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1 – 10 of over 3000
Article
Publication date: 25 April 2024

Suhair Alkilani, Martin Loosemore, Ahmed W.A. Hammad and Sophie-May Kerr

The purpose of this paper is to use Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus to explore how refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and mobilise social, cultural…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to use Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus to explore how refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and mobilise social, cultural, symbolic and economic capital to find meaningful work in the Australian construction industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reports the results of a survey of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who have either successfully or unsuccessfully searched for employment in the Australian construction industry.

Findings

The findings dispel widely held negative stereotypes of about this group by describing a highly capable workforce which could address significant skills shortages in the industry, while concurrently diversifying the workforce. However, it is found that refugees, asylum seekers and migrants face considerable barriers to finding meaningful employment in the construction industry. In circumventing these barriers, education institutions, charities and community-based organisations play an especially important role, alongside friends and family networks. They do this by helping refugees, asylum seekers and migrants accumulate and deploy the necessary capital to secure meaningful work in the construction industry. Disappointingly, it is also found that the construction industry does little to help facilitate capital accumulation and deployment for this group, despite the urgent need to address diversity and critical skills shortages.

Originality/value

Employing Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital–Field–Habitus, the findings make a number of new theoretical and practical contributions to the limited body of international research relating to the employment of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers in the construction. The results are important because meaningful employment is widely accepted to be the single most factor in the successful integration of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants into a host society and the construction industry represents an important source of potential employment for them.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 26 November 2020

Gilberto Marzano

Migrants and refugees from around the world flee to European countries to avoid situations of hardship, persecution and violence. The integration of refugees and migrants is a…

Abstract

Migrants and refugees from around the world flee to European countries to avoid situations of hardship, persecution and violence. The integration of refugees and migrants is a challenging issue. Despite diffused cosmopolitan attitudes and internationalized aspirations, people are often negatively predisposed against migrants and refugees. There are many cultural barriers to overcome in order to reduce tensions between foreign cultures and host communities.

The integration of migrants embraces immigrants' willingness and openness to learn and adapt their attitudes to the host environment; on the other hand, natives must also be prepared to accept the changes that immigrants can bring.

Digital technology can support the process of integration, providing access to online language learning programmes and health-related services, or offering opportunities to gather information and socialize. However, whilst the same digital technologies are shared by migrants and host communities, different processes of technology appropriation can limit their benefits for refugees' and migrants' integration.

This chapter focuses on digital social innovation (DSI) and the social inclusion of migrants and refugees. It also analyzes how innovative digital solutions can overcome ambivalence concerning cultural diversity. Integration should foster pluralism but, at the same time, should preserve cultural identity and linguistic diversity as well as improve economic and social participation.

The first step is designing DSI solutions avoiding the stereotype that immigrants are a homogeneous social group. Digital technology can support the implementation of multi-context applications whilst the information society may be the common cultural environment shared by all. This chapter also illustrates some relevant digitally based initiatives developed in Italy.

Details

Integration of Migrants into the Labour Market in Europe
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-904-5

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 8 December 2023

Catalina Crisan-Mitra and Gregorio Martín-de Castro

This study aims to examine the entrepreneurship profiles of migrants and refugees relying on a neo-configurational approach that increases understanding of causal complexity…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the entrepreneurship profiles of migrants and refugees relying on a neo-configurational approach that increases understanding of causal complexity, equifinality and causal asymmetry patterns to high entrepreneurial intentions in the two groups.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method, the authors analysed 52 respondents – migrants and refugees. The findings show the existence of equifinality in which different configurations can lead to high and low entrepreneurial intentions, underlying that traumatic experiences have a major role in entrepreneurial intention. It also demonstrates that core conditions are associated with refugee’s configurations and causal asymmetry. The cross-sectional character of this research impedes the searching for a better causal relationship. The lack of studies that approach the subject of refugees makes it challenging to develop a robust theory in this sense.

Findings

The paper highlights five main configurations – two related to migrants’ profile and three related to refugees’ profile – that enable expanding the current knowledge and practices to better customize practices to increase entrepreneurial intention.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research using a configurational approach to explore migrant and refugee entrepreneurship intention profiles.

Details

Journal of Ethics in Entrepreneurship and Technology, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2633-7436

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 July 2021

Yi-Jung Teresa Hsieh

Muslim refugee migrants are a growing ethno-religious disadvantaged minority group in several Western societies, and host-country language proficiency and employment are essential…

Abstract

Purpose

Muslim refugee migrants are a growing ethno-religious disadvantaged minority group in several Western societies, and host-country language proficiency and employment are essential factors in reducing this disadvantage. This paper thus explores the efficacy of English training programs in facilitating the settlement and employment of a group of male Muslim refugees in Australia.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is qualitative in nature, with data collected using semi-structured, in-depth interviews with the eight participants in the study. Analysis was conducted using Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital and habitus.

Findings

English training programs offered to Australian Muslim men are problematic in their aim of linking them to employment. Areas of concern are identified in respect to the training hours offered, their learning environment, their content and pedagogy, their lack of focus on employment and their failure to recognise the existing work skills of the migrants.

Research limitations/implications

The study is conducted with a small sample of male Muslim migrants: while the findings may be similar for other refugee groups, further research is necessary to confirm this.

Practical implications

There is a need to restructure the current English training programs offered to refugee migrants in Australia, Muslim or otherwise. This study identifies several areas where such restructuring might occur, both at the policy and pedagogical levels.

Originality/value

Few studies focus on Australian male Muslim migrants. This study enhances understanding of this under-researched group and their struggles to learn English, find employment and rise above their disadvantaged societal position.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 40 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2015

Khorshed Alam and Sophia Imran

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors which influence refugee migrants’ adoption of digital technology and its relevance to their social inclusion in Australia.

8271

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors which influence refugee migrants’ adoption of digital technology and its relevance to their social inclusion in Australia.

Design/methodology/approach

This research developed a conceptual framework keeping the “use” of digital technology as the centre-piece of the digital divide. The empirical data were derived from a series of focus group discussions with refugee migrants in an Australian regional city, Toowoomba in Queensland.

Findings

There is a digital divide among refugee migrant groups and it is based on inequalities in physical access to and use of digital technology, the skills necessary to use the different technologies effectively and the ability to pay for the services. The opportunities to use digital technology could support the social inclusion of refugee migrant groups in the broader Australian community.

Research limitations/implications

Further research is required to examine whether this digital divide is unique in the regional context or common to Australian society and to confirm factors that might contribute significantly to refugee migrants’ social inclusion.

Originality/value

This paper determined the role digital technology can play in building social capital and hence social inclusion among refugee migrant groups. Many of the factors identified as influencing refugee migrants’ use of digital technology can inform the Australian government and the information and communication technology industry in devising supportive policies and plans to reduce the risk of social exclusion, alienation and marginalisation among refugee migrant groups.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 28 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 8 April 2021

Aliaksei Kazlou and Karl Wennberg

Economic integration of refugees remains a challenge for developed countries. Although refugees differ greatly from labor migrants in available resources and motivation toward…

1737

Abstract

Purpose

Economic integration of refugees remains a challenge for developed countries. Although refugees differ greatly from labor migrants in available resources and motivation toward self-employment, prevailing studies on minority and ethnic entrepreneurship tend to lump these different categories of migrants together. Based on theories of migrants’ economic embeddedness, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent to which family- and kinship-based resources affect self-employment duration among refugees and labor migrants.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on Cox regression models, this longitudinal study estimates the self-employment duration of 10,519 refugees and 2,503 labor migrants starting businesses in Sweden in the period 2006–2012.

Findings

Results reveal that while refugees are at a disadvantage to labor migrants in terms of self-employment duration, their higher level of family embeddedness in part helps them overcome these disadvantages. For refugees but not for labor migrants, co-location in an ethnic enclave also lowers the risk of them becoming unemployed after a spell in entrepreneurship.

Originality/value

This original paper provides empirical and theoretical contributions to research on migrants’ self-employment success. It also discusses contributions for research on entrepreneurs’ social embeddedness and refugees’ entrepreneurship.

Details

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6204

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 January 2016

Allyson Krupar and Esther Prins

Using conceptions of transnationalism to (re)evaluate the field of comparative and international education (CIE), this chapter analyzes educational programming and policy for…

Abstract

Using conceptions of transnationalism to (re)evaluate the field of comparative and international education (CIE), this chapter analyzes educational programming and policy for migrant refugee youth at the margins and borderlands of the nation-state system. Drawing from newspaper articles about displaced youth on Kenya’s eastern border and the southwestern U.S. border, this chapter focuses on comparative and international education’s potential influence on programming and policies in borderland regions. Both populations present the need for targeted educational programming within and outside of formal education systems and urgency for research linked with practice. We argue that CIE scholars can fill a critical, activist purpose to draw attention to educational access and curricular content in educational projects at the borders of the nation-state system, to investigate programming, and to work with practitioners and policy makers to address the needs of youth on the physical and figurative margins of education.

Details

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2015
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-297-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 July 2023

Triya Tessa Ramburn, Yufei Mandy Wu and Rachel Kronick

Community gardens are increasingly used as interventions during the resettlement of refugees and other migrants. Little is known about how garden programs might support their…

Abstract

Purpose

Community gardens are increasingly used as interventions during the resettlement of refugees and other migrants. Little is known about how garden programs might support their mental health and wellbeing. Given the links between climate change and forced migration, community gardens are especially relevant, as they can also support climate change mitigation. This study aims to document psychosocial outcomes of gardening programs for refugees and migrants, and mechanisms leading to these outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors searched major databases and the grey literature up to 2021, resulting in the inclusion of 17 peer-reviewed and 4 grey literature articles in a thematic, qualitative analysis.

Findings

Four consistent themes arose from the analysis: community gardening programs promoted continuity and adaptation (81% of articles), social connectedness (81%), overall wellbeing (95%) and a sense of meaning and self-worth (67%). The results suggest that community gardens can strengthen psychosocial pillars that are key to the recovery and resettlement of refugees and migrants. The land-based and social nature of community gardening may enable connections to the land and others, nurture a sense of belonging in the host country and provide a link to the past for those from agricultural backgrounds.

Research limitations/implications

Further participatory action research is needed to develop guidelines for the successful implementation of community gardens by resettlement organisations.

Originality/value

This review indicates that community gardens can be effective psychosocial interventions as part of a network of services supporting the resettlement of refugees and migrants.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 19 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 26 November 2020

Patrycja Matusz, Eirini Aivaliotou and Sylwia Przytuła

In 2015, Europe faced an unprecedented inflow of refugees and migrants. Political instability at the continent's peripheries contributed to an accumulative exodus. This resulted…

Abstract

In 2015, Europe faced an unprecedented inflow of refugees and migrants. Political instability at the continent's peripheries contributed to an accumulative exodus. This resulted in large immigration waves fleeing mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq as well as from other North African countries. Europe was confronted with an increasing number of asylum applications and had to accommodate over a million people (Clayton, 2015). The crisis in Europe has been framed both as a migration crisis and as a crisis within the European Union (EU). The Dublin Regulation, of 2013, requires only one Member state to process the asylum applications. During the pressing period of 2015, the notion of responsibility sharing resulted in heated debates between South and Central and Eastern European states. Several countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary expressed openly antimigrant opinions, which resulted in even more confusion and mismanagement of the migration crisis in the EU. Analyzing the crisis from the macro, meso and micro level, it was evident that the crisis was multifaceted.

Details

Integration of Migrants into the Labour Market in Europe
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-904-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 November 2016

Gloria Agyemang

This chapter analyses the emergency policy responses that the European Union made during the summer of 2015 to manage the significant numbers of migrants entering Europe. The…

Abstract

This chapter analyses the emergency policy responses that the European Union made during the summer of 2015 to manage the significant numbers of migrants entering Europe. The chapter employs Broadbent’s (1998) ideas of ‘accounting logic’ to analyse these policy actions. The chapter argues that there are multiple and complex reasons why people migrate, and why in this instance people are prepared to risk their lives by taking perilous journeys. An ‘accounting logic’ leads to decisions being based mainly on financial inputs and expected outputs rather than on the social and humanitarian needs of migrants and refugees. Despite the significant amount of resources provided by the European Union, the crisis continues. The risks associated with employing an accounting logic are that it may preclude a full understanding of situations by silencing other values and logics.

Details

Accounting in Conflict: Globalization, Gender, Race and Class
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-976-3

Keywords

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