An examination of the connection between the economic and social processes and the mobility of young people in Europe

Abstract

THE AIMS OF THE PAPER

In the EUROPA 2020 Strategy, particular attention has been paid to the mobility, migration, employment and training of the young generation as an important pillar of smart sustainable economic growth. Our aim was to provide policy-makers with scientifically based information on their decision-making on the mobilization of young people.

METHODOLOGY

Most researches examine the question at micro level, and the reasons and motivations are perceived as an individual qualitative criterion. In this article, we present a section of our research in which we tried to explore the contexts in Europe, the mobility of students and the surrounding economic and social environment by analyzing a number of macroeconomic parameters. On the one hand, we have looked at the whole of the European Union, then separately in the more receptive center and more periphery areas. The MOVE project, launched in 2015, assured that the right amount of data were made available to select the 2003-2014 period for our analyzes.

MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS

When examining the causes of outbound and inbound mobility, it can be clearly stated that the main motivating factors are among others, the unfavorable labor market conditions, the low economic upswing, higher education levels and worse living conditions. While the GDP and HDI growth, the decline in the poverty rate is the main driving force behind incoming mobility.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on our results we can conclude that a number of macroeconomic factors shape or influence the degree of mobility, we have quantified these effects by several model analyzes. With our research, policy-makers have come to rely on computational support for handling mobility within Europe.