AspirE – Asian prospects in (re)migration to/within the EU – is a 3-year research project (2023-2025) that examines the decision making of aspiring (re)migrants from selected Southeast and East Asian countries (China, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) to and within selected EU member countries (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, and Portugal).

This project addresses the following questions:
1. How do migration regimes in the countries of origin and destination consider (aspiring) (re)migrants’ behaviour in their policies?
2. Why do people decide to (re)migrate or to stay?
3. When do individuals’ migration decisions evolve?

Methodology
Pursuing its epistemological stance with interdisciplinary, multi-level, and multidimensional aspects, AspirE adopts a qualitative methodological approach with a participatory dimension to study (non-) migration decision-making. This approach highlights the human aspects of decision-making, an innovation that is present in AspirE’s mode of inquiry, model of analysis, data-gathering methods, and work programme.
– Mode of inquiry: case study of labour market-leading migrations from Asia
– Model of analysis: humanising framework through engendering, decolonizing, and situating contextually the analysis
– Data-gathering methods: policy content analysis, semi-structured interviews (separately with experts and aspiring (re)migrants), social-network mapping, video diary, and focus group discussions
– Work programme: 8 Work Packages (WPs) with 1 ethics WP, 3 empirical research WPs, 2 management WPs, 1 training WP, and 1 impact WP”