Reskilled and Integrated, but How? Navigating Trauma and Temporary Hardships

Abstract

Immigrants are often pressed to show how they will contribute to a host country, thus proving through their conditions of entry and human capital whether they will be perceived as an asset or burden, and this is juxtaposed with the host country’s institutions offering an improved quality of life, mainly through employment. Seeking employment is often a key factor to be economically assimilated, and in the case of highly educated Turkish migrants, the opportunity to reclaim their previous professional and quality of life statuses. Based on qualitative research, we have examined the experiences of highly educated Turkish people (n = 42) in the recently forced migrant population. Following events including terrorism and the coup on 15 July 2016, Türkiye experienced the highest forced migration in her history. With exiled Turkish migrants, the forced aspect of their migration prompts them to seek a host country that provides safety, and they are also driven to transfer their educational degrees and professional credentials. However, changing careers to become educated and certified in new fields takes time and resources, contributing to a fluctuating economic status and loss of well-being. Once this is regained, their economic situation is improved, but there is still the lost time from the immigration and transfer period. Thus, the process has positive and negative components, but understanding this nuanced process provides opportunities for policy reform that can shorten the time of re-education, increase employability, and support well-being.

Refugees and asylum seekers in informal and precarious jobs: early labour market insertion from the perspectives of professionals and volunteers

“…In addition, informal work can be the result of people's inability to meet formal work criteria (e.g. language skills, qualifications), their lack of citizenship rights (either the impossibility of renewing one's stay permit or refusal of an asylum request) (May, 2020), work experience in the receiving society, and direct professional and social networks with native workers (Aydiner and Rider, 2022). It can also be linked to the desire to escape feelings of being exploited (in the case of independent workers), trauma linked to enforced migration, or to meet gender conventions and expectations (e.g.…”

Poverty Alleviation Relocation, Fuelwood Consumption and Gender Differences in Human Capital Improvement

“…On one hand, the human capital of peasants such as experience and technology accumulated before relocation is mainly focusing on agricultural and animal husbandry production, which is difficult to meet the requirements of non-agricultural employment after relocation. As a result, participation in relocation brings about a loss of skills transfer and increases the risk of unemployment [ 17 , 18 , 19 ]. On the other hand, the proportion of poverty of relocated peasants caused by diseases is relatively high.…”