Abstract
Studies of migrant transnationalism are dominated by qualitative case studies. To take the field further, there is a need for more quantitative studies and for connecting quantitative and qualitative studies through a reiterative feedback loop. In order to contribute to this, Paasche and Fangen take two refined and original quantitative studies, one by Snel, Engbersen and Leerkes and one by Portes et al., as a vantage point, commenting on the authors’ organization of analytical categories and their operationalization of key concepts, in light of the qualitative life-story data of the EUMARGINS project. The article concludes that the process whereby young migrants identify themselves in terms of ethnicity and belonging is context-specific and multidimensional, and hard to study quantitatively.