Not All Syrian Doctors Become Taxi Drivers: Stagnation and Continuity Among Highly Educated Syrians in Norway

Abstract

Many studies of forced migration have documented processes of deskilling and falls in status resulting from an inability to convert capital from one context to another. This article relies on qualitative interviews with highly educated individuals who arrived in Norway in the wake of the Syrian crisis. In the material, narratives of stagnation, loss and struggle against bureaucracy are highly salient and persist over time. I coin the term mobility dissonance to describe this post-migration stressor-the dissonance between physical mobility across borders and a sense of (not) going anywhere in life. By following some informants over time, this study indicates how classed resources can also represent an element of continuity through the critical life course events that forced migration entails. Descriptions of mobility dissonance are thus part of a more nuanced picture. While hopelessness and loss are very salient in the interviews, following informants over time provides lived examples of how classed resources represent an important form of continuity. Continuity refers to a counter-narrative to the riches-to-rags story often attached to resourceful forced migrants. I suggest future research to pay more attention to classed resources as a potential source of continuity through the migration process.

Cartographers of their Futures: The Formation of Occupational Aspirations of Highly Educated Refugees in Malmö and Munich

“…After years of living in conflict, on the move and in the subsequent asylum application liminality, the desire to resume interrupted occupational trajectories can be attributed to the striving to return to normality; to a life with family, decent accommodation, and work or study. As such, it represents a way of creating continuity between their pre‐ and post‐migration lives (Bygnes, 2019). Moreover, highly educated refugees’ aspirations were informed by their understanding of who they were and who they wanted to be.…”

“…The occupational aspirations narratives of highly educated refugees render visible that their goals are a part of an undelaying yearning to re‐establish a normal life (Bygnes, 2019). After years of living in conflict, on the flight and then in asylum limbo, the interviewees longed for a normality which entailed living in peace and security surrounded by one's family, having a decent accommodation, and re‐assuming their occupational trajectories.…”

“…Yet, it is not merely their social position of being highly educated that forms their capacity to aspire, but also their refugeeness that does so. In light of the unwilling disruption that the flight caused in their lives, highly educated refugees’ reliance on their educational and occupational resources has to be understood as a means of creating continuity between their pre‐ and post‐migration lives (Bygnes, 2019).…”

“…Furthermore, a growing body of literature documents the opportunities and barriers that highly educated refugees face when attempting to re‐enter higher education or their occupational fields in the destination country (for the case of Norway, see, e.g. Bygnes, 2019; for the case of Switzerland, see, e.g. Sontag, 2018; for the case of the UK, see, e.g.…”

Introduction “Labour market integration of highly skilled refugees in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands”

“…The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that 60 per cent of the refugees with tertiary education who are in employment are overqualified for their jobs (OECD, 2016). Indeed, while highly skilled refugees generally aspire to resume their disrupted careers (Bygnes, 2021;Mozetič, 2020), they often face a number of institutional obstacles to re-entering their professions. Policies aim to address these challenges but with varying success.…”