The data collection consists of the full transcripts of 236 in-depth interviews conducted in Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK in the respective national languages. Of these 154 were conducted with ‘actual migrants’ – people who had migrated and lived in four EU countries: UK, Germany, Spain and Italy. Additionally, 42 ‘prospective’ migrants were interviewed at home in Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Spain about their plans to migrate in less than 12 months to a EU country. Further the collection contains 40 interviews with experts from public and private recruiting agencies. Additionally, three-page summaries of all interviews in English are included in the collection.The study focuses on the ‘lived’ experiences of migration. It builds upon the understanding that mobility is a complex and dynamic process starting with the decisions that are made before and along the journey and proceeding with examination of the challenges to migrants’ early adaptation, work and social integration, and the changes in their feelings of belonging and citizenship status. The research examines the impact of crosscutting factors such as gender, nationality, skill level and occupational sector. Using qualitative methodology of in-depth interviews, the study looks into the motivations, mobility channels and assessments that migrants make of the sending context, as well as of the receiving context – in terms of the climate of reception and levels of discrimination by employers, of the transferability of their own human capital and the success with which they will be admitted and encouraged to stay. The fieldwork of six country teams from Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK resulted in 236 interviews in total. Of these 154 were conducted with ‘actual migrants’ – people who had migrated and lived in four EU countries: UK, Germany, Spain and Italy. Additionally, 42 ‘prospective’ migrants were interviewed at home about their plans to migrate in less than 12 months to a EU country. Further, the sample included 40 interviews with experts from public and private recruiting agencies from the four sedning countries. All interviews have been audio recorded and fully transcribed in the language in which they were conducted. Additionally, three-page summaries in English were prepared to all interviews.

The research instrument was a narrative interview with several main themes to be covered and included prompts. Three guides were constructed to be relevant for each group of interviewees covering some specific as well as overlapping domains of questions. The guides aimed to collect information on the following main aspects: individual characteristics, migration process and integration steps. The interviews were designed to examine the motivation for migration and the process of decision making and preparation, as well as to cover the actual migration steps and finally to track down the process of adaptation, work and life in the new country, the changes in migrant’s identity and expectations for the future. The sampling of the core group of actual migrants was based on a quota design taking into consideration the home and host country of the migrants, gender and qualification level. The interviewed migrants were equally divided between men and women. One third of the migrants were low-skilled and working in the sectors of construction, domestic care and transport; two thirds were highly-skilled in the sectors of finance, ICT and health.