Across Europe, vocational education and training (VET) systems have become essential tools for managing migration and integrating labor markets—especially in response to skills shortages and labor market segmentation. These systems are deeply rooted in specific national cultures, labor market structures, and welfare regimes, leading to varied training pathways for migrant workers. These pathways are influenced by distinct institutional logics that create unequal access to skills development, recognition of prior learning, and opportunities for occupational mobility (Busemeyer & Trampusch, 2012; Cedefop, 2025). While comparative research has thoroughly examined VET systems and governance at policy and institutional levels, less focus has been placed on how migrant workers personally experience and navigate these pathways in different countries.

Existing studies indicate that migrants' engagement with VET is significantly affected by their legal status, migration history, biographical resources, and daily life constraints. This often results in deskilling, market segmentation, and differential inclusion (Kogan, 2011; Bauder, 2006; SKILLS4JUSTICE, 2025). Recent research calls for perspectives that go beyond policy-focused and functionalist views of integration, emphasizing migrants' lived experiences, agency, and interpretation of training and work-related institutions (Anthias, 2012; Schinkel, 2018). These perspectives highlight how migrants actively utilize their prior knowledge, reinterpret training opportunities, and develop strategies to navigate uncertainty and institutional barriers. They also reveal the limitations of skills-based inclusion policies, particularly for individuals with precarious legal statuses in hierarchical labor markets.

Building on these perspectives, this symposium unites comparative contributions on migrants’ skills development through VET pathways in four European countries: Lithuania, Italy, Germany, and Norway. This work combines an analysis of national VET systems and governance structures with a focus on the lived experiences of migrants. By prioritizing migrants' own perspectives, the panel moves beyond institutional and policy-oriented analyses to critically assess how migrant workers engage with, interpret, and negotiate VET pathways in varied national contexts.

Taking a cross-country comparative approach, the symposium examines how specific national VET regimes, labor market structures, welfare systems, and socio-cultural contexts shape VET pathways for migrant workers. At the same time, it investigates how factors such as migrants’ personal histories, legal statuses, life circumstances, and everyday realities affect their access to and experiences within training opportunities. Particular emphasis is placed on how migrants make sense of training provisions, leverage their prior skills and knowledge, and create strategies to address uncertainty, deskilling, and disjointed career trajectories.

The panel will address critical issues, including access to VET, recognition of prior learning and qualifications, mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, and the underlying assumptions and expectations within training programs designed for migrant populations. By comparing institutional rationales with the meanings, aspirations, and actions of migrants, the symposium reveals the tensions between policy goals for labor market integration and migrants' lived experiences as they navigate often segmented and hierarchical employment systems.

Through a distinctly European lens, this symposium aims to contribute to broader discussions about skills development, migration, and social inequality. It challenges dominant narratives that portray migrant workers merely as adaptable labor resources and emphasizes their role as active social agents. Their experiences highlight both the opportunities and constraints of VET as a means for inclusion, recognition, and social mobility in contemporary Europe.

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