Nostalgic, converted, or cosmopolitan: typology of young Spanish migrants

Abstract

The high unemployment rate that is affecting Spain in recent years, along with the consolidation of labour market insecurity, have generated great changes in social behaviour, with a prominent tendency for young people to leave the country. With the aim of understanding, from the point of view of these new migrants, how their migration processes and sociocultural integration in their host countries are, this article follows the procedures of the Grounded Theory to analyse the discourses obtained through a discussion group and 41 in-depth interviews with young Spanish migrants while they were living abroad, during the period 2010-2015. The strength of this research lies in its construction of an empirical model consisting of three procedural categories: nostalgic adaptation, converted adaptation and cosmopolitan adaptation. These categories allow us to explain how the perception of young people about their home and host societies changes, as well as how their sociocultural adaptation to the new context is affected by the conducts and behaviours inherent to said perception.