Gender Brain Waste And Job Education Mismatch Among Migrant Workers In Switzerland

This study examines the incidence and determinants of over- and underqualification among documented migrant workers in the Swiss labour market using cross-matched data from two sources of comprehensive information. At the same time, our statistical analysis aims at investigating the existence of gender differences in terms of brain waste. The main findings show firstly that the incidence of job-education mismatch is higher among first generation immigrants. Secondly, the duration of residence in the host country plays an important role in the probability of being over- or underqualified. Thirdly, our results support the relatively disadvantaged situation of immigrant women with young children in finding a job commensurate with their education. The conclusion gives some policy recommendations on how to make the best possible use of foreign qualifications of documented migrant workers and avoid any form of deskilling in the host labour market.

This open access book provides insight on current patterns of migration in Switzerland, which fall along a continuum from long-term and permanent to more temporary and fluid. These patterns are shaped by the interplay of legal norms, economic drivers and societal factors. The various dimensions of this Migration-Mobility Nexus are investigated by means of newly collected survey data: the Migration-Mobility Survey. The book covers different aspects of life in the host country, including the family dimension, the labour market and political participation as well as social integration. The book also takes into account the chronological dimension of migration by considering the migrants’ arrival, their stay, and their expectations regarding return. Through applying conclusions drawn from the Swiss context to the migration literature on other European and high-income countries, this book contributes to new knowledge on current migration processes in high-income countries. As such it will be a valuable reference work to scholars and students in migration, social scientists and policy makers.

The mobility regimes in which migratory careers of highly educated women are embedded have a high impact on the invisible sway between privileges and vulnerabilities in situated socio-political contexts. Between 1960s and 1990s, highly educated women began moving on their own, but, despite their qualifications, they nonetheless faced big challenges, some of which have not completely disappeared. Are highly educated migrant women really privileged? This book explores the empirical dilemma between privileges and vulnerability in the framework of conceptual transformations of the highly skilled migration and human mobility in history from the post-industrial era to the present. The book’s subject matter shows an existing sway between privileges and vulnerability in the construction process of the “migratory careers” of highly educated women, which depends on the articulation of macro, meso and micro factors and driving women historically to shape heterogeneous readaptation responses in different geo-political contexts. The case study of the Basque Country in Spain is presented as emblematic reflection of the global economy conformation. The history explored from a gender perspective shows that a critical understanding of the structures of opportunities and constraints influencing women’s mobility is relevant to overcome stereotypes and generate gender-sensitive policies for the socio-economic inclusion of more vulnerable groups.

This collection of essays examines how spatial mobilities of people and practices, technologies and objects, knowledge and ideas have shaped the production, circulation, and transfer of knowledge in different historical and geographical contexts. Targeting an interdisciplinary audience, Mobilities of Knowledge combines detailed empirical analyses with innovative conceptual approaches. The first part scrutinizes knowledge circulation, transfer, and adaption, focussing on the interpersonal communication process, early techniques of papermaking, a geographical text, indigenous knowledge in exploration, the genealogy of spatial analysis, and different disciplinary knowledges about the formation of cities, states, and agriculture. The second part analyses the interplay of mediators, networks, and learning by studying academic careers, travels, and collaborations within the British Empire, public internationalism in Geneva, the global transfer of corporate knowledge through expatriation, graduate mobility from the global south to the global north, and the international mobility of degree programs in higher education.This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Women migrants are doubly-disadvantaged by their sex and outsider status when moving to a new country. Highly skilled women are no exception to this rule. This book explores the complex relationship between gender and high-skill migration, with a special focus on the impact of the current economic crisis on highly skilled women-migrants in Europe.

This report is a collective publication comprising a review of international literature on the subject of migrant deskilling and underemployment from a gender perspective and three empirical case studies from Switzerland, Canada and the United Kingdom. It explores the disproportionate difficulties skilled migrant women can face in transferring their skills and finding employment commensurate with their education when relocating to a new country. The case studies highlight situations in which migratory status and labour market dynamics can combine to constrain skilled and highly skilled migrant women to low-skilled occupations despite their often high human capital. They also analyse the impact that such occupational downgrading can have on migrant women's well-being and the strategies that women can adopt to regain a professional status.

This open access textbook provides an introduction to theories, concepts and methodological approaches concerning various facets of migration and migration-related diversities. It starts with an introduction to migration studies and continues with an introductory reading of migration drivers, migration infrastructures, migration flows, and several transversal topics such as gender and migration. It also covers politics, policies and governance as well as specific research methods. As an interactive guide, this book develops an innovative format that brings a connection with various online sources. This means that whereas the chapters bring together literature in a coherent way, they are also connected to IMISCOE's online interactive Migration Research Hub for further reading and for more empirical material on migration and diversity. As such, this textbook provides a very useful introductory reading for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for policymakers, policy advisors, and all those interested in studies on migration and migration-related diversities.

This book presents a strategy that will help countries reach the goal of having and making the best use of a high-quality pool of skills.