Professional Identities in Transit

Factors Shaping Immigrant Labour Market Success

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9953336
AutoresL Remennick (0000-0003-1405-0909, Bar-Ilan University, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume51
Fascículo1
Páginas152-168
Data de publicação2012-02-17
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Migration (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0020-7985 • E-ISSN: 1468-2435
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-2435.2011.00733.x
OpenAlexW2119455097
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas39
Referências citadas31

Immigrant professionals comprise a growing segment within current migration waves, but the determinants of successful transnational skill transfer are poorly understood. In this paper, I offer a framework for the evaluation of these determinants, drawing upon three empirical studies among immigrant professionals from the former Soviet Union in Israel. I start by describing the social context of immigrant integration, including policies aimed at assisting skilled immigrants to get a fresh start on the local labour market. Next, I reflect on the nature of various professions in terms of their cultural and linguistic dependency, with the ensuing adaptive potential upon migration. I also tap into the main macro‐economic and institutional characteristics of the host society that may facilitate or hinder the initial entry and subsequent mobility of immigrant professionals within local organizations. I apply this analytical frame to the discussion of Israeli studies among immigrant professionals who represent three different points on the scale of cultural dependency: engineers (technical occupation), physicians (combining standard medical training with cultural skills) and schoolteachers (most dependent on language and local cultural codes). In every case, the resulting success or failure of occupational continuity reflects a complex interplay of context‐bound and individual factors, aggravated by the small size and rapid saturation of the local labour market

Context (archaeology · Demographic economics · Dependency (UML · Economics · Geography · Immigration · Language barrier · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Global Health Workforce Issues · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy