The purpose of this paper is to provide a synthesis as well as an evaluation of previous qualitative literature on education and employment trajectories of migrant background students in higher and vocational education in Europe. Since the previous research on this topic is fragmented across disciplines, in order to identify common patterns and develop new insights, a meta-synthesis is needed. The reason for choosing two different groups for study of ‘international’ and ‘migrant’ students is to ensure comprehensive study of transition from education to the labour market. While both groups might seem to overlap, they represent a different immigration system. The mobility of international students is due to the pursuit of education; however, migrants' students usually move due to family ties and asylum. Some students enrolled in vocational education programs may be recruited from abroad too. Nonetheless, irrespective of the recruitment pathway, the primary objective of engaging in vocational education is to attain entry into the local labor market. This is not necessarily the case for international students in higher education.   

The present study is related to the Transforming Immigration Systems for Future Skills (TRIM) project, which is funded by the Strategic Funding Council at the Research Council of Finland (project 372292). The project's objective is to assess the capacity of the Finnish immigration system to facilitate the economic, sustainable, and equitable integration of foreign-background individuals into the Finnish education and labor markets. Throughout the course of this project, the term "immigration system" is employed in a broad sense, encompassing both the competence-based (e.g., employment and academic pursuits) and human rights-based (e.g., protection and familial support) subsystems. The present study places particular emphasis on the competence-based subsystem, with a focus on transitions from education to employment.   

Like other European countries, the decline in the birth rates and rise in aging population of Finland has increased the importance of international students as a potential source of skilled labour (OECD, 2023). The present problem is analogous to the migration statistics observed throughout Europe. These challenges are accompanied by a global talent attraction competition and increasing numbers of international and migrant students at all levels of education. The current discussions on international and migrant students are oftentimes limited to talent attraction and retention while undermining the humanity aspect of migration experienced by separating human capital out of talent (Waters et al., 2024). Yet some earlier research has pointed out that migrant integration is a complex phenomenon. Next to structural integration (education, work), social, cultural, linguistic, and political are evenly important (OECD, 2019). We aim to explore these topics further and synthetize so far gained knowledge/research on the topic by asking the following research question:   

• What common conditions, constraints and opportunities shape migrant students’ transitions from education to (un/under) employment across European countries?  

In this study, "transitions" is defined as both individual progressions in studies and careers, as well as the institutional regimes that facilitate these transitions. Concomitantly, we acknowledge the particularities inherent in both higher and vocational education contexts and institutional frameworks in terms of creating opportunities or constraints to migrant background students’ transitions from education to employment (Sahradyan, 2022).   

Europe has been an important yet overlooked place for the mobility of migrant background students (Brooks, 2018), who play an important role in the academic, financial, and cultural aspects of the host country. European countries have been active in implementing policies to make the continent an attractive destination for students from migrant backgrounds (Altbach & Knight, 2007). Vocational education has been acknowledged for its potential to unlock migrants’ skills (Bergseng et al., 2019). Despite of the increasing numbers of students with migrant backgrounds in international and vocational programmes, the research on how participation in these programmes relates to these students' ability to get and keep a job is rather fragmented at the moment (Eliasson et al., 2022).  

To construct an evidence-informed synthesis of migrant students' transitions from education to labour market, an integrative approach of meta synthesis is chosen. Meta synthesis is an integrative and interpretative approach which aims to generate new conceptual analysis from existing literature (Noblit and Hare, 1988; Sandelowski et al., 1997). This method of combining the previous literature on the same topic provides a broader and deeper understanding of individual studies. Unlike quantitative meta-analysis which focuses on aggregation and comparison of findings, meta synthesis integrates human experiences and lived experiences across qualitative studies and develops new insights (Khan, 2021). Electronic databases of Web of Science and Scopus will be searched for English language publications from 2006 to 2026. The timeline chosen is 20 years to ensure that the synthesis will present a comprehensive understanding of policies and practices related to migrant and international students in the labour market. These databases have been widely used and recognized in scientific literature reviews. The key terms used for search are ‘international students AND labour market’, ‘adult migrants in vocational institutes’, transition to labour market’ OR ‘immigrants in the labour market’, ‘highly skilled immigrants and unemployment’. The screening of the studies will follow the four steps devised by PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines to ensure transparency and efficiency. This screening process has been widely used in meta synthesis to ensure credibility of the original and selected studies (Lockwood and Hannes, 2012). The first step of ‘identification’ involves comprehensive screening of databases with the selected/predefined search terms. In the second step of ‘screening’, irrelevant and duplicate studies are excluded after reading the titles and abstracts of research articles. The third step involves full text articles review for ‘eligibility’ based on region, target group, methods and relevance to research question. In the final step, the studies are ‘included’ based on the strength of their qualitative methods and the credibility of their findings (Noblit and Hare, 1988; Sandelowski et al., 1997). The synthesized data will then be coded, and thematic analysis will be carried out to identify the patterns of constraints and opportunities for international and migrant students. This helps to examine deeply their lived experiences from education to underemployment/unemployment /employment.

The synthesis of the previous studies confirms that there are a range of structural and institutional barriers as well as opportunities for both international and migrant students. The barriers for students include language challenges, discrimination in recruitment process and segmented labour market (Ahmad, 2020; Sahradyan, 2022; Ndomo, 2024) due to not having access to hidden job market (Khan, 2021) and professional networks (Alho, 2020). Further, poor integration of migrant students results in unemployment and under-employment (mismatch of skills/qualification). This skills mismatch is found to be both vertical (being overqualified of jobs) and horizontal (getting jobs not related to their field of study/undesirable jobs) (Kogan, 2011). Moreover, international students are found in temporary contracts which lead to precarious work (Green et al., 2016; Maury, 2020). Whereas the enabling conditions include participation in transnational education pathways, increase in social networks, and entrance to the global job market. In the case of migrant students in vocational education, despite gaining qualifications corresponding labour market demands, migrants’ ability to secure employment within the host society is hindered/limited (Kärkkäinen, 2017). The barriers include linguistic challenges (Puranen, 2024), preconceived notions regarding migrants in general and specific groups (Andersen, 2024), leading to the de-skilling of individuals and the emergence of inequalities (Wall et al., 2017), and a paucity of resources and guidance (Filliataz, 2011;2013). The prospects for engagement in vocational education were related to creating attachment to local labour market and community (Moreno Herrera, et al., 2022) In summary, the study underscores the vulnerability and precarious status of international and migrant students in the labor market. Although practical education can generate promising opportunities for migrants to transition into local labor markets, this objective cannot be achieved without systemic and institutional modifications. Such modifications should include the cultivation of diversity management competencies in educational institutions and workplaces, as well as the allocation of resources for such purposes.

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