Abstract
AbstractThis article explores how highly skilled migrants make sense of and subjectively validate their skills when in search of employment in a new country. With the use of a transnational perspective, we suggest that in the context of migration, skills can only be properly understood if we consider the multiple locations and events in people's life trajectories. In addition to foregrounding the spatial context, we also explore skills through a temporal perspective. The country of origin, previous countries of migration, receiving context and future destinations, and past experiences and future plans can all play a role in the way individuals make sense of and subjectively validate what migrants themselves consider to be their skills. Drawing upon qualitative research among highly skilled migrants in Switzerland, we examine how personal and professional skills intertwine with each other when people engage with a given yet evolving socio‐economic environment.
Highlights
Skills and Migration ‘Skill’ is a complex construct, influenced by power relations and social structures (Rigby & Sanchis, 2006)
Following the transnational and mobility turn in migration studies, we suggest that skills in the context of migration can only be properly understood when we consider the relevance of multiple locations and moments in people’s mobile trajectories
The results discussed in this article are drawn from data collected from 2015 to 2018 in the context of two research projects on “highly skilled migrants”, mobile professional workers and their families living in Switzerland4
Summary
Skills and Migration ‘Skill’ is a complex construct, influenced by power relations and social structures (Rigby & Sanchis, 2006). Some studies have started to observe everyday place-making practices of skilled migrants, and focus on the importance of place and belonging in the international validation and transfer of skills (Cederberg, 2017; Conradson & Latham, 2005; Föbker et al, 2016; Nowicka, 2014; Plöger & Becker, 2015; Shinozaki, 2014; van Riemsdijk, 2014). Our findings show that these people create a transnational skill set with a particular quality of “throwntogetherness” (Massey, 2005), through which various trajectories and experiences distinct at the spatial and temporal level get ‘thrown together’ and interact: countries of origin, previous countries of migration, present receiving contexts and imagined future destinations, as well as past experiences and future plans all play a role in the way these people make sense of their life and work trajectories, and validate their skills into a new skill set. We conclude by exploring the implications of this study and future avenues of research on skills in migration
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