Work Matters: The Role and Meaning of Employment and Career for Highly Educated Female Migrants

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the meaning of work for highly educated female migrants. While employment tends to be considered central to migrant integration, migration research has paid limited attention to the deeper meanings associated with work, and the role they play in migration processes. In order to address this knowledge‐gap, this paper analyses narratives of highly educated female migrants from the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) living in the UK with a focus on how work‐related interests and aspirations impact on migration choices and plans, and on how the women evaluate their experiences in the UK. The paper draws theoretical insights from the literature on work orientations and meaningful work, and shows that being able to obtain employment in line with one's qualifications and skills is important to these female migrants in multiple ways: in order to achieve aims and aspirations for economic stability and social mobility, make career advancements, and because of personal interests, ambitions and values, and how those are reflected in the jobs the women do, or aspire to do. While migration is often considered a route to achieving work‐related aspirations, the extent to which this succeeds varies amongst the research participants, and for some, migration involves blocked career mobility and a need to adjust and/or re‐assess one's plans and options. Through an in‐depth exploration of how employment and career feature in these female migrants' stories, the paper adds crucial insights into this aspect of their motivations for and experiences of migration, while highlighting the deeper implications of professional opportunities gained and barriers encountered for integration and belonging.