Youth is a period of transition, open to the future and to possibility. Today’s youth are however faced with high unemployment, underemployment, flexible labour arrangements, poor governance, persistent gender inequalities, social exclusion and climate change. Migration is a way to cope with these issues. International migration can be an opportunity for young people to improve their lives and those of their families by pursuing education or employment opportunities and to leave behind a context where they do not feel safe or where their political rights are not always taken into account. These phenomena are particularly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries, which explain why migration aspirations tend to be strongest in these countries.

This paper builds on a KNOMAD scoping paper produced in 2022 (KNOMAD, 2022), which set an agenda on how the migration of youth contributes to development in host and origin countries and how it can be meaningfully integrated into development strategies. This paper aims to empirically validate the conclusions of the scoping paper (KNOMAD, 2022) with regard to the experience of inclusion and integration of young people, including that of migrants, in their country of residence, or through which they are transiting.