cross cultural poster

Underemployment of Highly Skilled Migrants

Cross cultural management

2022/11/01

Underemployment of Highly Skilled Migrants

Migrants Employability Studies

Societal, organizational, and personal lenses are used to study employability. Societal viewpoint researchers care about full employment and examine migrants' labor market participation in light of existing structures and regulations (Risberg & Romani, 2022). Migrants' inclusion in organizations is a primary focus of studies conducted from an organizational perspective, which focuses on efficient human resource management. Current works on employability largely focus on the individual (Absuelo & Hancock, 2018). Over the past few decades, a new line of thought has emerged in both popular culture and academic institutions: the employability discourse. In the end, a person's employability is judged in connection to a company willing to hire and advance them.

Organization's Roles in Developing Migrant Employability

Organizations play two main functions in establishing migrant workers' marketability. They help immigrants improve their employability and evaluate and legislate against pertinent criteria for employment (Risberg & Romani, 2022). Migrants can receive assistance in presenting their skills and qualifications to potential employers by reaching out to civil society groups or local labor agencies. Organizations have an impact on whether or not migrant workers are employable by evaluating and validating the factors deemed important by employers. Regarding hiring, promotion, and salary, migrants are often judged differently than native-born workers (Chwialkowska, 2020). The degree to which a migrant deviates from the norm appears to be a major factor in how employable they are seen to be.

Organizational Factors on Perceived Migrants' Employability

The recruiter's personality, the company's culture and size, and global outlook all influence how prospective employers see migrant workers. Migrant recruiting shows employers prefer hiring those with similar backgrounds and values (Risberg & Romani, 2022). More inclined to hire migrants than their less-globally-minded counterparts, recruiters with expertise in international commerce and cultures are open to hiring migrants. Therefore, the perception of migrants' employability is affected because they differ from the qualities that employers are accustomed to encountering. The employer's scale and global focus are other factors in determining whether or not a migrant can find work (Farashah et al., 2022). Companies with more capabilities for candidate assessment also appear less bothered about migrants matching the preexisting workforce pool or how well they will match the customer's expectations.

Perceptions of Hiring Highly Skilled Migrants in Organizations

There are two major concerns with bringing in migrants: their presence may impair productivity, and they may disrupt the organization's usual operations. Employers illustrate their companies' challenges when trying to gauge an immigrant's potential contribution to the bottom line without first hiring them (Risberg & Romani, 2022). Some recruiters say that a candidate's lack of language skills is also a drawback. The ability to communicate in the workplace is seen as being hampered by language barriers. Employees and managers may worry that productivity may suffer if a new hire cannot communicate effectively in the company's preferred language. It is thought to be wasteful to take the time to explain and clarify things. Perceived barriers to migrant employment are reinforced by the belief that there is an inherent danger in employing persons who do not conform to established organizational standards, group culture, beliefs, and general business practices.

Conditional Hiring

Many immigrants who finally find work corresponding with their abilities first completed an internship or traineeship program or worked in a lesser, less specialized role before moving to a full-time post. Migrants with advanced degrees may not immediately gain access to the same opportunities for advancement or the same level of responsibility they held at their previous institution (Lane & Lee, 2018). Clearly, in the minds of employers, hiring migrants is connected with possible danger to organizational effectiveness and interruption of organizational normalcy. There is a correlation between this and restricted access to the labor market.

Adopting Local Job-seeking and Workplace Behavior

Employers assumed that highly trained migrants would need to retrain to find work in their new country. Networking, the hiring process, and creating a resume that meets national standards were covered in depth during the program (Risberg & Romani, 2022). Migrants knew that learning the language was essential to fit in with local norms in the workplace. Many people made concerted efforts to improve their language skills, enrolling in various language classes at different levels (Otundo & Opiri, 2022). That is helpful for migrants because it allows them to challenge the implicit norm and systemic prejudice created by an emphasis on traditional operational normalcy and its anticipated fit.

References

Absuelo, R., & Hancock, P. (2018). The Inefficacy of Strong Ties Networks in Migration Employment Outcomes: Underemployment of Philippine Graduates in the United States.  Asian Journal of Social Science,  46(3), 235-259. https://brill.com/view/journals/ajss/46/3/article-p235_2.xml

Chwialkowska, A. (2020). Underemployment of skilled self-initiated expatriates–a skill mismatch or categorisation?.  Journal of Education and Work,  33(5-6), 375-391. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13639080.2020.1820963

Farashah, A., Blomquist, T., Al Ariss, A., & Guo, G. C. (2022). Perceived employability of skilled migrants: a systematic review and future research agenda.  The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 1-39. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585192.2022.2099226

Lane, A., & Lee, D. L. (2018). Career transitions of highly skilled immigrants: Two case studies.  The Career Development Quarterly,  66(4), 315-328. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cdq.12153

Otundo, J. O., & Opiri, J. A. (2022). Foreign Education, Underemployment, and Wellness: Lived Experiences of African Immigrants in the USA. In  Research Anthology on Changing Dynamics of Diversity and Safety in the Workforce (pp. 1222-1236). IGI Global. https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/foreign-education-underemployment-and-wellness/287984

Risberg, A., & Romani, L. (2022). Underemploying highly skilled migrants: An organizational logic protecting corporate 'normality.'  human relations,  75(4), 655-680. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726721992854