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Can I come as I am? Refugees' vocational identity threats, coping, and growth
Abstract
Trying to re-establish their lives in a host country, refugees face multiple integration barriers in relation to work and society. This study, derived from 31 semi-structured interviews with refugees residing in Germany, explores how these barriers also threaten refugees' fundamental identity needs for worth, distinctiveness, continuity, and control. Faced with such threats, refugees tried both to protect their previous identities and/or to restructure them to adjust to their new situation. Findings also highlight identity threat jujitsu to both support refugees' identity protection and create better connections between themselves and their environments. Further, we point to resourcing as a form of buffering potential future hardships. Finally, both refugees' resourcing and coping with adversity were related to the potential for psychological growth. This study offers new insights into how transition experiences impact refugees' personal and career-related growth in the new country.
... The socialisation process is crucial for female immigrants to study and work. Those who enter the labour market find it easier to secure housing and feel a sense of belonging compared to those who face barriers to active participation in society (Bloch et al., 2000;Pessin & Arpino, 2018;Wehrle et al., 2018). Belonging is complex, varying by class, income, culture, and education, which can create a sense of 'us and them' among female immigrants (Simonsen, 2018). ...
... Socialisation also relates to ethnic, cultural, and gender dynamics (Noon, 2007;Ridgeway, 2006). Values and expectations regarding gender roles in marriage are crucial for integrating immigrant families (Van Hook & Glick, 2020;Wehrle et al., 2018). In some immigrant families, men are more represented in the labour market and earn higher incomes than women (Bloch et al., 2000;Nawyn & Park, 2019). ...
... Olivia's divorce, although culturally frowned upon (cf. Van Hook & Glick, 2020;Wehrle et al., 2018), seems to be a catalyst for her transition from a shop assistant to a prospective law student. Life trajectories emerge, among other things, in her shift from working in her parents' bookstore to seeking financial independence and new career paths in Sweden. ...
This study focuses on the stories of four newly arrived women and their choices of vocational education and profession. The study highlights the women’s life courses and addresses how their vocational skills from their home countries can influence their choices of vocational education and profession, and how these skills are utilised in Sweden. The study also examines the cultural, social, economic, and symbolic capital that emerges from the women’s stories. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital is used to explain the women’s choices of vocational education and profession, suggesting a connection between the capital that women carry with them and their private and vocational experiences throughout their lives.
The result shows that the women’s choices of vocational education and profession are related to their previous life experiences and adapted to the efforts of the Swedish state to shorten the path to employment for adult immigrants through Yrkesvux, a combined education programme. Additionally, the women’s vocational skills from their home countries are mostly used through their own business activities in Sweden.
Newly arrived women’s vocational skills are changing the existing history of women’s skills and adding tasks that traditionally have not existed in Sweden, for example carpet tying, facial threading, and oriental cooking and baking. These skills must be cared for by the Swedish education system, which is constructed and reconstructed in step with technological development and social change. Caring for new professional skills can, for example, be to create conditions for young people to learn and develop these skills for the benefit of society.
... They have to rebuild their lives in a new socio-cultural context and learn the local language. Their education and professional experiences are often not recognised (Bolzman, 2016;Luimpöck, 2019;Wehrle et al., 2018). These factors influence their integration into the labour market and, during vocational education and training (VET), have an impact on their ability to learn and the development of agency. ...
... While refugees have suffered multiple psychological, social, emotional and economic traumas (Newman et al., 2018), arriving in the country of exile is an upheaval that also confronts them with numerous obstacles such as learning a new language, non-recognition of acquired certificates and skills, stigmatisation and low social capital (Wehrle et al., 2018). ...
... Periods of transition (Zittoun & Perret-Clermont, 2002) often bring adults into education and training (Bourgeois, 1996). As a process of transition, the training period may also reflect refugees' ambiguity between the fear of loss, for example of professional identities already formed in the past (Luimpöck, 2019;Wehrle et al., 2018), and the chance of vocational development. Wehrle et al. (2018) emphasise the importance of stability and a feeling of security for refugees to be able to invest effectively in a vocational project. ...
Context: The concern of integration of refugees into the labour market has become increasinglyimportant in Switzerland in recent years. In 2018, a pre-apprenticeship integration programme(PAI) has been introduced by 18 cantons, with the aim of preparing refugees for dual vocationaleducation and training leading to a Swiss VET certificate. Among the various players who collaboratein the PAI, in-company trainers play a key role. Guidance in companies has a major influence on the learning of work-related skills and thus on the development of apprentices' professional skills (Stalder et al., 2024). The literature on workplace learning highlights the importance of workplace guidance for the success of VET (Billett, 2001; Swager et al., 2015).
But while the importance of learning conditions in companies has been documented in the field of workplace learning in general (Mikkonen et al., 2017; Swager et al., 2015), we still know little about guidance with refugees within training companies.
Approach: The research project conducted at SFUVET addresses the issue of vocational training for recently arrived refugees in Switzerland and adopts a psycho-social, sociological and workplace learning interdisciplinary approach. Taking into account the complexity of the issue of guidance provided by various players during the apprenticeship in a company, we are focusing on support of agency development, addressing the research question "What are the different guidance practices for refugee apprentices in companies and how can they foster the development of agency?” Various qualitative research methods are mobilised to bring a comprehensive understanding to complex research questions and considering different perspectives. Interviews with in-company trainers and former PAI apprentices are at the heart of the study, but we also lead professional practice analysis groups with trainers and expert interviews.
Expected findings: This research helps understanding workplace-guidance provided to refugees who find themselves in a particularly complex period of transition, and whose life history and current living conditions interfere with their learning opportunities. Thus, our research will contribute to comprehension of how oppressed agency can develop through the acquisition of new skills and responsibilities during in-company training. All in all, our findings will offer insights into how the learning environment and the guidance provided during vocational training can either foster or impede apprentices’ agency in training, at work, and in daily life.
... Third, by considering migrants' marginalization as a process enacted within and through social, legal, and political structures, our research suggests that relying on, encouraging, and enabling migrants' agentic activities to align with the conditions of workplaces and broader societies (Eggenhofer-Rehart et al., 2018;Nardon et al., 2021;Wehrle et al., 2018) not only fails to prevent their marginalization but may exacerbate it. We note the determinant role of meaninglessness as a barrier to the inclusion of migrants in the context of their host country. ...
... conditions in the workplace (Knappert et al., 2018). This body of research consistently illustrates that employers frequently exclude undocumented migrants from the workplace (Wehrle et al., 2018) and tend to rationalize the unequal treatment of these workers (Knappert et al., 2018). ...
... Alternatively, they are considered to possess skills but are required to 'adjust' and 'adapt' to the host country's conditions and employment expectations (Campion, 2018). This process often involves several agentic efforts employed by them to cope with the downward transition of their career and role (Eggenhofer-Rehart et al., 2018;Nardon et al., 2021;Wehrle et al., 2018). Our study contends that anticipating undocumented workers to conform to new conditions, without acknowledging their credentials and experiences, results in the creation of a distinct typology of marginalized stakeholders who, despite having resources (talents, skills and experiences), endure severe experiences of marginalization. ...
Undocumented migrant workers are among a group of marginalized stakeholders who are severely exploited at their workplace and across broader society. Despite recent scholarly discussions in marginalized stakeholder theory and migration studies, our understanding of how undocumented workers experience marginalization in noncooperative spaces remains very limited. In noncooperative spaces, uncooperative powerful actors deliberately thwart cooperation with local marginalized stakeholders and fail to develop supportive institutional frameworks, such as regulative and transparent governance principles. To address these issues, we conducted interviews with 47 undocumented workers and civil society workers in Italy. Our findings reveal that the marginalization experienced by undocumented workers encompasses socio-economic immobility, systemic incapability, and a sense of meaninglessness. Further, our research challenges the principles of stakeholder capitalism inherent in traditional stakeholder theory, revealing the inadequacy of conventional notions in noncooperative spaces where marginalized stakeholders deal with disempowerment and immobility. We delve into the silent and tacit collusion among uncooperative firms in these spaces, shedding light on the ways in which this problematic cooperation leads to the creation of normative harm. Moreover, we introduce the experience of meaninglessness as an internal barrier hindering migrant inclusion, underscoring the imperative need for widespread immigration reforms and normative changes to foster an environment conducive to meaningful transformations for migrants.
... While skilled refugees encounter somewhat similar employment barriers to skilled migrants in experiencing devaluation of prior credentials and experience (see Fernando & Patriotta, 2020), refugees are additionally stigmatised in being wrongly depicted as people who scrounge social benefits and lack credibility (Wehrle et al., 2018). ...
... For instance, in a comprehensive review of the skilled migration literature from a socialisation lens, Tharenou and Kulik (2020) argue that many skilled migrants in 'foothold jobs' are likely to move to another employer as soon as they gain host country experience. In contrast, skilled refugees' career trajectories are seen as continuing to be constrained by labour market constraints (see Szkudlarek et al., 2021), and individuals are therefore seen as protecting their sense of worth by derogating the sources of occupational threats and/or reframing their views of the host country's employment system to highlight those elements of the system that might be supportive of them (Wehrle et al., 2018). They are also seen as adjusting understandings of themselves to cope with their plight, bracketing the present as transitory and recrafting a new identity to start all over again in a new field , and holding on to their original occupational identities even if it means reduced job opportunities (Eggenhofer-Rehart et al., 2018). ...
... A few respondents suggested that refugees are associated with a lack of credibility and trust (see also Wehrle et al., 2018), posing an obstacle to employment. Noor, explained how she experienced bias in an official authority entrusted to support refugees: I went to the NAME in my area….I heard this gentleman that served me…I heard their conversation, how his supervisor had told him, "Remember, you cannot trust these people." ...
Drawing on the analytical distinction between agency and social structure, I provide insights into four strategies used by skilled refugees to navigate labour market constraints: pre‐empting, to avoid present labour market constraints; circumventing present constraints, to realise future benefits; persisting in the search for skilled jobs via mobilising longstanding patterns of thought and action; and exercising voice to drive future system improvements that benefit similar others. It is striking how these strategies harmonised self‐interest and others' interests. I highlight the interplay between social structure and agency in labour market strategies to depict skilled refugees as reflexive agents of change. I highlight gender‐based nuances in skilled refugees' labour market moves and conclude by outlining the implications of my findings for HRM practice.
... Past research on refugees indicates that coping successfully with these challenges requires refugees to make substantial changes to their sense of self, navigating a new and often hostile environment (Wehrle et al. 2018, Nardon et al. 2021. They face the enormous task of developing a new, positive identity during times of significant adversity. ...
... However, challenges in their professional lives and loss of occupational status (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury 2006, Baran et al. 2018, Dykstra-DeVette and Canary 2019) not only impede professional role identification (Austin and Este 2001), but also hinder refugees' ability to develop alternative identities (Mackenzie Davey and Jones 2020). The literature contains multiple accounts of how refugees deflect threats to their existing identities (Wehrle et al. 2018, Nardon et al. 2021. Ironically, this undermines their own ability to attain congruence between their sense of self and their new reality. ...
... Highly educated refugees are, therefore, particularly likely to hold on to their achieved work identities and may, thus, struggle immensely to transform their identities when pursuing entrepreneurship in the host country. This is also evidenced in the few studies conducted on the topic (Wehrle et al. 2018, Nardon et al. 2021). In the case of Nardon et al. (2021), this takes the form of refugees resisting attempts at expectation management (e.g., the message that they will not be able to continue their career) and, in the case of Wehrle et al. (2018), refugees distancing themselves from locals who bestow a stigmatizing identity upon them. ...
Highly educated refugees who have been uprooted from their country of origin often struggle to secure employment that matches their abilities. Overcoming this sudden loss of achieved work identity is crucial for refugees’ future well-being and integration in the host country. In this study, we identify the behavioral and cognitive practices used by highly educated refugee entrepreneurs to resolve the incongruence between their selves and the host country environment and delineate core conditions that explain why only some complete these identity transformations successfully. Based on an in-depth ethnography at an incubator designed for refugees with entrepreneurial ambitions, we develop theory about how and when highly educated refugees’ past identities enable or constrain their ability to create new work identities in alignment with the new environment. Our findings reveal the critical role played by identity flexibility and a refugee’s attributions of premigration work attainments in this process. Surprisingly, we find that those who attribute prior career accomplishments internally—and are, thus, driven by self-perceptions of being resourceful and adaptive in the past—exhibit only limited identity flexibility. As a result, they struggle the most with reconstructing their identity in ways that aid their integration in the host country.
... Overall, scholars agree that refugees suffer from a drastic reduction in career opportunities (Tharmaseelan et al., 2010), and that even after many years in a host country, they may still experience economic and socio-political discrimination (Yakushko et al., 2008). The scant research has mostly focused on refugees' struggles with occupational transitions (Davey & Jones, 2019;Pajic et al., 2018), the coping mechanisms they develop in the face of vocational identity threats (Wehrle et al., 2018), and adaptation processes to the host country's labor market (Campion, 2018;Gericke et al., 2018). However, the process by which refugees navigate socio-professional pathways in the context of identity making (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002;Burke, 1991) remains underexplored. ...
... Notably, social and cultural acclimatization is especially important in the context of professional adjustment, since the economic crisis in France, as in Europe, has changed the national asylum policy: the figure of the 'welcome refugee' has now been replaced by that of the 'undesirable asylum seeker' (Julien-Laferrière, 2016). This shift in host societies' perceptions can lead to feelings of discrimination, marginalization, and stigmatization, which potentially impact refugees' professional and career adaptation (Wehrle et al., 2018). ...
... Our study offers new insights into research on refugees' socio-professional adjustment (Lee et al., 2018;Tomlinson & Egan, 2002;Wehrle et al., 2019) and vocational adaptation (Baranik et al., 2018;Yakushko et al., 2008). Moreover, it contributes to identity work literature (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002;Nardon et al., 2020;Wehrle et al., 2018) by providing, firstly, an in-depth account of refugees' experiences regarding the discrimination, threats and difficulties encountered, and secondly, the process of repairing, reorienting, and reconstructing their identities. While civil society support is not a focus of our study, we acknowledge civil society's crucial role in the development of the proposed trajectories. ...
This qualitative study investigates refugees’ socio-professional trajectories in France. Our findings suggest that refugees follow different socio-professional paths shaped by identity work and acculturation mechanisms as they go about integrating in the French context. We identify three socio-professional trajectories: ‘adjusting’, ‘enhancing’, and ‘detaching’. This study contributes, firstly, to research on refugees’ socio-professional adjustment and vocational adaptation, and secondly, to the literature on identity work. It does so by offering novel insights into the processes of repairing, reorienting, and reconstructing cultural and professional identities in the context of refugees’ relocation to host countries, in this case, France.
... Identity formation is an intricate process for all adolescents [1]. In the context of young people from refugee backgrounds, an additional layer of complexity emerges, given the interplay of various psychological, social, cultural, ethnic, religious, and personal factors which contribute to identity [2]. While the field of identity research is heterogenous, there is a consensus that life experience plays a central role in the formation of identity [1,3]. ...
... For adolescents from refugee backgrounds, rupturing life experiences are recurrent and profound. Trauma, loss, displacement, and resettlement all have the potential to cause immense disruption to young people's sense of personal coherence, bringing identity issues to the fore [2]. In addition, the increased salience of cultural context and unfamiliar group membership in the position of other [4], as well as pre-migration experiences, acculturation processes, and post-settlement challenges exert significant influences on the complicated tapestry of identity development [2]. ...
... Trauma, loss, displacement, and resettlement all have the potential to cause immense disruption to young people's sense of personal coherence, bringing identity issues to the fore [2]. In addition, the increased salience of cultural context and unfamiliar group membership in the position of other [4], as well as pre-migration experiences, acculturation processes, and post-settlement challenges exert significant influences on the complicated tapestry of identity development [2]. ...
Identity formation among young people from refugee backgrounds is complex, as it occurs while they are both integrating into a novel cultural landscape and navigating the intricacies of adolescence. The present study explored sense of identity and experiences among refugee youth in the context of resettlement. Nineteen young people (15–18 years) from refugee backgrounds, settled in Brisbane, Australia, took part in the study. An individual semi-structured interview, drawing upon the Tree of Life method, was used. The thematic analysis (TA) methodology was adopted, and several themes emerged: experiencing changes in family roles; experience of belonging; experience of bonds with lost loved ones; dealing with emotions in a new context; experience of self in the context of change. There was one emergent overarching theme of meaning-making in the context of change. These themes were explicated within the framework of social identity and sociocultural theories, which emphasises the dynamic co-construction of identity through the interplay of belonging and meaning-making within specific contextual settings. This study highlights the fundamental role of social context, particularly the fostering of school belonging, in the multifaceted process of identity construction. The findings identify the importance of integrating multiple identities and experiences to develop a comprehensive and resilient sense of personal cohesion and selfhood.
... In line with Hobfoll et al.'s (2007) action-focused approach, taking action based on conscious decisions to change one's life for the better, e.g., pursuing educational and career aspirations, was found to aid coping and the overcoming of past trauma and present stressors (Copelj et al. 2017;Teodorescu et al. 2012;Wehrle et al. 2018). Emotional avoidance is often associated with negative outcomes, such as prolonged grief. ...
... Surviving adversity also fostered increased self-trust and self-capabilities, along with a heightened drive and capacity for self-actualization. Participants reported more courage to take risks and shape their future in personally meaningful ways (Hirad 2018;Hussain and Bhushan 2013;Maung 2018;Sutton et al. 2006;Wehrle et al. 2018). ...
... Proactive and pro-social behavior emerged as catalysts for growth, fostering closer relationships and facilitating personal development (Copelj et al. 2017;Wehrle et al. 2018). These findings align closely with Hobfoll et al.'s (2007) action-oriented approach, emphasizing the transition from contemplating meaning to engaging in meaningful actions as a promoter of growth. ...
Background: The main aims of this scoping review are to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing knowledge about adversarial growth among refugees, and to gain insight into the complexity of post-trauma development. Methods: We applied a systematic search strategy resulting in the inclusion of 43 quantitative and qualitative empirical studies. Our findings underscore the prevalence of growth as a common phenomenon among refugees, emphasizing the positive associations with problem-focused coping, optimism, positive reappraisal, religiosity, and social support. Additionally, this review sheds light on the qualitative experiences and outcomes of growth, particularly pro-social outcomes, and the cultural and religious aspects of growth processes. Findings concerning the role of time and post-migration factors on growth processes highlight the need for more studies among established refugees. In sum, the findings supplement and lend nuance to pathology-oriented research, while acknowledging the severity of suffering and trauma and their consequences for individuals. We suggest that further research should focus on existential aspects and theories of growth: compassion, altruism, and pro-sociality following trauma, and the importance of religious and cultural elements in growth processes.
... Many of the analysed publications [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] describe the results of quantitative or qualitative research studies on both contextual and individual factors and resources, which are considered to be helpful in fostering the professional development of As&R. Other publications [26][27][28][29] explore professional identity processes. The remaining studies [30][31][32][33][34][35][36] present, implement, or evaluate the effectiveness of career interventions or the specific aspects addressed by them. ...
... Four (4) studies [26][27][28][29] that investigate the professional development of As&R were included in the second group (see Table 2). The studies mainly concentrate on the process through which As&R transform their career identity by interacting with contextual barriers in the host countries. ...
... The studies mainly concentrate on the process through which As&R transform their career identity by interacting with contextual barriers in the host countries. The four publications consist of qualitative studies that conducted semi-structured interviews with As&R residing in Germany [26,29], the United Kingdom [28], and South Africa [27]. The studies employ purposive snowball sampling methods based on the participants' refugee status and their professional and qualification profiles. ...
Over the past decade, scholarly attention has increasingly focused on what is known as the ‘refugee gap’, which refers to the great difficulty asylum seekers and refugees face in entering the labour market in the host country. This poses a grave threat of social and occupational marginalisation for this group and highlights the role of systemic factors in facilitating resilience outcomes. By adopting a systemic perspective, this research aims to provide a critical reflection on the key features that should be considered when designing and implementing effective career counselling interventions for asylum seekers and refugees. To this end, a systematic review of the international applied research published by October 2022 has been carried out, using the PRISMA model. The 20 selected publications are grouped according to three main career research strands that reflect the core aspects to be addressed within career interventions in order to assist asylum seekers and refugees in their life and career transition in the host country, namely (i) psychosocial resources, (ii) identity transformation processes, and (iii) lived experiences and meaning-making processes. The main findings of the studies are discussed by looking into common themes that emerge from the literature, namely challenges related to migration contexts, self-regulating personal resources and skills, and sense of self and identity in career transitions, as well as considerations on the design aspects of career counselling and research targeting As&R. Finally, some guidelines and directions for action are provided for the purpose of developing inclusive career counselling interventions for As&R.
... The activities of these actors are shaped by a country's institutional environment, and they in turn shape the institutional environment. Also the actors themselves, their roles, identities, and the way they act and interact with one another are a result of the institutional context (Hardy, 1994;Wehrle et al., 2018;Zetter, 2007). ...
... As studies in various countries have shown, those who come to the country under family reunification find jobs more quickly, and better quality jobs, than those who come on their own as asylum seekers (Bakker et al., 2017;Bevelander and Pendakur, 2014). In contrast, the granting of temporary protection status or other shorter-term residence permits related to suspension of deportation (e.g., toleration, humanitarian leave to remain, or otherwise exceptional leave to remain) keeps asylum claimants in limbo and thus hinders employment (Fleay et al., 2013;Phillimore and Goodson, 2006;Wehrle et al., 2018). ...
... In asylum procedures and possible appeals to the courts, social norms influence whether state agency officers or judges use the existing legal leeway for more restrictive or more generous decisions. Likewise, activities of actors such as managers of refugee accommodations, legal counselors, social workers, doctors, and volunteers are infused with social norms, which also affect the living conditions of refugees and ultimately their chances of preparing themselves optimally for finding employment (Tomlinson, 2010;Van Dijk et al., 2022;Wehrle et al., 2018). As Ager and Strang (2008) noted, a particularly important aspect in this regard is the friendliness of locals. ...
... Pourtant, elle apparait comme objectif politique central dans l'accueil de réfugié-es (Ager & Strang, 2008). Dans ce contexte, des études ont déjà montré le rôle fondamental de l'emploi comme facilitateur d'intégration (Fibbi & Dahinden, 2004;Wehrle et al., 2017), mais les politiques d'intégration en Suisse ne se sont intéressées à cette question que récemment. En outre, l'emploi représente des enjeux multiples (reconfiguration identitaire, amélioration de statut, etc.) et le processus d'intégration est souvent complexe et hors de portée pour une personne réfugiée qui découvre encore la langue et la culture locales. ...
... Ce rôle intégrateur découle à la fois de son aspect instrumental -il offre la légitimité aux réfugié-es de participer à la société qui les accueille -et de son aspect social -il permet l'entrée dans une nouvelle communauté de pratiques et la création de liens sociaux (Fibbi & Dahinden, 2004). L'emploi devient d'autant plus important dans une situation d'exil où l'individu a perdu toutes ses possessions et ressent le besoin de reconstruire sa vie dans le pays d'accueil (Wehrle et al., 2017). Outre la rémunération, le travail offre également un sentiment d'utilité, de fierté et de dignité (Tisato, 2017). ...
... L'emploi permettrait aussi aux bénéficiaires de pouvoir se projeter dans un futur en Suisse : « [un emploi] est important pour les personnes elles-mêmes, donc pour leur permettre d'avancer, de se projeter, puis de pouvoir voir des perspectives » (CE1). Nous comprenons ainsi que l'accès à l'emploi est vu comme un élément favorisant l'intégration tant au niveau économique que social, juridique et personnel (Clot, 2008;Fibbi & Dahinden, 2004;Wehrle et al., 2017). ...
L’intégration professionnelle des réfugié-es est un objectif politique important en Suisse, mais la notion en elle-même est complexe, polysémique et en constante évolution. Bien que la littérature ait démontré le rôle intégrateur de l’emploi dans ce cadre, l’accès à l’emploi reste difficile et des dispositifs d’accompagnement ont été mis en place pour faciliter ce processus. Dès lors, le rôle des professionnel-les de l’intégration consiste à favoriser l’autonomisation des réfugié-es, alors que leur climat de travail est empli de contradictions. Selon une perspective psychosociale, nous questionnons l’évolution de la notion d’intégration pour réfugié-es en Suisse, ainsi que l’impact de ces modifications sur l’activité des professionnel-les de l’intégration. Nos analyses mettent en évidence que les évolutions politiques et législatives récentes ne permettent pas de fournir une définition de l’intégration professionnelle, qui se manifeste principalement en une série d’étapes à franchir. Les professionnel-les ont ainsi pour tâche de délimiter eux/elles-mêmes les contours de leur activité d’intégration. Ils/elles les combinent aux enjeux nombreux de l’accès au marché de l’emploi, ce qui amène à de multiples tensions. De plus, les nouvelles réglementations menacent l’équilibre fragile construit dans la pratique et semblent aller à l’encontre des valeurs défendues par ces professionnel-les.
... Most of these women do not speak English, do not have transportation or childcare, do not have a supportive partner at home, and come from cultures in which women are not the traditional breadwinners. Moreover, the U.S. welfare system and refugee resettlement policies require that these women become economically self-sufficient within 6 months of arrival, which does not allow enough time for the training and development necessary to pursue ambitious career goals (Wehrle et al., 2018). Despite these challenges, the women expressed desires to become lawyers, nurses, judges, police officers, doctors, tailors, and chefs. ...
... From our perspective, these success stories tell of newcomers on their way to achieving self-sufficiency. We thought we were successful because we were helping to meet the government's expectation that immigrants and refugees should be economically self-sufficient and off the United States welfare system as quickly as possible (Ludwig, 2013;Wehrle et al., 2018). ...
The St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry in upstate New York serves refugees and immigrants who have recently arrived in the United States. These newcomers face significant barriers to obtaining economic stability. Those who secure a job usually work in low-paying, entry-level positions such as food service, hospitality, or cleaning. A group of community volunteers and representatives from immigrant-serving agencies was formed to better understand the needs and career aspirations of refugees and immigrants who are served at the food pantry. We conducted three focus groups and one interview with 26 immigrant and refugee women from Afghanistan, Congo-Brazzaville, the Dominican Republic, Iraq, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ukraine. Participants expressed ambitious career goals such as becoming a lawyer, nurse, judge, police officer, doctor, tailor, and chef. These findings show that community volunteers and representatives should not fall into the trap of low expectations. Instead, we recommend that newcomers’ ambitious career aspirations are heard by community volunteers, that they are given a realistic preview of the work and commitment involved, and that they are provided with resources and support to pursue their desired careers. We share two case studies that highlight the difficult employment barriers that newcomers face as well as career successes from our community. These narratives both illustrate the many challenges faced by newcomers and exemplify how community volunteers can help immigrants overcome these challenges to pursue their career aspirations.
... Future studies could explore other possible situational cues that stimulate temporary workers' identity threat to provide critical insights for multi-employment-type organizations for managing temporary workers. For example, Wehrle et al. (2018) used qualitative methods to explore various situational cues that induce identity threat for refugees, such as an insecure future, social segmentation, language barriers, and lack of recognition of their vocational skill certificates. Accordingly, we encourage future studies to employ qualitative methods to explore other potential situational cues that could stimulate identity threat among temporary workers. ...
... Furthermore, following an earlier study (Koppman, Mattarelli, and Gupta 2016), we considered temporary workers' poor job performance and increased turnover intention as indicators of their failure to integrate and eliminate this phenomenon from an identity threat perspective. On the one hand, Petriglieri (2011) and Wehrle et al. (2018) indicated that individuals' identity threat could stimulate diverse coping strategies. Thus, we suggest that future studies explore the influencing mechanisms by which temporary employee identity threat affects their other work-related outcomes. ...
This study aims to advance current understanding concerning situational cues that trigger identity threat at the workplace among temporary workers and associated effects on their integration outcomes in the flexible employment scenario. We used the social identity threat theory to empirically investigate the impact of the extent to which regular employees' job conditions are superior to those of temporary workers on these workers' outcomes, through the identity threat. In addition, we examined the moderating role of organizations' social integration practices. We conducted two empirical studies involving technical temporary workers in Chinese companies, in which we used polynomial regression analyses and response surface modeling. In Study 1, using a two-wave time-lagged design, we analyzed data from 480 temporary workers, and in Study 2, using a three-wave time-lagged multi-source dyadic design, we analyzed matching data from 371 temporary workers and 64 supervisors. Our findings indicate that the extent to which regular employees' job conditions surpass those of temporary workers is positively associated with identity threat among the latter, increasing their turnover intention and undermining their job performance. Moreover, temporary work-ers' perceptions of their organizations' social integration practices weaken the effects of the extent to which regular employees' job conditions surpass those of temporary workers. Thus, this study contributes to related literature on social identity threat and temporary workers, and to practice, by offering offers insightful implications for managers to effectively manage this threat.
... Extreme cases include the 37.6 million refugees and 6.9 million asylum seekers who have fled their countries due to conflict, violence, or persecution (UNHCR, 2024b). Refugees 1 often struggle to reestablish their lives in a receiving country, face unemployment, and access only menial work (Raanaas et al., 2019;Wehrle et al., 2018). While most refugees strive towards meaningful work in the receiving country, numerous structural, cultural, and social barriers impede their efforts (Codell et al., 2011;Fedrigo et al., 2023). ...
... Such basic assumptions for meaningfulness are contested in the case of refugees' liminality. Refugees are confronted with uncertain career and life situations where their sense of pre-migration self is jeopardized (Wehrle et al., 2018). They also have left behind their social communities and are now tasked with re-establishing their personal and professional lives in an unfamiliar social context (Raanaas et al., 2019). ...
This study explores how refugees, i.e., people experiencing liminality due to career and life disruptions, make work-related meaningfulness, and it uncovers how they apply temporality in their meaningfulness-making. Analyzing 48 interviews of 24 refugees in Germany, the findings show how, post-migration, refugees faced two types of under-institutionalized liminal experiences challenging their meaningfulness – one concerning self-focused and one pertaining to other-focused sources of meaningfulness. To navigate these liminal experiences, refugees actively made meaningfulness. This was a temporal process, as refugees connected their past, present, and future. They drew on their past and present vocational experiences when moving toward their future vocational self, built on their past and acted in the present to secure present and future social connections, amplified synergies and resolved tensions in meaningfulness sources, and compensated unavailable meaningfulness sources with available ones. Based on our findings, we propose a model on how people make meaningfulness despite missing its main ingredients (i.e., a clear sense of self and social connections) and how under-institutionalized liminality can turn from a space devoid of meaningfulness into an agentic and creative space of meaningfulness-making. We contribute to meaningfulness, temporality, and liminality research.
... However, refugees face significant challenges in forming an entrepreneurial identity due to identity dissolution and the complexities of their experiences. The identity void created due to losing their professional roles, societal status and community connections (Rugina and Harima, 2024;Wehrle et al., 2018) can be exacerbated by expectations to embody entrepreneurial traits such as self-reliance, risk-taking and innovation (Essers and Benschop, 2007;Swail and Marlow, 2018), which may conflict with their cultural norms and deepen the sense of identity loss and disconnection (Bemak and Chung, 2017;Märtsin, 2010). Without access to the foundational elements typically used to reconstruct identity, refugees can struggle to gather the resources and confidence needed to navigate entrepreneurial paths, making identity reconstruction a significant hurdle (Berman et al., 2020). ...
Entrepreneurship support services for refugees provide a wide range of services to support venture creation and build resilience. However, mental health supports to address issues of trauma are often not included in these programmes. This is problematic as trauma experienced by refugees can negatively influence elements of entrepreneurship critical for success and the entrepreneurial journey carries a risk of retraumatisation. We propose a framework for a trauma-informed approach to refugee entrepreneurship support that integrates insights from the literature on trauma-informed care. The framework emphasises three key components: temporal reorientation, identity reconstruction and preventing retraumatisation. Temporal reorientation helps refugees reconnect with the present and envision a positive future using tools like mindfulness and bridging practices. Identity reconstruction focuses on developing a cohesive entrepreneurial identity, enabling refugees to rebuild their sense of self through narrative identity work and cultivating a collective entrepreneurial identity within their communities. Preventing retraumatisation involves creating safe, culturally sensitive environments that foster trust while empowering refugees through holistic, peer-supported interventions. This framework offers a novel approach to addressing the unique challenges refugee entrepreneurs face, integrating mental health considerations into entrepreneurship support and paving the way for future research focused on trauma’s impact within entrepreneurship.
... As a major career transition, the experience of migration can trigger a desire for self-continuity (i.e., Zikic & Voloshyna, 2023) and relatedly search for meaning and purpose in each new work context. Current literature on migrant career re-establishment focuses much attention on early labour market experiences and individual coping efforts (e.g., Wehrle et al., 2018). That is, the majority of the studies addressed skilled migrants' career trajectories before entering local organizations (e.g., Harrison et al., 2019;O'Connor & Crowley-Henry, 2020) and relatedly professional identity challenges at the periphery (i.e., Zikic & Richardson, 2016). ...
... Identity Theory (Stryker, 1980(Stryker, , 1987(Stryker, , 2008 posits that an identity is a complex cognitive structure that represents a selfdefinition constructed by an individual through their social interactions, serving as a response to questions such as "who am I?" or "who are we?". While much of the research in the field of work and organizational psychology tends to focus on the multiple identities which individuals exhibit in their current occupations (Kourti et al., 2018;Martinez et al., 2017;Wehrle et al., 2018;Wilhelmy & Köhler, 2022), the self encompasses various identities that extend beyond this temporal delineation (Carr, 2022). The self-concept comprises a complex cognitive structure that encompasses all of an individual's self-representations (Higgins, 1996). ...
... Participants make use of certain pre-existing skills and competencies, from either their (former) professional or private lives. Since a failure to use their skill is commonly seen as a threat to their professional identity (Wehrle et al., 2018), their talents can be brought into use through volunteering. These results have various implications for both individuals and the community (Sveen et al., 2023). ...
Volunteering is an important way to include immigrants at a local scale, especially in small towns and municipalities with limited arrival infrastructure. With the recent increase in immigrants, including in rural areas, volunteering practices for this target group have been much discussed, albeit with an emphasis on immigrants as vulnerable beneficiaries. There are few studies that focus on immigrants’ volunteering practices, or their function for the individual and receiving community, while empirical evidence for rural areas is explicitly lacking. In this article, we address immigrants as active agents with recourse to the concept of agency and unravel, firstly, the meanings they attribute to volunteering and reasons for their mobilisation; secondly, their access to volunteering in the German countryside; and thirdly their reflecting, practising, and sharing of agency through volunteering with an impact on themselves and their rural communities. Drawing on a qualitative, biographical‐narrative study of 72 immigrants in rural Germany, we show how cultures of volunteering—or how it is practised in different contexts—inform immigrants’ current activities, ranging from leisure practices to neighbourly help and supporting the inclusion of new arrivals. We illustrate the importance of opportunity structures and social networks for accessing volunteering and reveal individual and altruistic reasons for doing it, such as facilitating language acquisition and enhancing one’s participation, showing solidarity with immigrants, or gratitude towards the receiving society, often coinciding with expected outcomes. Volunteering allows immigrants to “perform agency” and fosters both belonging and responsibility taking for the dwelling place.
... Because these threats arise in the destination country, they will likely be interpreted as beliefs and prejudices held by society as a whole, making the destinationcountry citizens a salient out-group. Migrants experiencing such ethnocentric attitudes often respond by psychologically distancing themselves from the natives (Wehrle et al., 2018), thereby inhibiting their destination-country identification. Furthermore, ethnocentrism makes natives less willing to interact with migrants, even if a migrant is motivated to engage with destination-country nationals. ...
Migration is one of the most pressing global issues of our time. However, relatively little is known about the factors and mechanisms that govern the post-migration experiences of skilled migrants. We adopt an acculturation- and social identity-based approach to examine how differences between institutional characteristics in the destination and origin country, as well as migrants’ experiences with formal and informal institutions shape their identification with the destination and origin country and contribute to their community and career embeddedness. Our study of 1709 highly skilled migrants from 48 origin countries in 12 destination countries reveals that the institutional environment migrants encounter provides both sources of opportunity (potential for human development and value-congruent societal practices) and sources of disadvantage (experienced ethnocentrism and downgrading). These contrasting dynamics affect migrants’ destination-country identification, their origin-country identification and, ultimately, their embeddedness in the destination country. Our results have important implications for multinational enterprises and policy makers that can contribute to enhancing skilled migrants’ community and career embeddedness. For example, these actors may nurture a work environment and provide supportive policies that buffer against the institutional sources of disadvantage we identified in this study, while helping migrants to leverage the opportunities available in the destination country.
... Não raramente, quando se encontram diante de situações assimiladas como ameaças à identidade, muitas pessoas costumam empregar respostas de enfrentamento para minimizar os efeitos negativos à sua identidade (C. A. Smith, 1991). Essas respostas de enfrentamento são discutidas principalmente nas literaturas sobre discriminação e estigmatização (Berjot & Gillet, 2011;Wehrle, Klehe, Kira, & Zikic, 2018). ...
Resumo O objetivo deste estudo foi compreender como indivíduos com uma identidade de liderança paradoxal respondem a ameaças a essa identidade. Para isso, foi realizado um estudo de natureza qualitativa, por meio de entrevistas com 44 líderes de uma cooperativa de crédito brasileira. Após a realização de uma análise de conteúdo, identificamos cinco respostas de enfrentamento, que codificamos como “abandonando a identidade”, “defendendo a identidade”, “desacreditando ameaçadores”, “alterando o significado da identidade” e “relativizando a relevância da ameaça”. O estudo conclui que a escolha do tipo de estratégia de enfrentamento é crucial para a preservação ou reformulação da identidade de liderança paradoxal de um indivíduo.
... Not infrequently, when faced with situations perceived as threats to their identity, many people tend to employ coping responses to minimize the negative effects on their identity (Smith, 1991). These coping responses are mainly discussed in the literature on discrimination and stigmatization (Berjot & Gillet, 2011;Wehrle, Klehe, Kira, & Zikic, 2018). ...
The aim of this study was to understand how individuals with a paradoxical leadership identity respond to threats to that identity. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study, through interviews with 44 leaders of a Brazilian credit cooperative. After performing a content analysis, we identified five coping responses, which we coded as “Abandoning the identity”, “Defending the identity”, Discrediting threatenings”, “Changing the meaning of the identity” and “Relativizing the relevance of the threat”. The study concludes that the choice of the type of coping strategy is crucial for the preservation or reformulation of the individual’s paradoxical leadership identity.
... These barriers mean that refugees often resort to the informal economy, where they face discrimination and risk exploitation, arrest and sexual or physical abuse (Alexander, 2008;Jacobsen, 2002;Knappert et al., 2018;Omata, 2021;Zetter & Ruaudel, 2018). Further constraints include a lack of credential recognition, certification and financial support (Chadderton & Edmonds, 2015), poor social protection and difficult linguistic environments (Wehrle et al., 2018). ...
Most of the world's refugees live in Global South countries, where they struggle to find quality education and opportunities for decent livelihoods. This paper explores the underexamined yet highly relevant interlinkage between sustainable livelihoods and adult learning among urban refugees residing in three major cities in India. It speaks to the tight intersection of education, livelihoods and aspirations of five refugee communities: Afghan, Rohingya, Somali, Chin and Tibetan. Building on interviews, focus groups and participatory drawing sessions involving 66 refugee and staff respondents, the study highlights the refugees' extremely limited learning opportunities, which result in low skills and being forced to take discriminatory and undignified work in the informal sector. By integrating the capabilities approach with sustainable livelihoods, the paper argues for more diverse educational opportunities and a broader understanding of refugee livelihoods that goes beyond pure economics to encompass consideration of freedom and human dignity.
... Indeed, researchers have overwhelmingly focused on how such negative events trigger identity threats, but there are reasons to believe that individuals can view them as opportunities (Bataille & Vough, 2022). For example, Wehrle, Klehe, Kira, and Zikic (2018) found that refugees' initial appraisals of identity threat gradually transformed into opportunity appraisals over time, as they learned more about their new environments. In short, people's willingness and ability to learn may impact why they interpret an adverse event positively. ...
... These barriers can undermine refugees' basic identity needs for self-worth, distinction, continuity and control. In the face of these challenges and threats, refugees have been able to develop proactive coping responses by protecting their previous identities and restructuring their identities to fit their new situation (Wehrle et al., 2018). This proactivity leads to positive psychological growth despite the adversity encountered in the resettlement and integration process. ...
... Our fndings on the relationships between identity formation in relation to work for refugees in diferent countries are not unusual [37][38][39][40]. Wehrle et al. describe how multiple integration barriers in relation to work and society can also threaten refugees' fundamental identity needs for worth, distinctiveness, continuity, and control [41]. Tese complex matrices of identity infuences as they relate to work agree with our fndings, along with the call for stronger support mechanisms to facilitate employment opportunities and reduce postmigration stress, particularly in the early years of arriving [42]. ...
Background. The issue of identity has been widely explored among migrant populations in western countries in the context of cultural integrations and acculturations. However, there is less evidence on identity as a determinant of health and social wellbeing. This study reports on identity as a determinant of health among the South Sudanese community who arrived as refugees through an Australian humanitarian program in the early 2000s. Methods. A qualitative study was undertaken, underpinned by a phenomenological framework that characterised the lived experiences of adult South Sudanese in Sydney, Australia. Semistructured in-depth interviews explored how 26 participants identified themselves in Australia, including changes in their experiences over time, their social and general life situation in Australia, and how they felt perceived in Australia. Data were audio-recorded using a digital voice recorder, transcribed verbatim, coded, and categorised into themes using interpretive thematic analysis. Results. Participants described a multiplicity of interconnected domains that governed the negotiating and making sense of identity, in turn mediated by other interwoven personal and structural factors that shaped experience and perception. Expressions of hope, pride, and achievement were threaded through several of the interviews, particularly in relation to their children. There were also frustrations related to employment challenges and discrimination that limited identity ownership. Conclusions. The evolving and often conflicting factors identified by participants can shape their sense of belonging, integration, and social and mental wellbeing. A deeper, more nuanced understanding of bicultural identity within a strengths-based framework is needed, with improved partnerships and services to support and strengthen South Sudanese community integration, belonging, and acculturation in Australia.
... Individuals who have their identity threatened and invalidated socially tend to experience emotional and cognitive instability, which they often respond to with coping strategies (Berjot & Gillet, 2011;Mansur & Felix, 2021). These responses, which are frequently discussed in literature on discrimination and stigma (Wehrle et al., 2018), are aimed at minimizing the negative effects of social invalidation and can be broadly classified into two types (Petriglieri, 2011). The first type, known as identityprotection responses, involves targeting the source of the threat to protect the threatened identity. ...
We aimed to understand how nonbinary individuals cope with gender identity threats in different contexts at work. We used a grounded theory approach through semi-structured interviews with 28 nonbinary Brazilian individuals from 25 organizations. In environments that are threatening to their gender identity, nonbinary individuals adopt a trial-and-error process of gender identity expression that makes them realize that restructuring their identity leads to a high sense of inauthenticity, while preserving it incurs high social costs. As both are unsatisfactory, some of them adopt ambiguous responses that allow them to find ways to make identity claims through performative processes of gender identity expression. Such a process, although not fully reflecting their desire for authenticity, provides satisfactory validation. This mechanism is possible when they interact in other environments where their identity claims are validated. Thus, the gender identity expression validated in more receptive contexts allows these individuals to experience what we named as cross-context identity enactment. It is a process by which the social validation that individuals obtain by enacting an identity in a less-threatening context allows them to rely less on validation in a more threatening context to retain such identity in their self-concept.
... The result is consistent with the previous traditional career theories (i.e., Super, 1990) that careerrelated self-understanding is considered a core factor that identifies the career path. The participants seemed to have reconstructed their vocational identity by emphasizing their positive distinctiveness similar to other immigrants (Petriglieri, 2011;Wehrle et al., 2018), breaking away from North Korea's "Saenghwalchunghwa (Life Review Session)" culture, focusing on one's shortcomings through public self-criticism (Lee & Hwang, 2008). In addition, while being aware of career barriers, participants appear to acquire work volition, a recognition of their right to choose a career despite constraints (Duffy et al., 2016) through self-understanding. ...
North Korean immigrant youth are underrepresented in career development research fields. We explored contextual factors that work as resources or hindrances to obtaining adequate education and exploring career paths in addition to the unfilled psychological needs they want to fill in through securing decent work. By analyzing the interview with 12 participants, we found three domains with 17 categories. The main hindering factors were the difference in language, academic curriculum, and lack of career information. Resources included increased self-understanding, social support, and past work or educational experience. Lastly, psychological needs were the sense of autonomy, economic stability, and social recognition.
... Although most asylees do not know German upon entering the country, many learn it within a few years (Keita & Dempster, 2020). Past qualitative research has shown personal growth to be an aspect of resilience for these asylees (Walther et al., 2021), and actively developing opportunities and using available resources (both aspects of PGI) may facilitate personal and career-related growth in German refugees (Wehrle et al., 2018). Consequently, the PGIS-II may be a useful measure for quantitatively assessing how asylees in Germany develop and effectively use PGI. ...
Personal growth initiative (PGI) is an important predictor of well-being. In the current study, we translated the Personal Growth Initiative Scale–II (PGIS-II) into German and investigated its psychometric properties. Our sample consisted of 210 adults gathered from Germany’s Mechanical Turk. The German PGIS-II showed evidence of a bifactor structure, with the total score providing the best representation. Results also indicated measurement invariance through the partial scalar level with the English PGIS-II given to a sample of 854 college students in the United States. The PGIS-II’s scores were positively related to general self-efficacy, internal locus of control, and positive affect, as well as evidenced small relations with external locus of control, negative affect, stress, and social desirability. Together, the results showed evidence for the psychometric properties of the German PGIS-II and the potential importance of PGI in German samples.
... For example, immigrants with a large network of co-ethnics may be more likely to find employment, but at the cost of a reduced quality of employment, i.e., lower wages, education-occupation mismatch (Aleksynska and Tritah 2013;Banerjee et al. 2019;Alaverdyan and Zaharieva 2019) or status downgrades (Alaverdyan and Zaharieva 2019;Aleksynska and Tritah 2013;Chiswick et al. 2005;Chiswick and Miller 2010;Kracke and Klug 2021). Since refugees often aim to re-establish their personal careers to maintain their previously achieved status and to keep their professional identity (Wehrle et al. 2018;Eggenhofer-Rehart et al. 2018), it is a sensible assumption that they carry a strong preference for finding a job in their previous occupation. For refugees, this subjectively better outcome of finding a job in their previous occupation should usually also translate to objectively better outcomes for refugees such as no or smaller occupational status downgrades compared to those who do not find a job in their previous occupation. ...
We examine how local labor markets shape the employment prospects of refugees in Germany, where refugees are assigned to regions through a dispersal policy. While it is known that the characteristics of these regions affect the overall employment probability of refugees, previous studies have not investigated how refugees’ chances of regaining their pre-migration occupation are affected by the local opportunities to find employment in these occupations. To address this gap, we use a large survey of refugees in Germany and link local-occupational labor market characteristics to their region of residence and pre-migration occupation. We decompose the effects of these detailed context characteristics by estimating linear probability regressions with and without fixed effects for regions and/or occupations. While our analyses show that the employment probability of refugees is indeed strongly influenced by the general local characteristics of their place of residence and general, nationwide characteristics of their pre-migration occupation, our analyses also show that the chances of refugees being employed in their pre-migration occupation are additionally driven by the local characteristics of their occupation. More specifically, our models reveal that a one standard deviation higher local share of foreigners in refugees’ pre-migration occupation increases the average probability of an occupational match by around 25 percent.
... Research on the post-resettlement employment experiences of refugees (e.g., Newman et al., 2018;Richardson et al., 2020;Zacher, 2019) largely focuses on existing barriers for initial entry into the labor market. Specifically, refugees often find that their credentials are unrecognized in their countries of resettlement and/or they are unable to substantiate their credentials and experience due to issues associated with protracted displacement within both their countries of origin and transition (Delaporte & Piracha, 2018;Wehrle et al., 2018). It is undoubtedly valuable for recently resettled refugees to gain local work experience (Tahiri, 2017), but many refugees remain stuck in entry-level, precarious, and lower-paid jobs (Lee et al., 2020) at the bottom tier of the labor hierarchy, commonly known as survival jobs. ...
In this article, we highlight the Australian country context to advocate for career support that extends beyond initial job placement in a segmented labor market to strengthen refugees’ skills and knowledge and future career development. We address systemic barriers while advocating for access to skilled career development practitioners, whose important expertise as members of multidisciplinary teams could enhance resettlement assistance. Strengthening the preparation of career development practitioners is essential for providing career support to refugees and for building capacity in the provision of resettlement services. We encourage debate within and between country contexts about ways to enhance refugees’ career development.
... However, an impediment for many refugees is that their qualifications are not, or only partly, recognized in the host country (Eggenhofer-Rehart et al., 2018;Wehrle, Klehe, Kira, & Zikic, 2018), and they are requested to do additional occupational training. Austria and Germany have a long-standing vocational education and training system with more than 300 occupations that require two to three years of on-the-job training and vocational school. ...
... Similarly, Scott and Wahl (2011) and Taylor (2001) contend that the societal marginalization of refugees has a strong psychological impact on their wellbeing. In addition, refugees often must contend with deep humiliation, stigmatism, and ethnic discrimination, which undermines self-worth and their ability to participate in society (Esses et al., 2013;Wehrle et al., 2018). ...
Displaced people from Afghanistan comprise the largest protracted refugee population in Asia and the second-largest refugee population in the world. For nearly 40 years, most Afghan refugees have been received in neighboring Iran and Pakistan. In Iran, they have been provided with such provisions as healthcare, education, housing, employment, food, visas, and continuing residence. However, many Afghan refugees face significant barriers in accessing services, particularly when it comes to undocumented persons. This study identifies the factors affecting homelessness among refugees, drawing on interviews with eight Afghan men. We explore a four key elements (4Es) construct for supporting the empowerment of refugee people in Iran through education, employment, economic, and emotional support. The study argues that the 4Es approach can alleviate homelessness among refugees.
... The third is providing asylum/visa lottery to individuals who are facing persecution in their home country but have the capacity to contribute meaningfully to the economy of the country they are joining. The capacity, here, may differ in terms of expertise, potential and economic tendencies (Van Riemsdijk et al., 2016;Wehrle et al., 2018). ...
The world is a global village today undoubtedly due to advances in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and their education. The knowledge from these disciplines influences various aspects of human daily affairs, career choices and the type of education acquired by citizens. STEM literature across the world has put Africa at the tail end of development. Africa’s underdevelopment may not be argued owing to empirical literature in the direction of poor development. However, the global demand for competence in STEM disciplines continues to rise at a rate developed countries find difficult to keep up due to shortage of man power as against demands. This surge in demand creates a gap that must be filled in pursuit of sustainable growth. Science, technology, robotics, engineering, the arts and mathematics (STREAM) education remains obscure among countries in Africa, with the paradigm shift to aesthetics with arts and automation in robotics globally calling for redirection in developing regions. South African and Nigerian curricula have been moderated to accommodate coding and robotics as well as physics in technology, with green energy and elementary automation, respectively. This manuscript explores education as the panacea for poverty alleviation, sustainable growth and equality among citizens. The current state of affairs of STREAM education in Africa and its potential for a youthful and useful population are also explored.
... Because these threats arise in the destination country, they will likely be interpreted as beliefs and prejudices held by society as a whole, making the destinationcountry citizens a salient out-group. Migrants experiencing such ethnocentric attitudes often respond by psychologically distancing themselves from the natives (Wehrle et al., 2018), thereby inhibiting their destination-country identification. Furthermore, ethnocentrism makes natives less willing to interact with migrants, even if a migrant is motivated to engage with destination-country nationals. ...
We analyse how educational aspirations and intentions of adult refugees in Germany are shaped by their foreign educational credentials and their previous occupational status. Because the allocation of medium-skilled jobs on the German labour market heavily relies on a variety of credentials, unlike in the countries of origin, where skills are usually acquired on the job but not formally certified, refugees often cannot provide the credentials required to work in their previous job. We use status allocation theory and the concept of relative risk aversion to formulate expectations as to why some refugees may be more inclined to emit higher educational aspirations. Based on the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees we first show that the German labour market is stratified regarding educational credentials, while both refugees without and with medium professional credentials occupied positions with a very similar status in their countries of origin. Based on regression models, we show that in contrast to refugees with professional credentials, refugees without credentials have higher educational aspirations and intentions if they occupied high status positions in their country of origin. However, additional analyses did not reveal this positive effect for female refugees. We therefore conclude that especially male refugees who have much to lose, see additional education as a salient way to avoid occupational status downgrades after migration. We conclude with a discussion of gender-specific mechanisms potentially at play shortly after migration and discuss the generalizability of our findings to other types and contexts of migration.
Zusammenfassung
Dieser Artikel der Zeitschrift Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. beschreibt die Entwicklung und Implementierung eines digitalen Tools zur Unterstützung von Onboardingprozessen, den sogenannten Prozesslotsen. Basierend auf einer Anforderungsanalyse wurde der Prozesslotse zur Unterstützung von Onboardingprozessen entwickelt und beim Pre- und Onboarding in einem KMU und einem Institut einer Universität implementiert. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse aus beiden Fallbeispielen werden reflektiert und es werden weitere Anwendungsmöglichkeiten sowie potenzielle Weiterentwicklungen des Prozesslotsen aufgezeigt.
How do marginalised cultural outsiders negotiate fit into new work settings? I draw on a discursive (re)positioning lens to examine qualitative interview accounts of a group of skilled refugees in Britain and provide insights into three temporal moves they make to portray themselves as unconstrained by a lack of host country cultural know-how, able to swiftly address gaps in knowledge and skills, and able to blend in. I theorise newcomer self-socialisation as a temporal (re)positioning dynamic that involves retrospectively defining oneself as a particular kind of person who has the potential to fit. I argue that temporal (re)positioning enables newcomers to maintain worth, secure external validation and impact on their contexts. I propose that the simultaneous foregrounding and minimising of the past is an important mechanism for skilled refugees to negotiate an ambivalent sense of fit into new work settings.
185 000 refugees from Ukraine have started working in Poland since the Russian war began. Drawing on Bourdieusian concepts of capitals, misrecognition and habitus and the field, the paper theorises the subjective and objective terms of inclusion across intersectional interplay of motherhood, ethnicity, and refugee status. In particular, we explore how intersectional marginalised identities of individuals shape their negotiation power over terms of their labour market inclusion. Using qualitative interview data from ten Ukrainian working mothers in Poland who became refugees following the Russian war in Ukraine in 2022, we demonstrate that misrecognition leads to uneven relations of power, curtailing working refugee mothers’ agency to negotiate the terms of their inclusion.
A plethora of government‐ and non‐government actors are involved in the labour market integration of highly skilled refugees, forming a complex “system” that is difficult to navigate for integration actors and refugees. Based on interviews with 32 labour market integration actors in Sweden, this article examines multi‐level governance gaps in the wake of the simultaneous centralization and decentralization of labour market preparation services. It examines various “steps” in the labour market integration process to gain a more holistic perspective of “the system”, and identifies governance gaps in each step. The article finds that the devolution of services has opened up participatory spaces for non‐government actors, but narrowly defined mandates and short‐term funding mechanisms hamper cooperation within and between territorial levels of policy implementation.
Despite the central role of employment for integration, refugees are particularly vulnerable to under- and unemployment, and are more likely to find themselves in precarious working conditions compared to host country residents. Frequently discussed reasons for this are, for example, legal restrictions, health issues, and non-recognition of qualifications. We draw on the concept of intersectionality and the psychology of working theory and use data that we have collected with women and men refugees in Turkey and in the Netherlands. We use narrative accounts of four refugees to show how refugees’ gender relates to their vulnerability towards precarious work and how this relationship is further complicated by refugees’ economic status in their home country as well as by the societal expectations and protection in the host environment. By discussing these relationships and their relevance in the larger context of economic and societal upheaval, we suggest several avenues for future research.
This study emerges at the intersection of adult development and systems theory frameworks and their contributions to understanding migration experiences and associated cultural transitions. The adult development approach enables a deep understanding of the complexities that adults experience when they move from exploring themselves and their environment in emerging adulthood to establishing their identities and roles during middle adulthood. The systems theory framework, on the other hand, provides insights into the role of social and cultural dimensions in the lives of emerging and middle-adult immigrants who have navigated diverse cultures, roles, and identities. The study highlights the patterns and dynamic interactions of diverse systems of influences and their roles in shaping the self and relational identities of thirty emerging and middle-aged adults who have experienced migration.
Due to the ongoing refugee crises, refugees and their workplace integration have attracted the attention of management scholars. The understanding of refugees varies and often lacks clarity in this emerging research. In analyzing how management scholars define the term “refugee,” detailing their approaches to heterogeneous refugee populations and outlining their assumptions about refugees' coping agency, this literature review provides a structured analysis of the emerging field's collective knowledge and theorization. We propose detailed implications to enhance the understanding of refugees in management research and show future avenues for research.
OECD Report which assesses the labour market integration of refugees in Germany, in light of recent high inflows and policy developments and international good practice. Includes findings from a joint OECD survey with the German Association of the Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
Refugees experience a host of traumatic events and stressors in their countries of origin, during flight, and during resettlement. The impact of these experiences on both their physical and mental health is well documented in the literature. However, the potentially positive effects of trauma on well-being are less well understood. The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize the literature on refugee posttraumatic growth. Posttraumatic growth (PTG) occurs when refugees coherently make sense of their traumatic experiences. As a result of engaging in this reflective process, some experience positive intra- and interpersonal gains. Factors that facilitate PTG, such as social support, coping styles, religiosity, and optimism, will be discussed. The emerging literature on vicarious PTG among mental health professionals working with refugees will also be addressed. This paper will conclude with a set of recommendations for future PTG research with refugees. Research on posttraumatic growth has important implications for the promotion of healthy adjustment and well-being among refugees in Canada.
Individuals need a situated identity, or a clear sense of "who they are" in their local context, to function. Drawing largely on interpretivist research, we describe the process of identity construction in organizations. Organizations set the stage for members to construct their identities through sensebreaking, rendering individuals more receptive to organizational cues conveyed via sensegiving. Individuals utilize sensemaking to construe their situated identity as they progress toward a desired self. Affect (feeling "this is me"), behavior (acting as "me"), and cognition (thinking "this is me") are each viable and intertwined gateways to a situated identity that resonates with one’s desired self and a given context. Individuals formulate identity narratives that link their past and present to a desired future, providing direction. If their identity enactments and narratives receive social validation, individuals feel more assured, fortifying their emergent identities. The result of these dynamics is a visceral understanding of self in the local context, facilitating adjustment.
The German system of skill formation, in particular the dual system of vocational education and training (VET), is considered in the political economic debate to be a pillar of the German model, mainly for two reasons: On the one hand, training of skilled workers was supported by the specific path of development of diversified quality production from its beginning. On the other hand, the dual VET system represents one of the most important fields for the German corporatist governance system.
The article develops the following ideas: the conditions of the German VET system fundamentally changed during the second half of the twentieth century: Cognitive preconditions for VET continuously increased, and since the mid-1960s educational reform and expansion in Germany (old Länder) gradually resulted in increasing higher levels of education and in a differentiation of the educational landscape as well as in a shift in young peoples` educational careers towards higher education.
The driving forces behind these developments will be analysed and discussed with respect to their impact on the relation between the dual VET system and higher education. The argumentation results in the following conclusion: Firstly, the broad trend toward upskilling the German labour force will continue and the integration of low-qualified youth into VET and the labour market will become more precarious than in the past. Secondly, corporatist governance of the dual VET-System will come more and more under pressure and become less important in the German educational system as a whole.
H1) This chapter presents an overview of resourcing theory, comparing it with other perspectives such as resource dependence and the resource based view of the firm. After developing an understanding of the basic tenets of resourcing theory, the chapter goes on to explicate three mechanisms of resourcing in context that arise from recent empirical research and are likely to be of value to positive organizational scholars. The chapter concludes with an exploration of how the endogenous nature of resourcing and the potential for ampliative cycles can support positive spirals, a subject of vital interest to those studying positive organizational scholarship.
This article builds upon previous theoretical work on job loss as a status passage to help explain how people's experiences of involuntary unemployment affected their mental well-being during the 2009-2010 economic recession. It proposes a middle-range theory that interprets employment transitions as status passages and suggests that their health and well-being effects depend on the personal and social meanings that people give to them, which are called properties of the transitions. The analyses, which used a thematic approach, are based on the findings of a qualitative study undertaken in Bradford (North England) consisting of 73 people interviewed in 16 focus groups. The study found that the participants experienced their job losses as divestment passages characterised by three main properties: experiences of reduced agency, disruption of role-based identities, for example, personal identity crises, and experiences of 'spoiled identities', for example, experiences of stigma. The proposed middle-range theory allows us to federate these findings together in a coherent framework which makes a contribution to illuminating not just the intra-personal consequences of unemployment, that is, its impact on subjective well-being and common mental health problems, but also its inter-personal consequences, that is, the hidden and often overlooked social processes that affect unemployed people's social well-being. This article discusses how the study findings and the proposed middle-range theory can help to address the theoretical weaknesses and often contradictory empirical findings from studies that use alternative frameworks, for example, deprivation models and 'incentive theory' of unemployment.
This article presents strategies to enhance effectiveness in cross-cultural counseling and psychotherapy encounters. A major assumption is that a coherent orientation is needed that includes cultural differences yet transcends these differences and organizes the human experience in the context of individual world views within the framework of existential philosophy. An understanding of one's own world view and the client's world view are key elements in enhancing cross-cultural effectiveness. Other strategies that can enhance cross-cultural counseling and psychotherapy include a discussion on the knowledge of semantic structures of reasoning and an understanding of culture-its premises and its relationship to effectiveness in cross-cultural counseling and psychotherapy.
Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology. In this paper, we argue that it offers an accessible and theoretically flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. We outline what thematic analysis is, locating it in relation to other qualitative analytic methods that search for themes or patterns, and in relation to different epistemological and ontological positions. We then provide clear guidelines to those wanting to start thematic analysis, or conduct it in a more deliberate and rigorous way, and consider potential pitfalls in conducting thematic analysis. Finally, we outline the disadvantages and advantages of thematic analysis. We conclude by advocating thematic analysis as a useful and flexible method for qualitative research in and beyond psychology.
The literature on identification in organizations is surprisingly diverse and large. This article reviews the literature in terms of four fundamental questions. First, under “What is identification?,” it outlines a continuum from narrow to broad formulations and differentiates situated identification from deep identification and organizational identification from organizational commitment. Second, in answer to “Why does identification matter?,” it discusses individual and organizational outcomes as well as several links to mainstream organizational behavior topics. Third, regarding “How does identification occur?,” it describes a process model that involves cycles of sensebreaking and sensegiving, enacting identity and sensemaking, and constructing identity narratives. Finally, under “One or many?,” it discusses team, workgroup, and subunit; relational; occupational and career identifications; and how multiple identifications may conflict, converge, and combine.
Many professional and skilled Canadian immigrants suffer from de-skilling and the nonrecognition of their foreign credentials. Consequently, they are underrepresented in the upper segments of the Canadian labour market. Rather than accepting this devaluation of immigrant labour as a naturally occurring adjustment period, I suggest that regulatory institutions actively exclude immigrants from the upper segments of the labour market. In particular, professional associations and employers give preference to Canadian-born and educated workers and deny immigrants access to the most highly desired occupations.
Pierre Bourdieu's notion of institutionalised cultural capital and his views of the educational system as a site of social reproduction provide the entry point for my theoretical argument. I find that the nonrecognition of foreign credentials and dismissal of foreign work experience systematically excludes immigrant workers from the upper segments of the labour market. This finding is based on data from interviews with institutional administrators and employers in Greater Vancouver who service or employ immigrants from South Asia and the former Yugoslavia.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study opinions and attitudes towards immigrants and minorities and their interactions with other barriers to minorities' economic integration. Specifically, the minority experts' own perceptions about these issues, the veracities and repercussions of unfavorable attitudes of natives are to be considered.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing newly available data from the IZA Expert Opinion Survey 2007 main trends in the integration situation of ethnic minorities in Europe are depicted in a comparative manner.
Findings
Robust findings show that: ethnic minorities face integration problems; natives' general negative attitudes are a key factor of their challenging situation; discrimination is acknowledged as the single most important integration barrier; low education and self‐confidence as well as cultural differences also hinder integration; minorities want change and that it comes about by policies based on the principle of equal treatment.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should not only investigate how negative attitudes are formed but also study their dynamics with respect to integration policies.
Practical implications
Well‐designed integration policies, that take the specific situation of the respective ethnic minority into account, are persistent and enforcement of anti‐discrimination laws is desirable.
Originality/value
Using a unique dataset, the innovative study is the first to gauge the perspectives of expert stakeholders and ethnic minorities on their integration situation and the main barriers that hinder it.
This paper proposes a comparison of skill formation in Germany and Britain over the last decades. Taking historical
trends into account, the two cases can be regarded as representing different types of skill production regimes.
Institutional features include a relatively low degree of standardization of training and a larger amount of on-the-job
training in Britain. In Germany, post-compulsory training has been conducted predominantly within the dual system of
vocational training, underlining the vocational specificity of a large part of the labor market. As a consequence,
international differences in individual skill investments, transitions from school to work and other life-course patterns can
be observed. At least in Britain, however, the situation seems to have changed considerably during the 1990s. The paper
argues that the divergence in more recent developments can still be understood as an expression of historical pathdependency
given the traditional connections between the post-compulsory training system and the broader societal
context in which it is embedded. These concern, in particular, links with the system of general and academic education as
the basis for – and also a possible competitor with – vocational training; links with the labor market as they are indicated
by specific skill requirements and returns to qualifications; and, links with the order of social stratification in the form of
the selective acquisition and the social consequences of these qualifications. The links manifest themselves as typical
individual-level consequences and decisions. Founded on the basis of these distinctions, the aim of this paper is to
investigate the preceding conditions for recent developments in the qualification systems of Britain and Germany, which
have adapted to specific challenges during the last decades.
Major perspectives concerning stress are presented with the goal of clarifying the nature of what has proved to be a heuristic but vague construct. Current conceptualizations of stress are challenged as being too phenomenological and ambiguous, and consequently, not given to direct empirical testing. Indeed, it is argued that researchers have tended to avoid the problem of defining stress, choosing to study stress without reference to a clear framework. A new stress model called the model of conservation of resources is presented as an alternative. This resource-oriented model is based on the supposition that people strive to retain, project, and build resources and that what is threatening to them is the potential or actual loss of these valued resources. Implications of the model of conservation of resources for new research directions are discussed.
A hypothesized need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships is evaluated in light of the empirical literature. The need is for frequent, nonaversive interactions within an ongoing relational bond. Consistent with the belongingness hypothesis, people form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being. Other evidence, such as that concerning satiation, substitution, and behavioral consequences, is likewise consistent with the hypothesized motivation. Several seeming counterexamples turned out not to disconfirm the hypothesis. Existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation.
Human beings can be proactive and engaged or, alternatively, passive and alienated, largely as a function of the social conditions in which they develop and function. Accordingly, research guided by self-determination theory has focused on the social-contextual conditions that facilitate versus forestall the natural processes of self-motivation and healthy psychological development. Specifically, factors have been examined that enhance versus undermine intrinsic motivation, self-regulation, and well-being. The findings have led to the postulate of three innate psychological needs--competence, autonomy, and relatedness--which when satisfied yield enhanced self-motivation and mental health and when thwarted lead to diminished motivation and well-being. Also considered is the significance of these psychological needs and processes within domains such as health care, education, work, sport, religion, and psychotherapy.
Job loss and job search are traumatic experiences for mature-aged workers, also because of the threats that these experiences entail to workers' self-concepts and identities. We investigate how job loss threatens such self-definitions, how mature-aged workers cope with self-definition threats, and whether coping can be conducive to psychological growth. We conducted an integrative literature review on extant studies and organized their findings with the help of theories on self-concept and identity threats, coping with identity threats, and identity growth. Job loss threatens mature-aged workers' prior valuable and distinctive self-definitions and disrupts continuity and control of selfhood, while also inflicting threatening provisional self-definitions on them. To cope with self-definition threats, mature-aged workers protect and restructure their self-definitions with alternative goals of either remaining in paid employment or opting out from it. We also identify potential for psychological growth, as the struggle with the trauma of job loss can generate new self-meanings and foster stronger, more authentic and independent selves.
The European refugee crisis has gained worldwide attention with daily media coverage both in and outside Germany. Representations of refugees in media and political discourse in relation to Germany participate in a Gramscian “war of position” over symbols, policies, and, ultimately, social and material resources, with potentially fatal consequences. These representations shift blame from historical, political-economic structures to the displaced people themselves. They demarcate the “deserving” refugee from the “undeserving” migrant and play into fear of cultural, religious, and ethnic difference in the midst of increasing anxiety and precarity for many in Europe. Comparative perspectives suggest that anthropology can play an important role in analyzing these phenomena, highlighting sites of contestation, imagining alternatives, and working toward them. [refugee, media, immigration, crisis, Germany, Europe]
This article describes the concept of posttraumatic growth, its conceptual foundations, and supporting empirical evidence. Posttraumatic growth is the experience of positive change that occurs as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life crises. It is manifested in a variety of ways, including an increased appreciation for life in general, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, an increased sense of personal strength, changed priorities, and a richer existential and spiritual life. Although the term is new, the idea that great good can come from great suffering is ancient. We propose a model for understanding the process of posttraumatic growth in which individual characteristics, support and disclosure, and more centrally, significant cognitive processing involving cognitive structures threatened or nullified by the traumatic events, play an important role. It is also suggested that posttraumatic growth mutually interacts with life wisdom and the development of the life narrative, and that it is an on-going process, not a static outcome.
This article examines the impact of large scale, ‘macro’ role transitions on professional identity. Drawing on in-depth interviews with two different groups of immigrant professionals, it theorizes how organizational outsiders with established professional identities respond to the institutional requirements and specifically to professional pre-entry scripts in their new host country. The study demonstrates how identity work evolves among each group as they navigate the permeable and impermeable pre-entry scripts in their respective professions. It identifies both barriers and facilitators to engagement with, and fulfillment of, local pre-entry scripts. These findings demonstrate how different professional domains and power structures create different opportunities for re-entry and as a result give rise to different forms of identity work – involving, for example, identity customization, identity shadowing, struggle and enrichment. Implications for policy makers in the field will be discussed, focusing on how different groups of professionals respond to unique forms of identity threat emerging from their respective professional institutions and structural barriers.
The article presents a self-concept-based theoretical perspective for analyzing and interpreting employees' reactions to organizational change. The authors suggest that change will be supported to the extent that it is concordant with organizational members' self-concepts. Change will be experienced as stressful and be resisted to the extent that it poses threats to employees' self-concepts, in particular to their senses of self-determination, self-distinctiveness, self-enhancement, and self-continuity. The authors demonstrate the usefulness of this perspective using quantitative and qualitative data from a case study of employees' reactions to office relocation. The authors summarize their findings in terms of testable propositions, suggest directions for further research, and offer some practical implications of the suggested perspective.
Using a multi-year qualitative study, I explain how employees at a fast-growing retail organization used creative resourcing - that is, the manipulation and recombination of objects in novel and useful ways to solve problems. I induce two core organizational processes (autonomous resourcing and directed resourcing) that explain how organizations foster ongoing creative activities in response to different perceived resource endowments. In doing so, I add clarity to a mixed literature that argues on the one hand that limited resources foster creativity, and on the other, that abundant resources foster creativity. Instead, I reorient the questions that scholars ask by shifting the conversation away from variance-explanation models and towards understanding organizational processes, specifically around how employees use resources in dynamic ways and how managers enable them to do so. My study unpacks how the link between resources and creativity is rooted deeply in the actions of managers and employees embedded in organizations over time. In elaborating theory around these actions, I contribute to scholarly and practitioner understanding around how organizations foster creativity in a variety of resource environments. © Academy of Management, all rights reserved. Contents may not be copied, emailed, posted to a listserv, or otherwise transmitted without the copyright holder's express written permission. Users may print, download, or email articles for individual use only.
I review and reconceptualize identity threat, defining it as an experience appraised as indicating potential harm to the value, meanings, or enactment of an identity. I also develop a theoretical model and propositions that generate insights into how individuals respond to identity threats originating from a range of sources. I use this theory to explore individual and organizational consequences of different identity threat responses and their implications for research on identity dynamics within organizations.
This article discusses issues faced by refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland who were teachers in their country of origin as they seek to re-engage professionally. Refugees are frequently placed in low paid unskilled jobs, yet have often been well educated in their original country. This article draws on research conducted between 2006 and 2008, by the RITeS (Refugees Into Teaching in Scotland) project, funded by the West of Scotland Wider Access Forum (West Forum). In order to teach in Scotland, a candidate needs to register with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS). This process has presented difficult challenges for refugee teachers, many of whom require intensive support to access the profession in Scotland. Additional structural barriers to employment are created by refusing to allow asylum seekers, who do not have leave to remain, to engage in paid employment. This article adopts a critical approach to the data gathered and explores the personal, cultural, institutional and structural barriers to employment faced by this particular group. The article draws conclusions and recommendations related to the reprofessionalization of a wider range of refugee professionals. As such it offers insights into the post arrival experiences of professional refugees. © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Immigration policies and the treatment of immigrants and refugees are contentious issues involving uncertainty and unease. The media may take advantage of this uncertainty to create a crisis mentality in which immigrants and refugees are portrayed as “enemies at the gate” who are attempting to invade Western nations. Although it has been suggested that such depictions promote the dehumanization of immigrants and refugees, there has been little direct evidence for this claim. Our program of research addresses this gap by examining the effects of common media portrayals of immigrants and refugees on dehumanization and its consequences. These portrayals include depictions that suggest that immigrants spread infectious diseases, that refugee claimants are often bogus, and that terrorists may gain entry to western nations disguised as refugees. We conclude by discussing the implications of the findings for understanding how uncertainty may lead to dehumanization, and for establishing government policies and practices that counteract such effects.
The number of recent immigrants and refugees in the United States is growing dramatically. Among key reasons for migration is search for adequate employment and hope for opportunities to develop occupationally. However, recent immigrants and refugees face multiple obstacles in their career development in the United States. This article uses social cognitive career theory to examine the role of relocation circumstances, stressors of migration, acculturation patterns, and oppression on the career development and employment functioning of recent immigrants and refugees. Specific suggestions for career counselors working with this population are provided.
This paper aims to provide an overview of a narrative psychological approach towards the study of self and identity. The narrative psychological approach can be classified as broadly social constructionist insofar as it attempts to examine the cultural structuration of individual experience. However, building on recent criticism of certain social constructionist approaches (such as discourse analysis), it is argued that these approaches tend to lose touch with the phenomenological and experiential realities of everyday, practical life. Accordingly, they overplay the disorderly, chaotic, variable and flux-like nature of self-experience. Drawing on recent research on traumatizing experiences such as living with serious illness, this paper argues that the disruption and fragmentation manifest in such experiences serves as a useful means of highlighting the sense of unity, meaning and coherence (the `narrative configuration') more commonly experienced on an everyday level. Moreover, when disorder and incoherence prevail, as in the case of trauma, narratives are used to rebuild the individual's shattered sense of identity and meaning.
This article will describe a logical and efficient process of developing coherent national strategies in light of environmental forces that are present in the global market. It will then apply that process to the Federal Republic of Germany. The TOWS (threats, opportunities, weaknesses, strengths) Matrix will be used to accomplish this task. The TOWS methodology will focus on aspects of German industries that have had a significant impact - either positively or negatively - on the country’s economy and its position in the European Community and the world. Intrinsic national forces in the social, economic, political, and technological areas will be considered in determining the origin of Germany’s national industrial strengths and weaknesses. External opportunities for and threats to these industries will then be analyzed. After an analysis of a wide array of forces, strategies by German industries will be delineated and alternative industrial strategies will be proposed. Because former West Germany differs very much from former East Germany, the analysis will focus on what used to be called “West Germany”, referred to in this paper simply as Germany.
We develop a model to explain how images of one's work organization shape the strength of his or her identification with the organization. We focus on two key organizational images: one based on what a member believes is distinctive, central, and enduring about his or her organization and one based on a member's beliefs about what outsiders think about the organization. According to the model, members assess the attractiveness of these images by how well the image preserves the continuity of their self-concept, provides distinctiveness, and enhances self-esteem. The model leads to a number of propositions about how organizational identification affects members' patterns of social interaction.
This qualitative study examines objective–subjective career interdependencies within a sample of 45 qualified immigrants (QIs) in Canada, Spain and France. The particular challenges in this type of self-initiated international careers arise from the power of institutions and local gatekeepers, the lack of recognition for QIs' foreign career capital, and the need for proactivity. Resulting from primary data analysis, we identify six major themes in QIs' subjective interpretations of objective barriers: Maintaining motivation, managing identity, developing new credentials, developing local know-how, building a new social network and evaluating career success. Secondary data analysis distinguishes three QI career orientations—embracing, adaptive and resisting orientations—with each portraying distinct patterns of motivation, identity and coping. This study extends the boundaryless career perspective by providing a more fine-grained understanding of how qualified migrants manage both physical and psychological mobility during self-initiated international career transitions. With regards to the interdependence between objective and subjective career aspects, it illustrates the importance of avoiding preference to one side at the neglect of the other, or treating the two sides as independent of one another. Practical implications are proposed for career management efforts and receiving economies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This article presents an overview of the legal and policy issues affecting refugee and asylum-seeking women in European host societies. First, it explores the unique types of persecution experienced by women and shows that the asylum determination process, along with the status of women relative to men, mitigates against the effective protection of women. The legal basis for asylum, the evidential requirements and the procedural norms all reduce the protection which is likely to be conferred upon asylum-seeking women. Second, the article provides an overview of responses to female refugees and asylum-seekers in European countries of asylum. Although there are differences between countries, there is also a large degree of uniformity. For example, there is a lack of recognition and understanding of the diversity and the range of experiences which refugees bring with them, including different social and cultural norms. Moreover, European policies do not provide special provisions to facilitate the settlement of refugee women and instead place barriers to their social and economic participation. Third, the article examines policies for family reunion in different countries and shows that such unfavourable and unsympathetic policies mitigate against the settlement of refugee women. Finally, the article argues that if refugee and asylum-seeking women are to have their cases recognized and to be successfully settled, then there needs to be a complete rethink of legislation and policy in Europe.
An interdisciplinary synthesis of Canadian research on immigrant employment success points toward key research priorities.
Four determinants of immigrant employment success are widely recognized as significant: immigration policy and settlement
patterns, “entry” and assimilation over time, lower value of immigrant human capital, and origins of immigrants and the possibility
of discrimination. Other determinants include labour market niches, social and cultural capital, and institutional contexts.
Addressing key research priorities—and distinguishing individual and contextual causes—will require new analytic strategies
and sources of data. A companion paper, Part II: Understanding the Decline, applies the framework presented here to research on declining employment success for immigrants.
Une synthése interdisciplinaire de la recherché au Canada sur la réussiteà l´emploi des immigrants révéle des priorités essentielles
de recherche. On reconnaît généralement quatre facteurs déterminants dans la réussite à l’emploi des immigrants: les politiques
en matiére d´immigration et le type de peuplement; l´autorisation de séjour et l´assimilation avec le temps; la valeur plus
basse que l´on attribue au capital humain des immigrants; et l´origine des immigrants et la possibilité de la discrimination.
Parmi les autres facteurs déterminants, notons les créneaux de marché du travail, le capital social et culturel, et le contexte
institutionnel. Afin d’aborder les priorités essentielles de recherché, et de distinguer les causes institutionnelles des
causes contextuelles, il faudra de nouvelles strategies analytiques et d’autres sources de données. Un article complémentaire,
la deuxiéme partie de Understanding the Decline, appliqué le cadre conceptuel présenté ici à la recherche sur le décline de la réussite à l´emploi des immigrants.
Institutional theory and structuration theory both contend that institutions and actions are inextricably linked and that institutionalization is best understood as a dynamic, ongoing process. Institutionalists, however, have pursued an empirical agenda that has largely ignored how institutions are created, altered, and reproduced, in part, because their models of institutionalization as a process are underdeveloped. Structuration theory, on the other hand, largely remains a process theory of such abstraction that it has generated few empirical studies. This paper discusses the similarities between the two theories, develops an argument for why a fusion of the two would enable institutional theory to significantly advance, develops a model of institutionalization as a structuration process, and proposes methodological guidelines for investigating the process empirically.
Recent studies related to global terrorism have suggested the potential of posttraumatic growth (PTG) following experiences of terror exposure. However, investigations of whether psychological distress is reduced or increased by PTG in other trauma contexts have been inconsistent. Results from our studies conducted in New York following the attacks of 11 September 2001 and in Israel during recent tumultuous periods of violence and terrorism, the Al Aqsa Intifada, have found posttraumatic growth to be related to greater psychological distress, more right-wing political attitudes, and support for retaliatory violence. Only when individuals were deeply involved in translating growth cognitions to growth actions in our research on the forced disengagement of settlers from Gaza did we find positive benefit in posttraumatic growth. Findings are considered within the framework of a new formulation of action-focused growth.
A positive psychological theory of growth through adversity is proposed. The organismic valuing theory of growth through adversity posits an intrinsic motivation toward growth, showing how this leads to the states of intrusion and avoidance that are characteristic of cognitive-emotional processing after trauma. The theory posits 3 possible outcomes of this cognitive-emotional processing, namely, assimilation, negative accommodation, and positive accommodation. The theory shows how the organismic valuing process will automatically lead to the actualization of positive changes in psychological well-being, through the positive accommodation of the new trauma-related information, provided that the social environment is able to support this positive accommodation process.
Identity under construction: How individuals come to define themselves in organizations. The Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior
- B E Ashforth
- B S Schinoff
Ashforth, B. E., & Schinoff, B. S. (2016). Identity under construction: How individuals come to define themselves in organizations. The Annual Review of Organizational
Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 111-137.
Women and migration: Incorporating gender into international migration theory
- M Boyd
- E Grieco
Boyd, M., & Grieco, E. (2003). Women and migration: Incorporating gender into international migration theory. Migration Information Source, 1, 1-7.
Growing pains and gains: Framing identity dynamics as opportunities for identity growth
- G E Kreiner
- M Sheep
Kreiner, G. E., & Sheep, M. (2009). Growing pains and gains: Framing identity dynamics as opportunities for identity growth. In L. Morgan Roberts, & J. E. Dutton
(Eds.). Exploring positive identities and organizations: Building a theoretical and research foundation (pp. 23-46). New York: Psychology Press.
Journal of Vocational Behavior xxx (xxxx) xxx-xxx
- K Wehrle
K. Wehrle et al.
Journal of Vocational Behavior xxx (xxxx) xxx-xxx