According to several studies immigrants today in general face more difficulties to enter the labor market than before. This also applies to educated immigrants who are the main focus of this thesis. Studies have shown that educated migrants have more difficulties of obtaining an adequate job than ethnic Swedes. Thousands of educated immigrants are forced to work in low skilled occupations to cope with their everyday lives. The reasons behind their lack of success on the Swedish labor market have been blamed on different kinds of obstacles.     This study wants to examine at least some of the obstacles that educated immigrants face on the labor market through some informants own personal reflections and experiences. The study is based on an inside perspective in which the different personal experiences and reflections of the various informants is of great importance.  The study is focused on how five educated immigrants describe their situation on the Swedish labor market. The aim is to investigate the informants 'understanding of the difficulties they have to get a job that matches their skills. It also aims to discuss the structural barriers that respondents relate to when they describe their situation.    The results of the interviews with the informants have been analyzed with the help of central concepts gained from the two sociologists, Erving Goffman and Pierre Bourdieu.    The results of my study have shown through the personal experiences of the informants that the difficulties they face on the labor market can be attributed to their lack of access to valuable social networks and to the various requirement profiles that exist from employers, often with a strong focus on a developed knowledge of the Swedish language. These two obstacles results in that the skilled migrants on the labor market have a relative disadvantage in comparison with ethnic Swedes in the search for the attractive jobs.

This thesis is an exploratory work into the migration and settlement experiences of highly skilled Turkish migrants who have settled in Canada. It is a qualitative study conducted with sixteen immigrant respondents living in Halifax and Toronto. The focus of this work is on the role of networks, specifically in shaping these migrants’ migration routes, developing belongings and reworking identities. While it is the feminist theory that informs this study, I use the intersectional theory as the theoretical framework. It has been found that the social class not only arose as a central factor that influenced these migrants’ experiences but it also affected the interplay between ethnicity and gender. The findings are analyzed with the help of current literature on globalization and international migration theories. The similarities and differences between the Halifax and Toronto respondents are also highlighted in order to inform provincial and national policies.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between remittance flows and the gender and skill characteristics of the migrants. By using annual data on bilateral migration and bilateral remittances between 20 OECD sending countries and 22 receiving countries from Europe and Central Asia over the period 2010-2012, a gravity model, incorporating the share of female- and the share of skilled migrants, is estimated. The model is extended by including a number of macroeconomic determinants of remittances. The main results show that remittances per capita decline with both share of female migrants and the share of the skilled migrants, and this relationship is more evident for receiving countries with relatively higher income levels. Skilled women are also found to remit smaller amounts of money relative to the unskilled ones. Thus, the study contradicts the widespread claim that females are more reliable remitters and that the negative effect of brain drain from developing countries could be mitigated by larger volumes of remittances sent by skilled migrants relative to unskilled ones. Furthermore, most of the macro variables are found to be significant and remittances show to be more responsive to the economic conditions in the source rather than in the recipient countries. The evidence on the motives to remit is rather mixed.

Yes / This study explores the impact of city-specific factors on skilled migrants’ career capital within the intelligent career framework. It compares global and secondary cities as distinct career landscapes and examines how differently they shape development and utilisation of three ways of knowing (knowing-how, knowing-whom and knowingwhy). Findings from 82 qualitative interviews with skilled migrants in global (London) and secondary (Newcastle) UK cities explain the importance of cities at an analytical level, as skilled migrants’ careers were differently constrained and enabled by three groups of city-specific factors: labour market, community and lifestyle. By exploring the two types of cities in career context, this article contributes to developing an interdisciplinary dialogue and problematises careers as a relational and contextually embedded phenomenon. Limitations and recommendations are discussed.

This thesis describes the current situation on the Swedish labour market as many skilledmigrants have problems to find a relevant job. It explains the barriers for employment, aswell as the support mechanisms used to help the integration on the labour market. Particularfocus lies on the job search motivation, and how do the difficulties to find a job in arelevant professional field affect the job search motivation, and what are the reasons forthese effects. Thematic analysis is used to find recurring themes in the data collected from 5 semistructured interviews, 2 questionnaires and 1 additional interview from an employeeworking with the skilled migrants. Empirical findings show, that the respondents feel that local companies prefer localemployees, and that the migrants ascribe their difficulties to find a relevant job position todiscrimination, as it is common that they get rejected without being able to meet thecompany’s representatives in person. Countless rejected applications are causing feelings offrustration, hopelessness and the migrants’ doubt their ability to find a relevant job, whichleads to decreased job search motivation and underemployment. Furthermore, therespondents are rather motivated by extrinsic motivational factors than intrinsic motivators.However, the findings show that they believe that the job search becomes easier withaccumulated experience and that the difficulties with finding the right job makes therespondents more committed to the attained job. Finally, the authors formulate suggestionsfor further research. KEYWORDS: labour market integration, skilled migrants, job search motivation

In this article, we review the limited but growing body of research on international skilled migrants and examine to what extent knowledge generated in adjacent research streams-specifically, work on assigned and self-initiated expatriates-can be meaningfully applied to aid our under- standing of the challenges, coping strategies, and acculturation dynamics of skilled migrants. We develop a framework that explains how variables and processes at multiple levels (individual, organisational, and societal) influence migrant acculturation and coping and result in integration-related outcomes in the domains of personal/family life and workplace/career. We discuss directions for future research and implications for practice.

abstract: Since the 1990s, the United States has been increasingly hosting large numbers of foreign students in its higher education sector and continues to accommodate these skilled college graduates in its job market. When international students graduate, they can transition from an international student to a skilled migrant. Yet their decision-making process to stay in the receiving country (the United States), to return to sending countries, or to move on to another country, at different stages of such transition period, is not presently understood. This dissertation examines the experiences of these “migrants in transition period” when they face the “to return or to stay” choices under structural and institutional forces from the sending and receiving countries. This research adopts the conceptual framework of human capital, social capital, and cultural capital, to investigate how social capital and cultural capital impact the economic outcomes of migrants’ human capital under different societal contexts, and how migrants in the transition period cope with such situations and develop their stay or return plans accordingly. It further analyzes their decision-making process for return during this transition period. The empirical study of this dissertation investigates contemporary Chinese student migrants and skilled migrants from People’s Republic of China to the United States, as well as Chinese returnees who returned to China after graduation with a US educational degree. Findings reveal the impact of social and cultural capitals in shaping career experiences of skilled Chinese migrants, and also explore their mobility and the decision-makings of such movement of talent. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2016

Mobility and patterns of mobility were discussed by many scholars. Previous studies reveal that mobility helps in changing human social identities. This paper aims to understand high-skilled migrants' mobility and the activities that form their identities. These activities are self-interested to learn and gain knowledge for self-development. The focus of the study is the identity formation and modification of migrated medical doctors in the Emirates of Dubai.  Identities- self (internal) and public (external) are powerful factors potentially shaping human activities. Building on a framework of identifying schools of thought in the social sciences, the paper will initially analyze the nature of social identity through interviews. Subsequently, research attention will shift from analyzing identity per se to the identity work process through which migrant doctors’ identity is shaped and developed for identification. The identity work process will be analyzed empirically based on actors’ self-experiences in their daily routines.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Migration is an important topic, not only for researchers in South Africa, but also for policymakers and the media. It is an issue at the top of the national and international agenda. In the debate on migration and the literature, voices of migrants themselves remain mostly unheard. The public perceptions and policy-making are often based on fear, stereotypes and common myths rather than reality. In this study, the researcher aimed to examine the socio-economic integration challenges of highly-skilled Nigerian migrants and how they may help contribute their skills towards the socioeconomic development of South Africa to potentially inform the national migration policy, as well as future research. Methodologically, the researcher conducted a mixed-method study using an interpretive paradigm. Data were derived from 22 semi-structured interviews and six in-depth interviews. The study used a combination of purposive and snowballing sampling techniques, where semi-structured and in-depth interviews, as well as observations, were also carried out. Data gathered were analysed using thematic analysis.

Différentes réalités et contextes actuels mondiaux font en sorte que de plus en plus de gens envisagent la migration comme projet de vie. La présente recherche s’intéresse à l’imaginaire migratoire comme facteur de mobilité, mais également comme facteur de modulation des réactions et du regard qu’entretiendra le migrant en rapport avec son vécu migratoire. Ainsi, la réflexion s’amorce en Afrique de l’Ouest, tandis que de jeunes Africains instruits et qualifiés élaborent un projet de migration volontaire vers le Canada, plus précisément dans la région du Québec. C’est investi de leur désir de l’Ailleurs, des représentations de l’Occident, de leur besoin de se réaliser et de l’impossibilité qu’ils rencontrent à accéder à la vie professionnelle souhaitée en Afrique qu’ils migrent vers le Canada. Quoiqu’ils soient dotés d’une détermination et d’un optimisme considérable, la rencontre entre l’imaginé et le quotidien de la vie au Québec comme immigrant et comme émigrant n’est pas toujours facile. Elle viendra révéler la profondeur du rêve, des mythes et des ambitions; les failles intérieures individuelles, les valeurs et les ambivalences de chacun, mais surtout la capacité qu’aura l’individu à revoir son imaginaire, à effectuer la réappropriation de son expérience migratoire et à élaborer de nouveaux projets. L’écart vécu par le sujet entre l’imaginé et le rencontré nous questionnera sur ce que véhiculent les messages et les images en circulation sur le Canada et l’Occident. Aussi, il témoignera de la prédominance de la préparation factuelle et psychologique de l’individu pour anticiper et mieux accueillir les réalités du parcours migratoire. / Different realities and contexts in today’s world are causing more and more people to consider migration as a life plan. This study is interested in their imagined migration as a mobility factor, but also as a modulation factor in the reactions and views of migrants in relation to their migration experience. Thus, this study begins in West Africa, where young educated and qualified Africans eagerly plan their migration to Canada, and Quebec in particular. Their migration to Canada is fuelled by a longing to go abroad, representations of the West, their quest for self-fulfillment and the impossibility of achieving their desired career plans in Africa. Although they are filled with a great deal of determination and optimism, the clash between what they imagined and the reality of daily life in Quebec as immigrants and emigrants is not always easy. This study will not only reveal the depth of their dreams, myths and ambitions, but their individual flaws, values and uncertainties, and above all, their ability to re-examine their imagined migration, reclaim the migration experience and make new plans. The difference between the imagined experience and the actual experience will lead us to question what conveys the messages and images that circulate about Canada and the West. Moreover, it will demonstrate the predominance of the factual and psychological preparation undertaken by individuals to anticipate and more readily accept the realities of the migration experience.