Conference Program

The paper departs from the observation that the dominant policy discourse frames education according to its quantifiable and measurable outcomes (Harris & Clayton, 2019; Ure, 2019). For learners, educational achievements have increasingly been recognised and valued based on their practical application on the labour market, which complicates the educational trajectories of migrant-background youth. Young people from migrant background often come from regions which are considered as “underdeveloped” or regressive, meaning that the recognition of their educational achievements has to be re-adjusted to the norms and expectations in the destination countries (Sandermann et al., 2017; Husen & Sandermann, 2021). In addition, through various regulatory mechanisms, migrant youth face enormous difficulties in developing a standardized and/or linear educational trajectory (Griffiths, 2014; Leutloff-Grandits, 2021) and a clear vision of their future (Pine, 2014).

We argue that educational trajectories of migrant-background youth must be contextualized within a wider framework and interplay of actors, factors, and spaces. In the local/regional settings, the role of policymakers and practitioners is as indispensable as the impact of structural and institutional factors and the effect that spaces have on educational quality. Against this background, the paper's main research question is: What is the role of local actors, factors, and spaces in affecting educational trajectories of youth from migrant background and how does their various combination intertwine with diverse educational trajectories of young migrants?

The paper is based on research findings of the EU-funded research project Constructing Learning Outcomes in Europe: A multi-level analysis of (under)achievement in the life course (CLEAR) (Agreement No. 101061155) and unfolds in three steps: first, we provide an overview of the conceptual underpinnings and scholarly debates on educational trajectories of young people from migrant background; second, we analyse the role of local actors, factors, and spaces in shaping educational trajectories by contrasting the experiences of young people from migrant background in one declining and one thriving German region; third, we juxtapose and contrast the findings to elaborate on the various combination of actors, factors, and spaces and their interplay with diverse experiences of learners from migrant-background.

Our methodological design is informed by a mixed-method design that includes narrative biographical interviews with young people (18–29 years) from vulnerable positions (N=21), semi-structured interviews with local policy actors in education and labour market (N=13), as well as by a quantitative analysis of educational, socio-economic, and employment indicators (N=51) of the regions studied that provide a comprehensive account of the current developments, patterns, and sub-national trajectories. The qualitative data have been collected in the regions of Hamburg-Mitte and Halle(Saale) in Germany.

Our findings evidence that young people from migrant background reflect on their relation to learning outcomes and educational performances through the lenses of their fragmented educational pathways. Furthermore, fragmented life courses make it much harder to imagine and pursue future plans. While wealthier regions succeed in dynamizing young people to plan their life courses more actively, possibly due to the more structured labour market and more precisely elaborated working trajectories, the more peripheral regions offer limited job opportunities.