2023 Mirror Labs results

The third and final year of the project "Scenarios for the social inclusion of regional youth in the context of educational migration" has ended. On December 18, the Mirror Laboratories team held a final meeting and summed up the results of research and scientific work for 2023.

CYS

In 2021-2022, the researchers' work was mainly devoted to collecting empirical data, resulting in 63 qualitative interviews and a survey of 847 students. In 2023, the main challenge has become analytical data processing. These are the conclusions the research team came to as a result of analysis.

Firstly, six inclusion scenarios were identified - "inclusion as an adventure", "exploratory-adventure", "conscious usefulness: the scenario of citizenship of care", "strategic: no to parties, yes to a career", the last two scenarios are rather dramatic – "the drama of inclusion: a long search for one’s own" and "the drama of non-recognition: "I’m more comfortable being alone...". There are three main channels for the social inclusion of young people: pragmatic (through career events), social (through socially useful activities) and hedonistic (independent exploration of the city through leisure and cultural institutions).

During the inclusion process, students face various challenges and barriers. Primary barriers are everyday difficulties that students overcome in the first six months. Secondary barriers are associated with personal discomfort from living in new conditions, inequality and the lack of an ecosystem of inclusion. They arise after some time of living in a new city and young people cope with them for a long time.

The university plays a very important role in the process of social inclusion. The most favorable and successful role for young people is the role of a "university guide", when, after participating in university activities and accumulating social capital, young people go to the city. Unfortunately, at this stage, the universities under study actually do not have special ecosystems for nonresidents, so the university only indirectly helps to overcome barriers to social inclusion. Also relatively favorable is the "intermediary university" model, when the university performs an exclusively informative function about city student organizations that young people can join. The least successful models are the "non-host university" and "greenhouse university" models. Both models are characterized by the fact that social inclusion in the city is forced, but in the first case it occurs immediately after moving, in the other case, after graduation. These models promote the development of dramatic scenarios.

That is why it is necessary to create ecosystems aimed at nonresident students that will help them overcome structural barriers and harmoniously integrate into the city and university environment after moving. The university support system, built taking into account the interests of young people, helps to expand connections, social capital and develop the creative potential of nonresident youth. Coordinated work of university services in relation to nonresident students can become a factor in the creative development of cities.

Results of the year in numbers

6 scientific seminars

3 articles

112 students were involved in project activities

4 project groups

1 MAGOLEGO training course

2 coursework on the topic of the project

1 master’s thesis

1 dissertation

2 internships