Difference and Distinction?

Abstract

In recent years the role of social networks and of social capital in shaping migrants’ lived experiences and, particularly, their employment opportunity has increasingly come to be recognized. However, very little of this research has adopted a relational understanding of the migrant experience, taking the influence of nonmigrants’ own networks on migrants as an important factor in influencing their labour market outcomes. This article critiques the alterity and marginality automatically ascribed to migrants that is implicit in existing ways of thinking about migrant networks. The article draws on oral history interviews with geriatricians who played an important role in the establishment of the discipline during the second half of the 20th century to explore the importance and power of non-migrant networks in influencing migrant labour market opportunities in the UK medical labour market.

8. “Without racism there would be no geriatrics”: South Asian Overseas-Trained Doctors and the Development of Geriatric Medicine in the United Kingdom, 1950–2000

“…Limited access to the social networks of non-migrants meant that those networks often worked against migrants. 49 In order to be successful, migrant doctors had to learn to utilize and benefit from selective incorporation into these non-migrant networks. Forms of patronage selectively opened up job opportunities for migrant doctors' entry into paths offering career progression.…”

Exploring career advantages of highly skilled migrants: a study of Indian academics in the UK

“…Published material in other outlets likewise highlights how highly skilled migrants are severely disadvantaged in career mobility. For example scholars suggest that, when they first started arriving in the UK, South Asian doctors were severely disadvantaged in their access to jobs, career mobility and high status specialties (Kyriakides & Virdee, 2003;Raghuram et al, 2010). Years later, RamboarisonLalao, Al-Ariss, and Barth (2011) found that Malagasy doctors in France are still offered jobs that are incommensurable with their qualifications.…”

“…For example, Raghuram et al (2010) shows how, because they were unable to progress in high status specialities (see also Goldacre, Davidson, & Lambert, 2004), South Asian doctors sought refuge in the less popular speciality of geriatric medicine, becoming influential figures in this fledging field. Other research highlight how highly skilled South Asian migrants draw on the transnational social capital of family members and their ethnic communities (Harvey, 2008;Smith & Nicolson, 2007) to secure short-term jobs.…”

“…In their investigation of Lebanese migrants noted above, Al Ariss and Syed (2011) draw attention to how wellestablished, extended family members and community referrals offer material and moral support to compatriots. Notably, individuals are often unable to access permanent posts or high status specialties through their ethnic communities because the most desirable fields are dominated by patronage networks which operate in favour of non-migrants (see Raghuram et al, 2010). A third perspective provides insights into the character strengths of highly skilled migrants highlighting in particular high motivation (Frieze, Hansen, & Boneva, 2006), willingness to work extra hard (Ravitch, 2002) and adaptability (Zikic et al, 2010).…”

“…The dominant consensus in the literature is that migrants are disadvantaged in their careers (Almeida, Fernando, & Sheridan, 2012;Salaff, Greve, & Ping, 2002;Turchick hakak & Al Ariss, 2013). While a few notable studies highlight the career benefits migrants enjoy due to factors such as continuing links to their countries of origin (Sang, Al-Dajani, & Ö zbilgin, 2013), sponsorship from their ethnic communities in the West (Al Ariss & Syed, 2011;Raghuram, Henry, & Bornat, 2010) and strong motivation to achieve (Zhou, Jindal-Snape, Topping, & Todman, 2008), there does not seem to be enough evidence to challenge the overriding discourse of disadvantage. In this article, we examine this debate through a study of Indian academics' careers in a research-intensive university in the UK.…”