This article seeks to advance our understanding of contemporary transnational youth mobility, drawing on the concept ‘mobile transitions’ to explore scholarly approaches to the mobility practices of young Italians moving abroad. We present a critical literature review of the intersections of migration, youth and transition studies to argue that the literature on youth transnational mobility currently features two contrasting models comprising a ‘transitions-focused’ Global South model and an ‘experiential-focused’ Global North model. This bifurcation fails to account for emergent regional models of mobility that may help to sharpen scholarly understandings of a new generation of youth ‘on the move’. We propose an alternative model positioned somewhere along the spectrum between the Global North and Global South models, which we define as the Mediterranean model of ‘family-centred’ transnational youth mobility. This model reflects aspects of both privileged, experiential youth migrations, which tend to undervalue the impact on transitions to adulthood, and economically driven youth migrations, which tend to focus more directly on the economic dimensions of youth to adulthood transitions. The Mediterranean model highlights more broadly how mobility enables and shapes transitions, which are simultaneously driven by both economic imperatives and individual experiential desires, and mediated through family and culture.

本文旨在增进我们对当代跨国青年流动的理解，借鉴“流动转型”的概念，探索意大利青年移居国外流动实践的学术方法。我们对移民、青年和转型研究的交叉点进行了批判性文献综述，以争辩说关于青年跨国流动的文献目前具有两种截然不同的模型，包括“以转型为中心”的全球南方模式和“以体验为中心的”全球北方模式. 这种分歧未能解释新兴的区域流动模型，这些模型可能有助于加深对“流动中”的新一代青年的学术理解。我们提出了一种替代模型，位于全球北方和全球南方模型之间的某个范围内，我们将其定义为“以家庭为中心”跨国青年流动的地中海模式。该模型反映了特权、体验式青年迁移（往往低估对成年过渡的影响）和经济驱动的青年迁移（往往更直接地关注青年向成年过渡的经济维度）的各个方面。地中海模式更广泛地强调了流动性如何促成和塑造转型，转型同时受到经济需求和个人体验欲望的驱动，并通过家庭和文化进行调解。往往更直接地关注青年到成年过渡的经济层面。地中海模式更广泛地强调了流动性如何促成和塑造转型，转型同时受到经济需求和个人体验欲望的驱动，并通过家庭和文化进行调解。往往更直接地关注青年到成年过渡的经济层面。地中海模式更广泛地强调了流动性如何促成和塑造转型，转型同时受到经济需求和个人体验欲望的驱动，并通过家庭和文化进行调解。