Turning Points of Labour Market Integration

Turning Points in Labour Market Integration

Chapter 7 "The ‘back-stepper’ and the ‘career diplomat’: turning points of labour market integration" from the latest Open Access SIRIUS publication presents the topic of turning points in the migrants' careers. 

Information about the authors: 

  • Irina Isaakyan is Senior Research Associate at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada. Irina’s publications and research interests focus on high skills and elite migrants, gender and identity and diaspora.

  • Simone Baglioni is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Parma, Italy. Simone’s publications and research interests focus on employability, migration and social innovation.

  • Anna Triandafyllidou holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair on Migration and Integration at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada. Anna’s publications and research interests focus on migration, cultural diversity, policy and identity issues.

Abstract: 

‘Delving into everyday experiences of a range of migrants and hearing their own voices, this chapter discusses 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.

To understand migrants’ capabilities and agency, we 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 sociocultural context.

The analytical accent is specifically placed on the turning points and emerging epiphanies of migrants’ lives as well as on issues of intersectionality which heavily determine migration outcomes. We mostly emphasise the narrative thematic analysis (composite biographies) and its combination with data from other levels of inquiry, or cross-level analysis.

Please find this chapter and the rest of the Open Access SIRIUS publication at this link: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/display/book/9781447364535/ch…