Highly Skilled Migrant Women: Achievements and Contributions in Knowledge-Based Economies

Competition among developed industrialised countries for highly skilled migrants has increased in recent decades with the onset of the knowledge-based economy and society (Triandafyllidou and Isaakyan 2014) [...]

Highly Skilled Migrants from Central Asian States at the Russian Labor Market

The article examines the features of employment in the Russian labor market of highly skilled labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The main attention is paid to their economic activities, occupations, wages and labor intensity in comparison with similar characteristics of less skilled Central Asian labor migrants and highly skilled migrants from other post-Soviet states. It is concluded that highly skilled migrants from Central Asia, being more successful than their less skilled compatriots, lose in competition for the best jobs to highly skilled migrants from other countries. Special attention is paid to the behavior of highly skilled Central Asian migrants during the pandemic in 2020, when they demonstrated a high potential for adaptation to the extraordinary transformation of the labor market. Regarding the situation as temporary during the first wave of the pandemic (spring 2020), confident in their ability to find a job in Russia and not wanting to leave it, highly qualified Central Asian migrants did not err in their expectations, strengthening their position in the Russian labor market. During the second wave of the pandemic (autumn 2020), their optimism, based on assessing the possibilities of finding a decent job in Russia, satisfaction with conditions and wages, increased even more. The empirical base of the study was the results of sociological surveys of labor migrants from the CIS countries, Ukraine and Georgia in 2017, as well as during the first and second waves of the pandemic (2020).

Exploring the trajectories of highly skilled migration law and policy in Japan and the UK

Japan and the UK appear to have few commonalities in terms of their history of and approach to migration law and policy. However, strong similarities in their contemporary approaches can be detected. Migration sits at the very top of the national political agendas and both have undertaken successive, major policy reforms over the past decade. Both have governments publicly committed to policies to attract ‘highly skilled’ migrants, with a restrictive approach towards ‘unskilled’ migrants. This article draws out the similarities and differences of migration law and policy in Japan and the UK via their respective legislative structures and policy trajectories on highly skilled migration. The article argues that Japan and the UK promote a market-driven model which enables highly skilled migration to be ‘sold’ to publics believed to be hostile to increased migration. Yet, the rapid changes in policy and revising of applicable rules often prevents the successful recruitment of highly skilled migrants to both countries.

The economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Sri Lankan migrants in Qatar

The spread of Covid-19 in Qatar and the pandemic-led economic slump in the country have substantial financial implications for Sri Lankan migrant workers in Qatar and the Sri Lankan economy as a whole, as Qatar has been one of the primary destinations among Sri Lankan migrants in recent years. Based on 12 in-depth interviews and an online survey of 101 Sri Lankan workers in Qatar, this paper assesses the pandemic’s financial implications on three groups of Sri Lankan migrants; the highly-skilled, skilled and semi-skilled. Using a mixed-method analysis, the paper identifies that pay-cuts have been the most common financial issue across all skill levels, with nearly half of respondents reporting deductions from their salaries. The research also identifies that while all three groups of migrants have used various coping mechanisms to mitigate the pandemic’s financial impact, highly-skilled migrants have been more successful in weathering the storm than others due to their accumulated savings. Though compared to the early months of the pandemic, the financial stability of most Sri Lankans in Qatar had improved by September 2020 with the easing of restrictions imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19, it might not necessarily transfer into stability in remittances to Sri Lanka, as an increasing number of Sri Lankan migrant workers in Qatar are considering a permanent return home.

Bypassing the Social Distance: International Catholic Community, Friendship, and Homemaking among Expatriates in Brno

We analyze the role of intimate social ties and community in the processes of homemaking and social integration of highly skilled migrants who are members of the local international Catholic community in Brno, Czech Republic. We use the concepts of bonding and bridging social capital developed by Michael W. Foley and Dean R. Hoge and follow their attention to the effects of the worship communities’ organizational culture on migrants’ integration. In the article, we show that the Catholic community mediates its members’ homemaking efficiently by providing them with rich bonding social capital, generated through close social ties in the community. However, it does not provide them with enough bridging social capital, and their social integration, thus, remains restricted to the company of international fellows. We compare it with the strategies of homemaking used by settling migrants who have integrated more successfully into the Czech social environment.

Highly-Skilled Migrants, Gender, and Well-Being in the Eindhoven Region. An Intersectional Analysis

The shortage of skilled labor and the global competition for highly qualified employees has challenged Dutch companies to develop strategies to attract Highly Skilled Migrants (HSMs). This paper presents a study exploring how well-being is experienced by HSMs living in the Eindhoven region, a critical Dutch Tech Hub. Our population includes highly skilled women and men who moved to Eindhoven for work or to follow their partner trajectory. By analyzing data according to these four groups, we detect significant differences among HSMs. Given the exploratory nature of this work, we use a qualitative method based on semi-structured interviews. Our findings show that gender plays a crucial role in experienced well-being for almost every dimension analyzed. Using an intersectional approach, we challenge previous models of well-being, and we detect different factors that influence the respondents’ well-being when intersecting with gender. Those factors are migratory status, the reason to migrate, parenthood, and origin (EU/non-EU). When all the factors intersect, participants’ well-being decreases in several areas: career, financial satisfaction, subjective well-being, and social relationships. Significant gender differences are also found in migration strategies. Finally, we contribute to debates about skilled migration and well-being by including an intersectional perspective.

Habitus in the context of transnationalization: From ‘transnational habitus’ to a configuration of dispositions and fields

Ongoing transnationalization processes have deeply affected contemporary societies. One important aspect of this transformation is that people’s skills and dispositions change, thus the ways they think about, perceive and evaluate the world are altered. In order to capture these changes conceptually, the notion of transnational habitus has emerged, especially within migration and inequality studies. Reviewing this research literature, however, we argue that this notion only partly captures the different ways in which transnationalization impacts individuals. We therefore refer to the criticism of Bourdieu’s habitus concept by Lahire and conceive of habitus as a configuration of dispositions, which may be more or less transnationalized. Combining this conceptual discussion with a biographical case study from a research project on highly-skilled migrants, allows us to theorize how specific dispositions are activated or toned down over time in relation to specific field settings. As a result, we can highlight how different kinds of dispositions may be dissimilarly affected by transnationalization processes and how related habitual transformations may be seen as a gradual development. Rather than generally referring to the more static notion of transnational habitus, conceiving of habitus as a configuration of dispositions and contexts thus facilitates a more detailed and processual understanding of the interplay between dispositions and specific field settings in relation to transnationalization.

Physical activity, sport and transnational migrant spaces in Shanghai, China: (Re)crafting contours of a metropolitan cityscape

This study examines associations between sport/physical activity space, community formation and social life among Shanghai’s highly skilled migrant demographic. There is limited illustration of the roles sport and physical exercise provision and spaces play in this migrant cohort’s lives, community formation and participation in their host societies. Yet, such evidence is of value in determining social policy, urban development and community engagement initiatives. Using a mixed-methods approach involving public policy critique, cultural and spatial analysis and virtual community investigation, this article provides a conceptual exploration of ways sport and physical activity frame individual and collective migrant experiences, and how such experiences enmesh with wider geo-spatial, political and domestic context. Amid Shanghai’s presentation as a globally attractive space, we reveal some of the complexities of the cityscape as an emblematic location for highly mobile, highly skilled migrants. A confluence of ideals about urban citizenship, social participation and localised physical activity/sport-based (inter)action, we note, articulate Shanghai anew, and contribute to debates on highly skilled transnational mobility and community formation.