Theorising new European youth mobilities

This paper's objective is to offer a range of appropriate theoretical formulations to better understand the unfolding dynamics and characteristics of new European youth migrations. After an extensive contextual introduction that sets the recent historical, institutional, and economic scene, the paper presents and critically evaluates the usefulness of five theoretical frameworks: (a) neoliberal “Single Market” economics and free movement of persons and labour; (b) the renewed relevance of the core–periphery model of spatial economic structure and resultant migration flows; (c) “liquid migration” and its defining ethos of “intentional unpredictability”; (d) the intersection of migration with “youth transitions”; and (e) the “lifestyle migration” approach.