Expatriate Childhood. Children's Experiences of Temporary Migration.

Increasing numbers of highly educated migrants work abroad temporarily. Often, these expatriates are accompanied by their children but very little is known about the children although their wellbeing is important for the families' comfort. This ethnographic study investigates such children (8-15 years old) in Finland. The study asks how the children experience their temporary migration and their lifestyle that includes frequent transnational mobility. What kind of lives do they lead? How do they negotiate their identities and place within the current system of nation states? What the significance of nationalities, cosmopolitanism and class is? The project investigates the children's lives and views, develops theory on transnational mobility and child migration, and produces information for policy-makers, teachers, expatriate families and children. Research material includes field diaries on participant observation, interviews, and visual data produced together with the children.