Post-migration transitions and pathways to citizenship for EU youth in the UK amidst Brexit debates, challenges and anticipations

这项研究将是在英国退出欧盟的背景下，首次在英国范围内对欧盟出生的年轻人（16-26岁）的教育、工作和培训经历进行研究。在英国长大的欧洲年轻人的数量在过去15年里急剧增加，尤其是自10个中东欧国家加入欧盟以来。这些年轻人在成长的岁月里经历了多次过渡和跨越边境的经历，包括搬家、学习英语、改变教育体系、在不稳定和严峻的经济环境中找工作，以及在围绕移民的分裂政治言论的背景下建立关键关系。当他们为未来制定计划和获得公民身份的途径时，这个庞大的年轻人群体如何在英国不同地区度过这些转变？教育和就业方面存在的不平等，再加上英国脱欧带来的新挑战，正在影响欧盟国民对留在英国还是离开英国的选择（Lulle等人，2016;King & Williams, 2017），自2016年英国脱欧公投以来，欧盟移民水平急剧下降（ONS, 2019）。鉴于欧盟移民对英国的积极财政影响以及经济关键部门对这种劳动力供应的依赖（Wadsworth, 2018），迫切需要更好地了解年轻人的教育和就业轨迹，以及雇主如何规划和应对英国脱欧后劳动力人口结构的潜在变化。一个多学科的研究小组将结合移民和人口研究、教育和社会政策方面的专业知识，设计和产生一系列重要的研究成果。首先，该研究将通过对现有数据集的系统分析，以及与从业人员和政策制定者有针对性的持续接触，审查有关欧盟出生的年轻人的教育和就业途径和挑战的证据，以确定关键的政策和实践挑战。其次，该研究将产生新的纵向数据，为期3年，关于欧盟出生的年轻人在教育、培训和就业方面不断变化的愿望、经历和结果，以突出他们的计划如何演变，以及他们面临和有时克服的障碍。第三，该研究将采用参与式研究方法，在英国脱欧的背景下，探讨年轻人对英国所有四个国家的定居和公民身份的看法和经历。这项研究将邀请年轻人作为共同研究人员，探讨他们对未来的期望；在英国的归属感和公民意识；对英国和欧盟潜在宪法改革的看法；参与社会运动和数字行动主义。该研究提供了关于生活在不同地理位置的欧盟出生的年轻人如何适应在地区政治转型背景下作为移民成长的多重转变的原始数据。我们将考虑这些动态如何积极塑造公民身份和归属感的途径在英国，或它的特定部分。拟议的研究通过采用交叉方法分析欧盟出生的年轻人对英国脱欧的经历以及关键的青年转型，填补了研究中的空白，有可能为英国范围内和下放的政策和实践提供信息，以应对青年边缘化和移民融合的挑战。关于年轻人的教育愿望、工作经历和公民实践的深入纵向数据将提供洞察“一体化”的欧盟出生的移民青年在英国不同国家的感受，与政策、政治和公共话语中流通的“国家”的各种表现相联系。重要的是，该研究还将解决移民青年在公共辩论中相对缺乏声音的问题，并为政策制定者和公众提供对年轻移民日常生活更严格的了解。

This study will be the first UK-wide study of EU-born young people's (aged 16-26) experiences of education, work and training in the context of the UK withdrawal from the EU. The number of young people from Europe growing up in UK has risen sharply over past 15 years, particularly since the accession of 10 East-Central European states to the EU. These young people have spent their formative years experiencing multiple transitions and border-crossings related to moving home, learning English, changing education systems, finding work in a precarious and austere economic climate and forming key relationships in the context of divisive political rhetoric surrounding immigration. How do this sizeable cohort of young people navigate these transitions in different parts of the UK, as they develop plans for the future and pathways to citizenship? Existing inequalities in education and employment, combined with new challenges fuelled by Brexit, are shaping the choices of EU nationals about whether to remain or leave the UK (Lulle et al., 2016; King & Williams, 2017), with a dramatic decline in the level of EU immigration since the Brexit referendum in 2016 (ONS, 2019). Given the positive fiscal impact of EU migration to the UK and the reliance on this labour supply in key sectors of the economy (Wadsworth, 2018), there is an urgent need to better understand young people's education and employment trajectories and how employers are planning for and responding to potential changes in workforce demographics after Brexit.A multi-disciplinary team of researchers will combine expertise in migration and population studies, education and social policy to design and produce a series of significant research outcomes. First, the study will review the evidence on educational and employment pathways and challenges for EU-born young people through a systematic analysis of existing data sets and targeted, sustained engagement with practitioners and policy makers to identify key policy and practice challenges. Second, the study will produce new longitudinal data over a 3-year period on the changing aspirations, experiences and outcomes of EU-born young people in education, training and employment to highlight how their plans evolve and what barriers they face and sometimes overcome.Third, the study will use a participatory research approach to explore young people's perceptions and experiences of settlement and citizenship in all four nations of the UK, in the context of Brexit. Involving young people as co-researchers, the study will explore their aspirations for the future; sense of belonging and citizenship in the UK; perspectives on potential constitutional change in the UK and the EU; and engagements with social movements and digital activism. The research offers original data on how EU-born young people living in diverse geographical locations adapt to the multiple transitions of growing up as a migrant in the context of regional political transformation. We will consider how these dynamics actively shape pathways to citizenship and a sense of belonging in the UK, or particular parts of it. The proposed study fills a gap in research by employing an intersectional approach to analysing EU-born young people's experience of Brexit alongside key youth transitions, with potential to inform UK-wide and devolved policy and practice tackling the challenge of youth marginalisation and migrant integration. In depth longitudinal data on young people's educational aspirations, work experiences and citizenship practices will provide insight into how 'integrated' EU-born migrant youth feel in different nations of the UK, connected to various representations of 'nation' that circulate in policy, political and public discourses. Importantly, the study will also address the relative absence of migrant youth voices in public debate and provide policy makers and the public with a more rigorous understand of the everyday lives of young migrants.