The issue of migration according to adolescents and their parents' perceptions of their future

Abstract

A migration in general, but particularly involving young, highly educated people intensified in the 1990s in Serbia and continues to do so. One of the important consequences of this trend is the creation of an atmosphere which encourages young people to consider/plan to leave their homeland. The work is based on a study which included 205 parents and 204 of their children -adolescents (16-17 years of age). The aim of the study was to analyse the orientation towards emigration envisioned in the perceptions of adolescent's possible future according to the predictions made by adolescents and their parents. To obtain the data a questionnaire was created (applyed as adolesccents form and parents form) which contained general information about the candidates and on open-type question: "What kind of life will you/your child have in ten years' time?". The results of the first part of the analysis show that the topic of migration according to adolescents and parents is elaborated in three ways: (1) will live abroad in the future (26% adolescents and 11.22% parents); (2) will live in their homeland (14.70% adolescents and 29.27% parents); (3) without declaration about the question of migration (59.32% adolescents and 59.51% parents). The second part of the analysis includes the naratives of adolescents and parents who considered emigration. Through inductive analysis of the contents five thematic patterns were extracted: (a) departure abroad without any particular aim (30.19% adolescents and 26.09% parents); (b) departure abroad as an opportunity to have a normal and quality life (26.40% adolescents and 30.43% parents (c) departure abroad as an alternative if things do not improve (16.97% adolescents); (d) departure abroad as an opportunity to progress professionally (7.57% adolescents and 39.13% parents); (e) departure abroad to realise their dreams (18.87% adolescents and 4.35% parents). At the end the results are discussed in the context of the support and advancement of youth and education policies, as well as the development of a preventative programmes.