Departing from on-going fieldwork in China and Northern Europe among Swiss nationals, the aim of this article is to contribute towards clarification of the often somewhat unreflected use of concepts within the ‘migration-mobility continuum.’ We sketch a mobilities-informed and data-grounded ethnographic research approach and investigate the various forms, meanings and outcomes of mobility and migration throughout three life stories. In conclusion, we argue for an empirically grounded, sophisticated usage of theoretical frameworks and concepts, and we discuss how this can contribute to a more critical, differentiated research about mobility and migration.

This article is based on research funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Keywords: skilled migration, mobilities, migration trajectories, theoretical frameworks,
migration terminology, ethnography, life stories, regimes of mobility, China, Northern Europe