No abstract

PurposeThis study aims to clarify the labor market participation of highly educated Turks who moved or were exiled to the Western countries after the July 15th, 2016 Coup attempt in Turkey. These recent Turkish flows create a compelling case for researching higher education connections and the administration of justice in migration policies/practices related to highly educated people's job market participation. This study aims to expand the discussion on migration policies, practices, job market participation, how highly skilled migrants perceive them in various contexts and understand the complexity of highly educated migrants' incorporation into destination countries and their perspectives and lived experiences with policy practice.Design/methodology/approachThe primary source of the data is the semi-structured 30 interviews with the highly educated Turkish immigrants and refugees in Western countries, which enables comparative data from individuals of the same origin. The qualitative data have been transcribed, coded and analyzed according to the grounded-theory design from this vulnerable community. The high education was determined as graduation from 4-years colleges, which was recognized by destination countries. Our methodological tools were driven by the obstacles to collect data from politically sensitive, forced, or exiled migrants.FindingsFirst, this article challenges the assumption that incorporating job market participation is a smooth process for highly educated migrants who moved to Western countries. Second, highly educated immigrants tried to reach their previous statuses and life standards as fast as possible by working hard, making sacrifices and developing innovative strategies. The immigrants in Europe have faced greater obstacles with policies while participating in the job market. Third, the importance of networking and the active usage of social media platforms to communicate with other immigrants in similar situations facilitated the job market participation and job preferences of highly educated migrants. Fourth, while fast job market participation experiences of immigrants in Northern America were increasing their positive feelings regarding belonging, people who have similar skillsets in Europe experienced more problems in this process and felt alone.Research limitations/implicationsThe research results may lack generalizability due to the selected research approach. Further studies are encouraged to reach more population for each country to compare them.Practical implicationsConsequently, higher education may be a more vital decision point in migration policies and practices. This study contributes to a better understanding of these factors by showing the perspectives and experiences of highly educated migrants comparatively. Thus, it broadens the discussion about migration policies and job market participation of highly educated migrants.Social implicationsBuilding on this work, the authors suggest more studies on the temporary deskilling of highly educated migrants until they reach re-credentialing/education or training to gain their former status.Originality/valueFirst, while most studies on immigrants' labor market participation and highly educated immigrants focus on voluntary migrants, this study examines underrepresented groups of involuntary migrants, namely forced migrants and exiled people, by focusing on non-Western Muslim highly educated Turks. Second, the trouble in the Middle East continues and regimes change softly or harshly. There is a growing tendency to examine these topics from the immigrants' perspective, especially from these war-torn areas. This article adds to this discussion by stating that rather than forced migration due to armed conflict, the immigrants from Turkey – the non-Arab Muslim state of the Middle East – are related to political conditions. Lastly, drawing on the relationship between social change in the origin country and migration and addressing the lack of reliable and comparative data, this study focuses on same origin immigrants comparatively in eight different countries.

Immigrants are often pressed to show how they will contribute to a host country, thus proving through their conditions of entry and human capital whether they will be perceived as an asset or burden, and this is juxtaposed with the host country’s institutions offering an improved quality of life, mainly through employment. Seeking employment is often a key factor to be economically assimilated, and in the case of highly educated Turkish migrants, the opportunity to reclaim their previous professional and quality of life statuses. Based on qualitative research, we have examined the experiences of highly educated Turkish people (n = 42) in the recently forced migrant population. Following events including terrorism and the coup on 15 July 2016, Türkiye experienced the highest forced migration in her history. With exiled Turkish migrants, the forced aspect of their migration prompts them to seek a host country that provides safety, and they are also driven to transfer their educational degrees and professional credentials. However, changing careers to become educated and certified in new fields takes time and resources, contributing to a fluctuating economic status and loss of well-being. Once this is regained, their economic situation is improved, but there is still the lost time from the immigration and transfer period. Thus, the process has positive and negative components, but understanding this nuanced process provides opportunities for policy reform that can shorten the time of re-education, increase employability, and support well-being.

In cases of asylum, individual asylum seekers experience victimization and discrimination on the basis of a social identity, however, the process of seeking government protection from a host society is an individualized course of action. The U.S. asylum system provides the legal means for asylum seekers to apply for permanent residency status based on their ability to document valid claims of persecution. Qualitative interviews with individuals applying for asylum (n=14) reveal an underlying uncertainty based on themes of fear in sharing their story, fear of denial, and consideration of alternative plans while awaiting the asylum decision. This paper focuses on referencing the first hand accounts of asylum seekers in order to critically examine the trauma associated with the U.S. asylum system. The research asserts that the individualized process of asylum and the public perception that valid claims would be endorsed fails to acknowledge the asylum system as a source of detrimental barriers and trauma itself. And since asylum seekers participate in this process individually, the inability of adopting a cultural trauma frame serves to maintain the asylum system's status quo and direct burden on the asylum seeker for the outcome of his or her case.

Residents in the Southeast region of the United States are frequently threatened by tornadoes. Previous research indicates that it is important to study the experience of tornado victims to better understand individual risk perception, preparedness, protective action, response, and recovery strategies that contribute to overall community resilience. In this study, we employ an oral history approach and analyze the lived experience of an EF-3 tornado survivors in Jacksonville, Alabama. Using snowball sampling, we conducted in-depth interviews of 25 residents of Jacksonville, Alabama who experienced the EF-3 tornado on March 19, 2018. The recorded interviews were then analyzed using qualitative software. Most of the participants described the support system and the range of resources accessible through the network of relations as the critical factors that facilitated recovery and contributed to resilience. The majority also emphasized the importance of being prepared and being proactive when addressing future storms, but some of their actions at times revealed that they were also used to being reactive. Also, the participants were either long-term residents (homeowners) or transient college students (renters), and the data gave insight into different recovery paths and challenges. Further, findings revealed ongoing trauma and recovery challenges due to the extensive, unexpected damage and lack of temporary housing and contractor availability often associated with rural, small towns. This research aims to provide a scientific basis for improved efforts in preparedness and protective actions as well as in response and recovery strategies in tornado events and for identifying factors of community resilience in tornado-prone areas.