Job hopping &amp; hunkering down: how H-1B migrant workers survive the U.S. labour market

Savinar, Robin

doi:10.1080/1369183x.2019.1610366

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In labour analysis, the study of Asian immigrants’ experience in tech work can be roughly divided into two approaches. The first perceives labour relations from inter-organisational perspectives and focuses on Asian immigrant engineers’ navigation of the labour market (Tang, 1993; Saxenian, 2000; Savinar, 2019). The second focuses on how intra-organisational processes shape labour practice, and investigates Asian immigrant engineers’ work experience within specific technology firms (Ontiveros, 2017; Scott et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 To illustrate this problem, quantitative scholars show that Asian workers are severely underrepresented in managerial positions and have lower ratings in promotability at tech, despite their overrepresentation in the tech labour force and high ratings for technical skills (Kim et al, 2020; Peck and Wong, 2015; Tang, 1993). Qualitative investigations, conversely, follow the classic approach of organisational analysis and examine the mechanisms that channel Asian engineers into lower rungs of tech firms (Alarcon, 1999; Savinar, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Constantly on the move Chinese engineers’ job-hopping strategies in information technology work

2021

Econ. labour relat. rev.

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This article examines Chinese immigrant engineers’ navigation in the highly flexible information technology (IT) industry in the United States and their strategies of utilizing the high-velocity labour market to their advantage. Flexible employment has grown both in prevalence and prominence in the study of the American IT industry. What flexibility theorists fail to attend to, however, is the ethnicised demission of the high-velocity labour market in the IT sector. To address this vacancy, the researcher conducted a 13-month ethnography at a leading internet-services firm in the United States and 66 additional interviews with engineers from eight leading tech companies. The ethnographic work showed that inequality that emerged within the tech firms (e.g. ‘bamboo ceilings’) disadvantaged Chinese engineers’ career development. The ‘bamboo ceiling’ stimulated Chinese immigrants to use the high-velocity labour market to normalize their job-hopping practices, in order to circumvent their career disadvantage. To facilitate their job-hopping, Chinese engineers developed university-based networks. This study concludes that, with help of their university network, Chinese immigrants became the most mobile group in the US tech industry, which further preserved the industry’s flexibility. JELcodes D23, L16

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constantly on the move Chinese engineers’ job-hopping strategies in information technology work

2021

Econ. labour relat. rev.

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Immigration regulations as frame of reference: trade-off between precarious employment and precarious legal status among US student-migrant-workers

Liang

2024

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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Job hopping & hunkering down: how H-1B migrant workers survive the U.S. labour market

Cited by 2 publications

References 29 publications

Constantly on the move Chinese engineers’ job-hopping strategies in information technology work

Constantly on the move Chinese engineers’ job-hopping strategies in information technology work

Immigration regulations as frame of reference: trade-off between precarious employment and precarious legal status among US student-migrant-workers

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