‘One improves here every day’: the occupational and learning journeys of ‘lower-skilled’ European migrants in the London region
This paper examines narratives of learning and occupational advancement amongst migrants employed in ‘low-skilled’ jobs, based on in-depth interviews with secondary-educated East and South Europeans living in the London region. Our findings indicate that many achieved varying degrees of professional...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor and Francis
2019
|
| _version_ | 1797101153890074624 |
|---|---|
| author | Moroşanu, L King, R Lulle, A Pratsinakis, M |
| author_facet | Moroşanu, L King, R Lulle, A Pratsinakis, M |
| author_sort | Moroşanu, L |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This paper examines narratives of learning and occupational advancement amongst migrants employed in ‘low-skilled’ jobs, based on in-depth interviews with secondary-educated East and South Europeans living in the London region. Our findings indicate that many achieved varying degrees of professional gratification, progress, and skills development within occupational sectors typically associated with unattractive conditions, limited benefits or opportunities to get ahead. Participants’ narratives of achievement expand the relatively limited literature that challenges common perceptions of occupational mobility and professional development as the terrain of the ‘highly skilled’. Furthermore, we examine how migrants made sense of their career opportunities and success. We discuss two discourses, centred on ‘hard work’ and ‘creativity’ respectively, through which participants challenged and reconfigured traditional ‘high’-‘low-skilled’ divides. Our findings contribute to critiques of traditional understandings of migrant human capital and simplistic ‘high’-‘low-skilled’ distinctions in two ways: by documenting the less visible experiences of learning and career progress amongst secondary-educated European youth who enter ‘low-skilled’ employment abroad, and by calling attention to subjective understandings of occupational mobility and the new ‘symbolic boundaries’ around skills, broadly construed, that migrants redrew in their reflections on career progress. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T05:47:47Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:e7cb0929-a708-475d-9d84-28b4f73d4792 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T05:47:47Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Taylor and Francis |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:e7cb0929-a708-475d-9d84-28b4f73d47922022-03-27T10:41:46Z‘One improves here every day’: the occupational and learning journeys of ‘lower-skilled’ European migrants in the London regionJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:e7cb0929-a708-475d-9d84-28b4f73d4792EnglishSymplectic Elements Taylor and Francis 2019Moroşanu, LKing, RLulle, APratsinakis, MThis paper examines narratives of learning and occupational advancement amongst migrants employed in ‘low-skilled’ jobs, based on in-depth interviews with secondary-educated East and South Europeans living in the London region. Our findings indicate that many achieved varying degrees of professional gratification, progress, and skills development within occupational sectors typically associated with unattractive conditions, limited benefits or opportunities to get ahead. Participants’ narratives of achievement expand the relatively limited literature that challenges common perceptions of occupational mobility and professional development as the terrain of the ‘highly skilled’. Furthermore, we examine how migrants made sense of their career opportunities and success. We discuss two discourses, centred on ‘hard work’ and ‘creativity’ respectively, through which participants challenged and reconfigured traditional ‘high’-‘low-skilled’ divides. Our findings contribute to critiques of traditional understandings of migrant human capital and simplistic ‘high’-‘low-skilled’ distinctions in two ways: by documenting the less visible experiences of learning and career progress amongst secondary-educated European youth who enter ‘low-skilled’ employment abroad, and by calling attention to subjective understandings of occupational mobility and the new ‘symbolic boundaries’ around skills, broadly construed, that migrants redrew in their reflections on career progress. |
| spellingShingle | Moroşanu, L King, R Lulle, A Pratsinakis, M ‘One improves here every day’: the occupational and learning journeys of ‘lower-skilled’ European migrants in the London region |
| title | ‘One improves here every day’: the occupational and learning journeys of ‘lower-skilled’ European migrants in the London region |
| title_full | ‘One improves here every day’: the occupational and learning journeys of ‘lower-skilled’ European migrants in the London region |
| title_fullStr | ‘One improves here every day’: the occupational and learning journeys of ‘lower-skilled’ European migrants in the London region |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘One improves here every day’: the occupational and learning journeys of ‘lower-skilled’ European migrants in the London region |
| title_short | ‘One improves here every day’: the occupational and learning journeys of ‘lower-skilled’ European migrants in the London region |
| title_sort | one improves here every day the occupational and learning journeys of lower skilled european migrants in the london region |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT morosanul oneimproveshereeverydaytheoccupationalandlearningjourneysoflowerskilledeuropeanmigrantsinthelondonregion AT kingr oneimproveshereeverydaytheoccupationalandlearningjourneysoflowerskilledeuropeanmigrantsinthelondonregion AT lullea oneimproveshereeverydaytheoccupationalandlearningjourneysoflowerskilledeuropeanmigrantsinthelondonregion AT pratsinakism oneimproveshereeverydaytheoccupationalandlearningjourneysoflowerskilledeuropeanmigrantsinthelondonregion |