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The academic literature on the determinants of international student mobility so far has largely ignored the influence of romantic relationships and study motivation in the development of aspirations to participate in temporary learning experiences in another country. However, young adults might take considerations about investments in individual development (via academic training and thus study motivation) and romantic relationships into account in their decision-making process. Consequently, we apply a life-course perspective analyzing the relationships between having a romantic partner, study motivation, and aspirations to participate in an international exchange program among first-year university students, based on a survey conducted among 603 freshmen in Brussels. As female students are more likely to participate in student exchanges compared with male students, we pay special attention to gender differences. Our results show that a romantic relationship is negatively correlated with aspirations to participate in an international student exchange among female students. In contrast, intrinsic academic motivation is significantly associated with such aspirations among female and male students. Overall, our findings indicate the need for the consideration of different life-course domains in academic studies on international student mobility.

Research has made significant contributions to our understanding of ethnic disparities in educational attainment, revealing amongst others the importance of parental and residential characteristics. Mixed empirical results, however, challenge the interpretation of why some ethnic groups face more difficulties in educational success than others, upholding contextual effects as a contested and inconclusive topic. This case study scrutinises the contextual underpinnings of ethnic diversity in the educational attainment of adolescents from various ethnic populations in Belgium's largest cities. Using full population individual‐level longitudinal census data (1991–2001), stratified multilevel ordinal models focus on the heterogeneous role of household characteristics – parental education and household composition – and neighbourhood characteristics – ethnic density, coethnic representation and deprivation – in young native and ethnic minority populations. While this Belgian case study shows that parental education and residential environment contribute to educational outcomes of all young adults in similar ways, it also points at two ethnic‐specific dynamics. First, contextual socioeconomic advantages are accumulated to a greater extent among native adolescents. Second, coethnic residential concentration shows a positive association with educational attainment for native and European‐origin children only. This paper reveals how the spatial separation of ethnic communities fosters differential opportunities for educational success, in particular for the most segregated population groups. If we want to better understand the complexities of native‐origin and minority youth embarking on differential educational trajectories, our study echoes the need for considering various sociospatial contexts in which people of different ethnic communities interact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to individuals without a migration background, the second generation seems more likely to possess the type of skills, values and transnational ties that facilitate international moves. In other words, 'mobility capital' transmitted from parents of migrant origin to their children may increase the likelihood of emigration among the second generation. Yet so far this expectation has not been tested empirically. To address this knowledge gap, this study analyses emigration patterns and determinants of the Western European second generation born in the Netherlands between 1987 and 1992 using longitudinal data from the Dutch population registers. The study addresses whether the second generation is more likely to emigrate during early adulthood as compared to peers without a migration background, and whether this difference is related to having immigrant parents or follows from other background characteristics. The results show that the Western European second generation has a higher chance to emigrate from the Netherlands than individuals without a migration background, and that this difference remains when taking socio-economic indicators, current individual demographics, and household characteristics at age 15 into account. As such, the study is among the first to identify having a second-generation migration background as an important predictor of international migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]