Welcome to our website. On this page, you can find general information about the MO-TRAYL research project, as well as information specifically for young people who (want to) participate in our project.
What is MO-TRAYL?
MO-TRAYL stands for ´Mobility trajectories of young lives´. It is a five-year research project that investigates how young people are affected by their travels and international connections. Young people are very different: some never go abroad, some go on holidays, and others live abroad for a while. We are interested in all of these experiences and how they shape young people’s lives.
We will research this in two ways. First, we will do a school survey with young people aged 15-19 in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Second, we will zoom in on the experiences of youth with Ghanaian background aged 15-25 in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Ghana through in-depth case studies.
Why is it important to know these things?
If we know more about the trips that young people make and what this means to them, then we will be able to learn something new. This might come in handy for schools and teachers. For instance, it would be good to find out whether schools should adapt their rules and regulations, as it can be difficult sometimes to get permission to travel for long periods of time. It can also help teachers to understand how to best support you both before and after a trip, especially when this means you will miss school for some time. Our research could also help schools recognize and draw on students’ rich international experiences.
What does our research look like?
There is only one way to get to know more about the experiences of young people: ask them about it. We will do this in two ways for different stages of the research: a school survey and in-depth case studies.
School surveys
In the first stage, we ask young people (aged 15 -19) about their experiences through a school survey. This means that questionnaires will be handed out in secondary schools in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. If your school decided to participate in our project, you will receive an information brochure at school, and you can decide whether you want to participate or not.
Case studies
In the second stage, we zoom in on youth whose parents are from Ghana. We do in-depth case studies with young people (aged 15-25) in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Ghana who have at least one parent who migrated from Ghana to live abroad, or who have some experience traveling between Ghana and Europe themselves. This means that we spend time talking to young people about their experiences and spend time with them to learn what their day-to-day lives are like.
What about your privacy?
Participation in our research is always voluntary. You do not have to answer questions you do not want to and you are at any time free to stop participating in the research. If you participate, we will ask if we can collect your contact information, and if you give it to us, we will deal with it very carefully; we will not make it public or share it, and no one will be able to identify you in our research reports.
Download the MO-TRAYL information brochure by clicking on the image below:
School survey
Case study: The Netherlands
Case study: Belgium
Case study: Germany
Case Study: Ghana
MO-TRAYL has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 682982)
