanent migration aspirations among adolescents in three distinct migration contexts: Jalisco, Mexico; Gaza province, Mozambique; and Chitwan Valley, Nepal. In general, those with greater capability to migrate have higher migration aspirations, but this varies across contexts. Higher educational aspirations and household wealth are less predictive of migration aspirations in Mozambique (i.e., the lowest resourced setting) whereas higher educational aspirations are positively associated with adolescents' desire to permanently settle outside of their home communities - internationally or internally - in the Mexico and Nepal contexts. Self-rated health is not significantly associated with permanent migration aspirations in any of the study contexts. Household resources are most predictive of aspirations to move internationally rather than internally or remaining in the home community. Collectively, these results suggest important variations in the way migration becomes incorporated into adolescents' life goals.