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‘One improves here every day’: the occupational and learning journeys of ‘lower-skilled’ European migrants in the London region
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 19:53 authored by Laura MorosanuLaura Morosanu, Russell King, Aija Lulle, Manolis PratsinakisThis paper examines narratives of learning and occupational advancement amongst migrants employed in ‘low-skilled’ jobs, based on in-depth interviews with secondary-educated East and South Europeans living in the London region. Our findings indicate that many achieved varying degrees of professional gratification, progress, and skills development within occupational sectors typically associated with unattractive conditions, limited benefits or opportunities to get ahead. Participants’ narratives of achievement expand the relatively limited literature that challenges common perceptions of occupational mobility and professional development as the terrain of the ‘highly skilled’. Furthermore, we examine how migrants made sense of their career opportunities and success. We discuss two discourses, centred on ‘hard work’ and ‘creativity’ respectively, through which participants challenged and reconfigured traditional ‘high’-‘low-skilled’ divides. Our findings contribute to critiques of traditional understandings of migrant human capital and simplistic ‘high’-‘low-skilled’ distinctions in two ways: by documenting the less visible experiences of learning and career progress amongst secondary-educated European youth who enter ‘low-skilled’ employment abroad, and by calling attention to subjective understandings of occupational mobility and the new ‘symbolic boundaries’ around skills, broadly construed, that migrants redrew in their reflections on career progress.
Funding
EUMIGRE; EUROPEAN UNION; 658694 - EUMIGRE
Youth Mobility: maximizing opportunities for individuals, labour markets and regions in Europe (YMOBILITY); G1590; EUROPEAN UNION; 649491 - YMOBILITY
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Journal of Ethnic and Migration StudiesISSN
1369-183XPublisher
Taylor & FrancisExternal DOI
Issue
8Volume
47Page range
1775-1792Department affiliated with
- Geography Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Centre for Migration Research Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2019-12-06First Open Access (FOA) Date
2021-05-24First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2019-12-09Usage metrics
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