Search

This article examines hierarchies of recent intra-EU migrants from EU-West (EU15) and EU-East (New Member States 13) countries in Western European labour markets. We use data from the European Labour Force Survey 2014 special module on migrants and their descendants to analyse how different skill levels, reasons for migration and, concurrently, different job-search strategies shape hierarchies in labour market outcomes as captured by wages and occupational status. Our analyses reveal that recent EU-West migrants have jobs with higher wages and higher occupational status than recent EU-East migrants. The former are more likely to be highly skilled and more often had already found employment before migrating through job ads or direct employer contacts. EU-East migrants, by contrast, are more often medium skilled and found employment after migrating by using social networks. Different skill levels, migration motives and job-finding methods account for differences in wages and occupational status between the two groups. However, even when all of these factors – as well as individual and labour market factors – are controlled for in the regression analyses, labour market hierarchies remain significant, indirectly indicating discrimination. Overall, our results show that free labour mobility creates new hierarchies between mobile EU-West and EU-East workers in Western Europe.

Do inclusive organizations live up to the term ‘inclusion’? Diversity literature depicts the inclusive organization as an ideal entity that welcomes social minorities who, in turn, feel valued and unique and have a sense of belonging to the organization. Our study offers a critical account of inclusion concepts and practice. We argue that proponents of inclusion overlook that inclusive organizations also may regulate workers’ identities. To examine the relationship between organizational inclusion and identity regulation we conceptualise inclusion as a process involving various organizational actors and practices. Drawing on a multiple-case study of refugees working in Austria we show how organizational practices aimed at inclusion contribute to the forming of refugees as ‘good’, ‘glorious’ and ‘grateful’ subjects. This identity regulation is ambivalent: while it allows refugees to work in inclusive organizations, it also constrains their sense of self.

This article examines the relationship between social networks as a job-finding channel and overqualification among recent EU migrants from Central Eastern to Western European countries. Social networks composed of relatives, friends or acquaintances can facilitate access to employers and thereby enhance labour market integration. However, when labour markets are segmented, (co-ethnic) social networks might also contribute to locking migrants into sectors and occupations characterised by high migrant shares, increasing the probability of a mismatch between skills and occupations. Drawing on data from the special module on migrants and their descendants in the 2014 European Labour Force Survey, this article considers subjective and objective overqualification. The analysis reveals that finding jobs through social networks bears a higher risk of overqualification in general, and especially for recent Central Eastern European migrants. The results point to a complex relationship between social-network job search, sectoral segmentation and destination-country language proficiency.

Do employers tend to exploit refugees or do they offer them high-quality jobs? This article examines the job quality of refugees from Afghanistan and Syria working in Austria. It uses unique survey data of 316 refugees and cluster analysis to identify job quality profiles. Drawing on well-established job quality frameworks, it considers multiple dimensions of job quality, including pay, job security, overqualification in terms of level and content area, learning opportunities, at-home feeling and health aspects. The findings reveal four job quality profiles with considerable trade-offs or compromises between job quality dimensions. Furthermore, the job quality profiles are associated with the methods refugees use to find a job. The study enhances understanding of labour market integration of refugees and the associated role of human resource management.

Die qualitative Interviewstudie wurde im Herbst 2016 – wiederum an der Universitat Graz – durchgefuhrt, wobei die Ergebnisse der ersten, quantitativen Studie als Basis fur die Konzeptualisierung der qualitativen Studie dienten. Ziel dieser Studie ist ein tiefergreifendes Verstandnis der Ergebnisse der ersten Studie, insbesondere des Zusammenspiels zwischen den Spielregeln des Wissenschaftsfeldes und dem individuellen Grenzziehungsverhalten der Akteur*innen im Feld. Wahrend die quantitative Studie in Zusammenarbeit mit einem Forschungsteam stattfand, fuhrte ich die qualitative Interviewstudie unabhangig durch, wobei ich insgesamt 26 Interviews mit Wissenschaftler*innen der Universitat Graz fuhrte.

Bourdieus Theorie ist eine relationale Theorie: Das Spiel kann nicht alleine gespielt werden, sondern nur in Interaktion mit anderen, wobei die Positionen, die Mitspieler*innen im Feld einnehmen, immer abhangig sind von den Positionen der anderen Akteur*innen im Feld (Bourdieu 1992a). Macht kann dementsprechend nur dann wirksam sein, wenn jemand da ist, der sie innehat, und es jemand anderen gibt, uber die bzw. den diese Macht ausgeubt werden kann. Wie in kaum einem anderen Feld ist Macht im Wissenschaftsfeld vorwiegend – wenn auch nicht ausschlieslich – uber institutionalisierte, hierarchisch organisierte Statusgruppen strukturiert. Mit jeder Statusgruppe nehmen das Ausmas an kulturellem, sozialem und okonomischem Kapital und die damit verbundene Macht zu.

Die erste Studie dieser Arbeit, die schriftliche Befragung, fand im Rahmen des strategischen Projekts WORK-LIFE-BALANCE in der Wissenschaft (WLB-KFU) statt. Das vom Rektorat der Universitat Graz finanzierte Projekt zielte darauf ab, die Chancengerechtigkeit zwischen Frauen und Mannern an der Universitat zu erhohen und zur Forderung eines ausgewogenen Lebens in der universitaren Wissenschaft beizutragen.

Im universitaren Wissenschaftsfeld haben sich uber die Jahre hinweg Spielregeln herausgebildet, in die Struktur und Praxis des Feldes eingeschrieben und teilweise institutionell verankert. Traditionell ist im Wissenschaftsfeld ein Idealbild vorherrschend, das Wissenschaft als Berufung (Weber 1917[1992]) bzw. als Lebensform begreift (Mittelstras 1982). Auch wenn sich Universitaten immer wieder gewandelt haben – etwa mit ihrer Offnung fur Frauen oder mit dem Wandel hin zu „unternehmerischen Universitaten“ (Banscherus et al. 2009) – scheint ein Ideal des Lebens fur die Wissenschaft, das in Verbindung gebracht wird mit einer starken Entgrenzung zwischen Berufs- und Privatleben, bis heute wirksam zu sein (Beaufays 2006; Beaufays 2015; Krais 2008; Metz-Gockel et al. 2012; Paulitz et al. 2016; Ylijoki 2013).

This chapter examines the entry routes of young migrants from Eastern Europe into the Austrian labor market, focusing on the role of labor market intermediaries (LMIs) such as public employment services, online job portals, and temporary work agencies. It takes account of the perspectives of both employers and young migrants. The findings suggest that online job portals are the most prevalent type of LMI. Relatedly, informational services are more relevant than matchmaking and administrative services. The relevance of LMI types and services varies across sectors, indicating that LMIs to varying degrees fulfill specific functions in these sectors, such as reduction of transaction costs, risk management, and network building. The more nuanced understanding of entry routes provided by this chapter will help in the development of theoretical models explaining youth migration and design policy measures aimed at improving the labor market opportunities of young migrants from Eastern Europe.

The early stages of an academic career are fraught with insecurity. By focusing on the individual and his or her background, this article sets out to analyse and develop theories for this insecurity. We see academic career insecurity as a mix of how much someone wants to pursue a job in academia and what they feel is the probability of reaching their goal. The article draws on concepts of boundaryless careers and protean careers to theorise about the antecedents of insecurity. Empirical analysis is based on survey data from early-career researchers at a large Austrian university. The findings indicate that the most important individual factors that reduce academic career insecurity are the willingness to be geographically mobile, self-attribution of previous career success, a high proportion of working time devoted to research and networking, as well as being at an advanced career stage. The article demonstrates the potential and limits of the boundaryless and protean career concepts for studying academic careers. Practical measures are that universities should provide early-career researchers with temporal space for research and networking, facilitate stays at other universities, inform them about career success factors, and tailor faculty development programmes to the distinct stages of academic careers.

Do inclusive organizations do only good? The diversity literature depicts the inclusive organization as an ideal entity that would welcome social minorities, who feel valued and belonging in this o...

This paper examines the use of social networks and its impact on the qualitative labour market integration of young recent EU migrants from Central and Eastern European member states to EU15 countries as well as Switzerland and Norway. The literature points to both positive and negative impacts of social networks on migrant workers’ outcomes. Social networks can facilitate access to employers and information on labour regulation and rights and thereby improve the quantitative and qualitative labour market outcomes of migrant workers. On the other hand, social networks can also contribute to locking migrant workers into sectors and occupations with high shares of migrant workers, so-called niche employment. The latter can lead to suboptimal working conditions including a mismatch of skills and occupation (over-qualification) and lower wages. The impact might be particularly negative for recent migrants from Central and Eastern Europe as previous research on EU cross border labour mobility has shown that they are comparatively high qualified and young. The latter might put them at a double disadvantage given that youth have particular problems in entering (quality) employment as they lack work experience which they could use to signal to employers directly and might therefor have to rely more on social networks of established migrant communities. In contrast to the majority of current research on migrant outcomes and social networks which is based on qualitative research this paper makes use of the 2014 special module on migrants and their descendants of the European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). The advantage of the special module is that it includes a subjective measure on over-qualification, one variable of our main interest. Given the existence of migrant employment niches, the standard measures on over-qualification are problematic in that they are usually based on occupational information. Importantly, the special module also contains information on how they found their current job including the use of social networks (relatives, friends or acquaintances), another variable of our main interest. Furthermore, beyond the standard demographics and employment characteristics the data also includes information on language competences and other hurdles preventing a person to have a job corresponding with their qualifications including a lack of recognition of qualifications obtained abroad and discrimination by origin, religion or social background. These are factors are likely to be important regarding the impact of social network support in finding employment on the respective qualitative employment outcomes. Due to data restrictions we have to compile all the post-2004 accession country migrants into one group (EU13). We do however control for different welfare regimes on the country of destination side given that quantitative and qualitative labour market integration differs substantively across welfare regimes. This is due to variation in the economic situation, labour regulation and institutional settings and language and cultural proximity among others which in turn might impact on the importance and role of social networks in labour market outcomes. Our analysis shows that in all European country clusters recent NMS13 migrants more often found their current job through social networks than nationals did. At the same time our findings indicate that when recent NMS13 migrants found their jobs through social networks it is more likely that they are over-qualified for the position and that they fall in a lower earnings class as compared to recent migrants who used other job search methods. In particular, young recent migrants are affected rather often by over-qualification and most of them have rather low earnings. Thus using established social networks for job search might go hand in hand with sub-optimal qualitative employment outcomes. Immigrant occupational and sectoral segmentation might partially explain this outcome. However, the results differ between different welfare regimes and across individual and job characteristics of the NMS13 migrants.

Reading and writing, 23 (6), ISSN:0922-4777, ISSN:1573-0905

The early stages of academic careers are typically characterized by high insecurity. Junior scientists often do not know whether they will succeed within this highly competitive career field. Somet...