SIRIUS is issuing a new research report titled “Individual enablers and barriers in labour market integration of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Europe” analysing migrants’ insights into barriers and enablers they experienced when entering our labour markets.
Delving into everyday experiences of a range of migrants, and hearing their own voices we discuss how newcomers exercise agency to seize opportunities offered by their country of settlement and mitigate the effect of the turbulent social, political and economic circumstances they often meet with.
Our micro-level research takes a closer look at the needs of migrants, with a specific focus on what migrants themselves consider to be barriers for and enablers of integration.
To understand migrants’ capabilities and agency, we do not only look at their lives over the last five years but also explore their more distant memories long before their migration. Analysis of their past experiences enables our better understanding of their motivation for emigration, of barriers and opportunities they were facing and of their individual capacity for change and resistance. Looking back into their past also enables us to explore in-depth the reciprocal relationship between their agency and the socio-cultural context.
The analytical accent is specifically placed on the turning points and emerging epiphanies of migrants’ lives. We mostly emphasize the narrative thematic analysis (composite biographies) and its combination with data from other levels of inquiry, or cross-level analysis. At the same time, we also include individual biographies and ethno-dramatic representations (two or three dynamic migrant-tales and a short ethno-theatrical text from national team) as analytical additions to and illuminations of our emerging narrative-biographic themes.