Trust or betrayal: immigrant engineers’ employment-seeking experiences in Canada

Kerekes, Julie; Chow, Joanne; Lemak, Alina; Perhan, Zhanna

doi:10.1007/978-1-137-29556-9_17

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Lack of language skills is considered an obstacle to employment even when a migrant has an academic education (cf. Joyce, 2019;Kerekes et al, 2013), and migrants themselves often describe skills in the language of the new country as a door or a key to society and further studies (Dahlstedt & Fejes, 2021). A similar, instrumental notion of inclusion is demonstrated to be present in a course type targeting migrants in the resident permit application process (known as Swedish From Day 1).…”

Section: Previous Studies Of Language Courses and Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“The Door You Can Walk Through to Society”: Social Inclusion and Belonging in Vocational Programmes for Immigrants

Söderlundh,

Heinonen

2023

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This article presents a qualitative, empirical study of two educational programmes for immigrants that integrate language instruction and vocational training. In the context of migration, social inclusion is often conceptualised as access to social capital. Proficiency in the national language is considered key for employment and fast integration into working life has become a primary goal in Swedish migration policies. This article examines the two programmes from the perspective of inclusion into an (imagined) future professional community of practice (CoP), focusing specifically on the participants’ possibilities to invest in a professional linguistic repertoire. The article is dedicated to empirical analyses and positive factors, recognising the need for research. Data consists of interviews with students and teachers, observations, and video recordings of course activities. Organisational aspects of the courses, such as the teachers’ backgrounds and the courses’ proximity to future CoPs, as well as relational aspects of the learning environments, are considered essential for the participants’ inclusion in a future professional CoP. Analyses of the programmes’ content demonstrate that participants are assumed to lack context‐specific, vocational knowledge, including professionally related vocabulary. The article contributes to knowledge on how inclusion can be managed in practice in educational settings for adult immigrants and promotes an understanding of how vocationally adapted courses can assist immigrants in becoming members of a future professional CoP.

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Section: Previous Studies Of Language Courses and Inclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“The Door You Can Walk Through to Society”: Social Inclusion and Belonging in Vocational Programmes for Immigrants

Söderlundh,

Heinonen

2023

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“…As will be illustrated in this chapter, when their capital is not recognised, they face great challenges, both to their employable identities, and to their ability to access appropriate employment. Additional capital that may permit access to such employment, such as the capital of citizenship as we will see in Omar's case, is sometimes out of reach, or used as a gatekeeping device (Kerekes, 2007;Kerekes et al, 2013).…”

Section: Capital and Employable Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Omar's sense of himself as employable here appears strongly linked to others' recognition of his considerable capital. This can be seen in the way that Omar-as-protagonist implores the recruiter, portrayed here as a gatekeeper to Omar's desired employment (Kerekes, 2007;Kerekes et al, 2013), to allow him the opportunity to prove his worth in an interview (lines 5-6), and implying that he would accept a rejection post-interview if only his capital would be recognised for its value (lines 6 and 8). His ability to interactively negotiate an employable identity appears here to be precluded by a lack of access to the appropriate context (a job interview) in which to attempt to co-construct such an identity.…”

Section: Cultural Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discursive Navigation of Employable Identities in the Narratives of Former Refugees

Greenbank

2020

Studies in Narrative

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In the coming decades, nations worldwide, exacerbated by political and environmental instability, will likely continue to struggle to deal with growing numbers of displaced persons.In this study I take an interactional sociolinguistic approach to exploring a critical area of refugee resettlement; that is, securing stable, desirable employment in host nations.Navigating the labour market in a new context can be a challenge for any migrant, and particularly so for former refugees. Host governments tend to consider accessing stable, long-term employment to be the most important factor for former refugees' social integration. It is also a high priority for former refugees themselves, who are often unable to find employment appropriate for their qualification and experience levels.I approach this issue of employability from the perspective of an employable identity, rooted within a social constructionist view of identity as emergent from and negotiated within discourse. This approach facilitates a view of employability as a discursive and socially situated phenomenon, which is interactionally achieved with employers, interviewers, and colleagues. Specifically, I explore the negotiation of employable identities in narratives, the stories we tell about ourselves through which we make sense of our place in the social world.Narratives are rich sites within which to explore the co-constructed negotiation of identity, through the positioning of self (both as narrator and protagonist) and other (both present interlocutor(s) and other characters within the storyworld).This study comprises two phases. The first involves four highly-educated former refugee participants originating from different Middle Eastern and North and East African countries.

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Language, Professional Expertise and Identity

O'Neill

2020

The Intercultural Professional

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Trust or betrayal: immigrant engineers’ employment-seeking experiences in Canada

Cited by 11 publications

References 20 publications

“The Door You Can Walk Through to Society”: Social Inclusion and Belonging in Vocational Programmes for Immigrants

“The Door You Can Walk Through to Society”: Social Inclusion and Belonging in Vocational Programmes for Immigrants

Discursive Navigation of Employable Identities in the Narratives of Former Refugees

Language, Professional Expertise and Identity

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