Youth Is Going to Study in a Metropolis: How Not to Stay Alone
Abstract
The needs of young people who have moved to study from other cities are often overshadowed by numerous studies of international students, traditionally considered by sociologists and practitioners to be among the most vulnerable groups. In this article, we focus on the migration paths of out-of-town students in megacities and what they face on their way to discovering a new city. The aim is to reconstruct scenarios of social inclusion for nonresident students. How and in what way do young people cope with feelings of isolation and loneliness, and is it really becoming a problem for them? In conceptualizing the scenarios, we rely on the "social drama" approach. By social inclusion scenarios we understand idealized models that summarize similar narratives of student youth about the period of moving to a big city and the way to find their place in it, having their own scenario with a lead, main action and a finale. We interpret social inclusion with reference to the modern debate on citizenship, understood as a wide field of youth involvement, not limited to politicized forms. This article uses the results of a qualitative analysis of 63 interviews with students who moved to study at two universities - the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg and KFU in Kazan. In each case an average of 31 interviews was conducted with graduate and undergraduate students. We distinguish 6 scenarios associated by the type of plot with film genres. In each of the identified scenarios we record different types of narratives related to experiences of loneliness or isolation in the first months or even years of acquaintance with a new city.
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