Open Workshop: Evolving Migration Aspirations Across the Life Course – Sensemaking Among International Talent
The aim of the Open Workshop Series in Business and Management Studies is to promote top-quality academic and applied research in various fields of the social sciences. This is a unique opportunity for sharing knowledge and networking with local and international community members.
Migration decisions are commonly treated as rational, outcome-oriented choices concerning whether and where to move. Less attention has been paid to how migrants themselves make sense of migration aspirations over time, particularly as these aspirations evolve through lived experience. Drawing on a life course perspective and the concept of sensemaking, this paper examines how highly skilled migrants interpret and renegotiate their migration aspirations across different stages of their lives.
We analyze life story interviews with 14 highly skilled migrants in Finland, a Nordic welfare state context often assumed to offer favorable conditions for settlement. Our findings show that migration aspirations are continuously formed, exercised, and reframed through experiences that unfold across multiple life domains, including education, work, family and leisure. Migrants’ narratives reveal how emotional and rational considerations intertwine in sensemaking about staying, leaving, or remaining open to future mobility. While positive experiences in any single domain may anchor migrants temporarily, aspirations remain contingent and subject to revision as life circumstances change.
By foregrounding lived experience and temporal sensemaking, this study contributes to migration research by advancing a more dynamic understanding of migration aspirations and settlement processes beyond event-based and outcome-focused approaches.
Speaker: Professor Ulla Hytti, University of Turku, Finland
Ulla Hytti is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Turku with expertise in entrepreneurship, gender, and entrepreneurship education. Her recent research examines the integration and experiences of highly skilled international migrants. She has experience leading policy-oriented research and collaborating with stakeholders across academia, industry, and government. She is an Associate Editor at Entrepreneurship and Regional Development and a Research Editor at Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy.
Ulla has published her research in major entrepreneurship research outlets such as Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, International Small Business Journal, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. Recently, she served as a board member and as a member of the executive team in the European Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ECSB, www.ecsb.org).
Discussion moderated by Prof. Arnis Sauka.
Attendance is free of charge.
Please sign up for the seminar, by writing to arnis.sauka@sseriga.edu by October 14, 2026.
The aim of the SSE Riga Open Workshop Series is to:
- Foster cooperation between business and management researchers, practitioners and policymakers, as well as
- Promote academic and applied research in various fields of the social sciences, focusing on but not limited to entrepreneurship, marketing, management, public administration, and strategy.
Organised by Professor Arnis Sauka, the Centre for Sustainable Business at SSE Riga