A conceptual model for understanding vulnerability in the context of migration

The notion of ‘vulnerability’ is as popular as it is fuzzy. Its increased prominence in social research and in political and humanitarian discourses on migration has led many scholars and practitioners to treat the concept as self-explanatory, without problematizing neither its conceptualization nor its use and possible negative societal and psychological consequences. Set within the framework of the EU-funded project MIMY (n°870700), investigating the processes of integration of young migrants in 9 European countries, this paper critically evaluates different conceptualizations and uses of vulnerability and proposes a new multilevel conceptual model for understanding vulnerability in the context of migration.
Focusing on different levels of analysis, the model situates individuals and groups in the broader socio-political hierarchies and power dynamics that inevitably affect them (structural vulnerability), acknowledges how these systems are (re)produced in situated interpersonal relationships (situational vulnerability) and accounts for migrants’ biographical and psychological experiences of vulnerability. Focusing on the interrelationships between levels of analysis, the model highlights how macro conditions and definitions of vulnerability may affect individual experiences, through processes such as stigmatization, internalization of stereotypes, disempowerment, but also how individuals can actively negotiate their ascribed ‘vulnerability’ through processes such as resistance, mobilization and collective action.