From (E)Migration to Mobile Lifestyles? Ethnographic and Conceptual Reflections about Mobilities and Migration

Departing from on-going fieldwork in China and Northern Europe among Swiss nationals, the aim of this article is to contribute towards clarification of the often somewhat unreflected use of concepts within the ‘migration-mobility continuum’. We sketch a mobilities-informed, and data-grounded ethnographic research approach and investigate the various forms, meanings and outcomes of mobility and migration throughout three life stories. In conclusion, we argue for a empirically grounded, and sophisticated usage of theoretical frameworks and concepts, and we discuss how this can contribute to a more critical, differentiated research about mobility and migratio