Former Soviet Bloc Citizens' Career Prospects, Progression and Employment in England and Finland

Author(s):

Johanna Lahja Lasonen(presenting / submitting)Andrea Laczik(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 06 B, Learning in the Workplace: Language and Skills Transfer

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-09

15:30-17:00

Room:

324. [Main]

Chair:

Magdolna Benke

Contribution

Background, Context and Theory

One of the newest immigration countries in the EU is Finland whereas Hungary is still an emigration country. In other words, Finland gains more people than loses annually, whereas Hungary loses more its citizens than gains through immigration. In 2004 the UK with Ireland and Sweden granted all A8[1] countries free access to its labour market, whereas Finland has been a new country for Russians to migrate. As a result, the increasing flow of people has created new challenges for governments and national economies. Employers look for specific skills and competencies, while migrants arrive with qualifications that are not described in terms that are used, recognized, and understood in the receiving country (Lasonen, 2010; Laczik & Lasonen, 2010). Therefore, in comparison to the dominant population, immigrants are disadvantaged in education and in the labor market. Research on immigrants’ job placement, long-term employment, career prospects, salaries, recruitment processes and successes/failures is still relatively scarce. The purpose of this paper is to investigate Hungarian and Russian migrants’ access to the English and Finnish labor markets respectively. We address the following questions:

(1) What are migrants’ career prospects and progression?

(2) What are their perceptions of employability in England and Finland?

Employment is a way of self-fulfillment, and it is decisive not only concerning individual prosperity and economic growth but also when finding a way into society. This is especially true for migrants who decide to make a living in a country other than where they were born, educated, and where they were an integral part of society. Brown (2009) claims that language proficiency, or initial language knowledge, is a precondition of long-term structural and social integration, and is also part of the formal entry requirement. Spencer, Ruth, Andreson & Rogaly (2007) point to the relationship between language knowledge and satisfaction with the information migrants received when entering a new country. Sumption & Somerville (2010) also warn that language barriers are greater for recent UK migrants than for earlier migrant groups, and that this reduces their opportunities for integration in the labor market. They often have precarious employment and housing arrangements and they are more vulnerable to exploitation. However, they are often favored by employers for their flexibility, work ethic, reliability and positive attitudes towards work (Office for National Statistics, 2011; Stenning & Dawley, 2009; Ruhs, 2006).

Refused recognition hurts people ”not simply because it harms subjects or restricts their freedom to act … because it injures them with regard to the positive understanding of themselves that they have acquired intersubjectively” (Honneth, 1995, p. 131). Recognition is not only a matter of abstract justice and equity but also of self-realization. Individuals belonging to marginalized or underprivileged groups may suffer from a lack of credibility when they deserve to be counted as credible professionals. Fraser (1997) represents politics of recognition emphasizing a basic discord between a theory of cultural justice that enhances the recognition of difference and a theory of distributive justice that advocates the just distribution of resources. Taylor (1994) connected the concept of recognition to multiculturalism on the grounds that it is in the human nature to be recognised as unique, especially for cultural characteristics. Hence, recognition is related to both, cultural difference, and to values and equality. In this paper, we focus on the multicultural migrants’ self-assessment how they have experienced the recognition of their competence for employment in England and Finland.

[1] The East European countries that joined the European Union in 2004 (A8) are: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Each of these countries was a part of the Soviet bloc before 1989.

Method

Methodology The primary data for this mixed methods research was collected in England and Finland among first generation immigrants. through face-to-face interviews and questionnaires. The interviewees participated on a voluntary bases; thus we used a purposeful sampling method. The interviewees in the two countries were matched for similar backgrounds. The features of the sample are as follows: • having at least an ISCED 3 qualification when entering the country, • including males and females, • living in more populated areas (Southern part of Finland and South-East of England), • working mainly in blue-collar jobs in the host countries, • representing the age groups of 25 to 45 years old, and • having been lived in England and Finland at least three years. First, some 56 Russian immigrants were interviewed face-to-face, and six months later, in 2010-2011, they completed a comprehensive questionnaire . In England, the Hungarian migrants were interviewed in two phases, first during 2011 then in December 2013. In total 66 persons were interviewed. All interviews focused on migrants' education and employment history in their home countries and in their countries of residence, professional development and financial situation. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the interview data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Data corpus consisted of about 850 pages of the transcribed text. Interviewees’ conceptions of their career prospects, progression and employability was selected from the data corpus. The material was analysed in three phases. First, we read all transcriptions to get an overview of interviewees’ conceptions and ideas, and focused on text relevant to our research questions. Second, the interviews were read again to eliminate those sections which were irrelevant to the research. Only the relevant interview data was coded and analysed. Finally, the Finnish questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics to add details of the qualitative analyses.

Expected Outcomes

Results Evidence suggest, that most migrants in England and Finland struggle to find employment at a level that would correspond to the qualifications from their country of origin. The lack of local language skills, lack of local networks and lack of valid references from the country of residence reduces their chances to secure meaningful employment. Most migrants are self-reliant, therefore they do not have a choice but accept low-skilled and low-paid jobs in order to make a living. In most cases there seems to be a lack of understanding of the qualifications and work experiences migrants have gained in their home country, and the skills and knowledge they bring to their jobs. Their former, often high level, qualification serves most as signaling intellectual capacity rather than supporting applications for higher level jobs. Professional advancement is very slow and interviewees need to show determination and perseverance. However, this is often not enough. Unless employers recognize well-educated migrants’ potential, give them opportunities to excel, and actively support their career progress through professional development and increased responsibilities, many well-educated East European migrants will continue working in low-skilled and low-paid jobs. The study shows that over time it is increasingly difficult for a migrant to move away from the sector and level of work they started. Nevertheless, the interviewed migrants appreciated the possibility to work and live in England and Finland where they could create new opportunities and wealth for their families. The research results also revealed that only very few Hungarian and Russian immigrants can fully fulfill their capacity and career aspirations.

References

References Braun, M. (2009). Foreign Language Proficiency of Intra-European Migrants: A Multilevel Analysis. European Sociological Review, 26 (5), 603-617. doi:10.1093/esr/jcp052. Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology,3, 77-101. Fraser, N. (1997). Justice interrupts. Critical reflections on the 2postsocialist” conditions. New York and London: Routledge. Honneth, A. (1995). Honneth, A. (1995). The struggle for recognition: The moral grammar of social conflicts. Combridge, MA: Polity Press. Laczik, A. & Lasonen, J.(2010). Analysis of How the Skills and Competencies of Economic Migrants Match the Requirements of Local Labour Markets. Symposium Presentation in the session ‘Opening Up Pathways to Competence and Employment for Immigrants (OPCE)’. ECER (European Conference on Education Research). August 25-27, 2010, Helsinki, Finland. Lasonen, J. (2010). Multiculturalism in the Nordic countries. In C. Grand and A. Portera, Intercultural and multicultural education: Enhancing global interconnectedness (pp. 261-278). New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis. Office of National Statistics. November 2013. Migration Statistics Quarterly Report. November 2013. Statistical Bulletin. Newport: Office of National Statistics. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/mig0510.pdf. Office of National Statistics. November 2013. Migration Statistics Quarterly Report. November 2013. Statistical Bulletin. Newport: Office of National Statistics. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/mig0510.pdf. Ruhs, M. (2006). Greasing the Wheels of the Flexible Labour Market: East European Labour Immigration in the UK. Working paper no. 38. Oxford: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford. Spencer, S., Ruth, M., Andreson, B.,& Rogaly, B. (2007). Migrants’ Lives Beyond the Workplace. The Experiences of Central and East Europeans in the UK. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Stenning, A. & Dawley, S. (2009). Poles To Newcastle: Grounding New Migrant Flows in Peripheral Regions. European Urban and Regional Studies, 16 (3), 273–294. doi: 10.1177/0969776409104693fs Sumption, M. & Somerville, W. (2010). The UK’s New Europeans. Progress and Challenges Five Years After Accession. Manchester: Equality and Human Rights Commission. Taylor, C. (1994). The politics of recognition. In A. Gutmann (ed.), Multiculturalism and the politics of recognition (pp. 25-73). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Author Information

Johanna Lahja Lasonen (presenting / submitting)

University of Jyväskylä

Finnish Institute for Educational Research

Jyvaskyla

Andrea Laczik (presenting)

University of Oxford, United Kingdom

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