Migration categories as a glass ceiling: Unravelling how migrant aspirations are routinely under-recorded and systemically devalued

Research description

This project is funded by the H2020 HumMingBird Research Grant and studies how highly educated migrants from non-EU countries access the labour market in Europe. We focus on migrants who come through family reunification, as students or as irregular migrants (refugees, asylum seekers) and are assumed to lack labour market-relevant skills and aspirations. The structural impact of categorisation on migration policies and integration pathways will be analysed through qualitative data on the lived experiences of migrants. We also question the seemingly-objective notion of skilled migration and examine how intersectional factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, country of origin and legal categories become implicit in the value ascribed to skill.