Temporality and space in highly skilled migrants’ experiences of education and work in the rural north of Sweden

Abstract

The aim of this article is to critically explore and analyse opportunities and obstacles faced by highly skilled migrants in rural areas seeking to re-enter their profession, focusing on the lived experiences of migrants residing in northern Sweden. Analysis of their stories focusing on intersections of temporal and spatial positionings reveal different lived experiences and opportunities depending on migration regime and policy, gender, age and family situation, profession and labour market needs. However, similar challenges also emerged related to rurality such as rural dismantling and poverty of access to (and support for) both adult education generally and specific fast tracks for highly skilled migrants, with accompanying risks of deskilling and marginalisation. The stories also indicate that the rural idyll tends to provide closer social networks than those in cities, thereby increasing opportunities for re-entry to former professions. However, workfare policies and devaluation of foreign credentials lead to requirements for re-education to re-enter former professions or undertake other work (high-or low-level) that are particularly difficult to meet in rural settings.

Challenging False Generosity Through Disruptive Pedagogy in Western Countries’ Education Systems – The Case of Norway

“…From the perspective of aspiring refugees, the practice of the adult education centre may constitute the process of deskilling, that is, an oppressive mechanism for misrecognising the previous qualifications of refugees (Carlbaum, 2021). It is the devaluation of refugees' education resources and intellectual capacities to finally misrecognise them as equal human beings with ambition (Pihl et al, 2018).…”

Intersectional research in adult education: A diffractive gaze

“…The most common diffraction in the articles we noticed was the illumination of oppressed experiences in adult learning spaces (e.g., higher education, workplaces) stemming from intersecting identities. Some IR focused on the unique challenges of adults with marginalized identities in career and identity development (e.g., Carlbaum, 2021; Erwin, 2020). For example, by describing stories of highly skilled migrants in rural areas of Sweden seeking re‐entry to former professions, Carlbaum (2021) revealed the uniqueness of their opportunities and challenges due to the intersection of their social identities (e.g., age, education level, gender, material status), positionality (e.g., migration type, residence status, professional stage), and temporal contexts (e.g., settlement year, immigration policies).…”

“…Some IR focused on the unique challenges of adults with marginalized identities in career and identity development (e.g., Carlbaum, 2021; Erwin, 2020). For example, by describing stories of highly skilled migrants in rural areas of Sweden seeking re‐entry to former professions, Carlbaum (2021) revealed the uniqueness of their opportunities and challenges due to the intersection of their social identities (e.g., age, education level, gender, material status), positionality (e.g., migration type, residence status, professional stage), and temporal contexts (e.g., settlement year, immigration policies). From the perspective of a post‐911 veteran, Erwin (2020) explored the “borderland” identity development of veterans through narrative inquiry, whose identity lies in‐between spaces of military and civilian and who is forced to navigate transitional zones, deficit discourse, and microaggressions.…”

Untitled

“…The study is narrowly focused on young adult migrants living in Sweden and it is relevant to a multidimensional social resilience project that is an initiative of Lund University's 2030 agenda on research on social sustainability. Recent migrant studies conducted in Sweden cover a wide range of migrant-related issues, such as parenting practices (Wissö & Bäck-Wiklund, 2021;Baghdasaryan et al, 2021), housing (Stepanova & Romanov, 2021), education and work (Ahlgren & Rydell, 2020;Carlbaum, 2021;Messina Dahlberg et al, 2021), and integration (Eliassi, 2017;Lyck-Bowen, 2020). Though these studies cover a wide range of social issues relevant to migrants' lives in host countries, the choices of methods are limited to qualitative interviews and focus group discussions.…”