Onward migration and intra-European mobilities: A critical and theoretical overview

This paper aims to give a theoretical introduction on onward migration and provide a review of empirical research on this topic in the EU. While there is a growing body of work on the topic, this still remains an under-researched phenomenon. Existing studies have looked at different, often overlapping, dimensions of onward migration and how it may be an effect of mobility capital or influenced by variables as diverse as economic crises, gender, country of origin, age and skills. In this article, we proceed by isolating some of these variables and identify common issues across research. The first section provides some defining points and conceptualizes different types of onward movement. The second section focuses on different dimensions of onward migration and highlights some key areas examined by research such as push and pull factors, different forms of capital including the role of EU citizenship and the economic crisis of 2008