Middle-Class Migration Aspirations and Social Media's Impact on (Im)mobility

Why do some skilled middle-class individuals from unstable countries leave, while others with similar profiles stay? How does the constant flow of digital information shape migration aspirations? These questions drive the main objectives of MIDSCAPES: (i) to identify migration and stay patterns among Türkiye's middle class, (ii) to explore the role of digital space in spreading migration related information, and (iii) to measure social media's impact on migration aspirations using innovative methods. This project integrates the aspirations-(cap)abilities framework with digital migration studies, enriching both fields by focusing on stay aspirations, social stratification and social media. Focusing on both the sending and receiving ends of migration MIDSCAPES is empirically innovative. The empirical focus on potential and actual migrants from Türkiye to Canada is both timely and relevant. Türkiye serves as a critical case for understanding how middle-class individuals with globally marketable skills respond to structural uncertainties. Canada, a key global destination for highly skilled migrants, is known for its welcoming yet complex selection and admission mechanisms, utilising immigration as a tool for middle-class nation-building. MIDSCAPES embraces a multi-sited and mixed-method approach employing three main data collection methods. 1. in-depth interviews with recent migrants, potential migrants and stayers, 2. digital ethnography, 3. surveys including survey experiments with potential migrants and stayers. These methods are crafted to unpack the complexity of spatial and social mobility aspirations among potential migrants and stayers from middle-class backgrounds. The findings will have implications for key policy and societal challenges: (1) high income countries’ interest in attracting and retaining skilled workforce, (2) middle-income countries’ struggles with “brain drain”, and (3) digital information flows shaping (migration) decision-making.