Migration and transitions in the life course: a qualitative comparative analysis of international border crossing and the passage to adulthood

This paper analyzes how the interaction of an event-transition as international migration interferes in the process of transition to adulthood. Addresses the relationship between events-stages of life-migration and mediation exercised by the context in decision making and in the course of the action. The goal is to contribute to the understanding of the complexity of the itineraries that currently carry into adulthood, a process that is mediated by other events.
Migration is seen as a process that involves different times, where the life course (LC) of people, among other factors, involved in modeling each. Like any event, has a differential impact on individuals depending on the stage of the life course in which it occurs. The succession of previous events determines the international migration, while that the timing when it occurs, affects the structuring of the subsequent LC.
I analyze recent Argentine emigrants in two contexts of reception: Mexico City and Madrid. I compare 2 groups: those who migrated at an early stage of life (they did not begin the transition to adulthood before departure) and who began the process in advance before migrating, located in a middle stage of life. I study the way in which the situation of each stage promotes migration and after their occurrence, how to reconfigure the subsequent LC.