This paper addresses some key factors influencing the career development of highly qualified migrants during their stay abroad. It is based on 44 qualitative interviews with international students and highly qualified migrant workers from China and India, most of whom were temporarily residing in Germany. The findings show that different types of social capital might co-exist and perform multiple functions. Some migrants engage in entrepreneurial activities, availing themselves of links between their country of origin and Europe, which could help them to advance their professional goals. The study found that the political assessment of migrants also plays an important role. The paper concludes that the category of highly qualified migrants is heterogenous which comprises migrants who have different aspirations as well as divergent career trajectories.
AksakalMReslowN (2019) (Un)intended consequences in high-skilled migrants’ integration and inequalities: A comparison of policy in Germany and the Netherlands. COMCAD Working paper, No. 166, 2019. Bielefeld: Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD). Available at: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/soz/ab6/ag_faist/downloads/WP_166.pdf
2.
AksakalMSchmidtK (2017) Temporary migrants’ experiences, perceptions, and motivations in Asian–German transnational spaces. In: PitkänenPKorpelaMAksakalM, et al. (eds) Characteristics of Temporary Migration in European–Asian Transnational Social Spaces.
Dordrecht:
Springer, 198–206.
3.
AksakalMSchmidtK (2019a) The role of cultural capital in life transitions among young intra-EU movers in Germany. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Epub ahead of print 9 July 2020. DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2019.1679416.
4.
AksakalMSchmidtK (2019b)
Integration needs and support offered: The effects of support on young Spaniards in Germany. International Migration58(1): 119–135.
5.
AksakalMSchmidtKKorpelaM, et al. (2017) Introduction: Temporary migration in European–Asian social spaces. In: PitkänenPKorpelaMAksakalM, et al. (eds) Characteristics of Temporary Migration in European–Asian Transnational Social Spaces.
Dordrecht:
Springer, 5–31.
6.
BattistellaG (2017) Temporary labour migration: A flawed system in need of reform. In: CarreraSGeddesAGuildE, et al. (eds) Pathways Towards Legal Migration into the EU: Reappraising Concepts, Trajectories and Policies.
Brussels:
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), 15–19.
7.
BeechSE (2019) The Geographies of International Student Mobility: Spaces, Places and Decision-Making.
Singapore:
Springer.
8.
BeynonHGlavanisP (2014) Introduction. In: BeynonHGlavanisP (eds) Patterns of Social Inequality: Essays for Richard Brown.
Hoboken, NJ:
Taylor and Francis, 1–9.
9.
BorjasGJ (1989)
Economic theory and international migration. International Migration Review23(3): 457–485.
10.
BourdieuP (1985)
The social space and the genesis of groups. Theory and Society14(6): 723–744.
11.
BourdieuP (1986) The forms of capital. In: RichardsonJG (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education.
New York:
Greenwood, pp.241–259.
12.
BourdieuP (2010) Outline of a Theory of Practice.
Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
13.
BrooksRWatersJL (2011) Student Mobilities: Migration and the Internationalization of Higher Education.
Basingstoke, UK:
Palgrave Macmillan.
14.
Bundesamt für Migration and Flüchtlinge (2018) Migration, Integration, Asylum: Political Developments in Germany 2017. Annual Policy Report by the German National Contact Point for the European Migration Network (EMN). Nuremberg: Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/11a_germany_amr2017_part2_en.pdf
15.
CairnsDCuzzocreaVBriggsD, et al. (2017) The Consequences of Mobility: Reflexivity, Social Inequality and the Reproduction of Precariousness in Highly Qualified Migration.
Cham, Switzerland:
Springer Nature.
16.
CernaL (2016) Immigration Policies and the Global Competition for Talent.
London:
Palgrave Macmillan.
17.
CollinsFL (2008)
Bridges to learning: International student mobilities, education agencies and inter-personal networks. Global Networks8(4): 398–417.
18.
ConradsonDLathamA (2005)
Friendship, networks and transnationality in a world city: Antipodean transmigrants in London. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies31(2): 287–305.
19.
CzaikaM (2018) High-Skilled Migration: Drivers and Politics.
Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
EbertJHeubleinUHillmannJ, et al. (2018) Wissenschaft Weltoffen Kompakt 2018: Facts and Figures on the International Nature of Studies and Research in Germany.
Bielefeld:
WBV Media.
22.
EspirituYL (2003) Home Bound: Filipino American Lives Across Cultures, Communities, and Countries.
Berkeley:
University of California Press.
23.
FaistTAksakalMSchmidtK (2017) Indian High-Skilled Migrants and International Students in Germany: Migration Behaviours, Intentions and Development Effects.
Gütersloh:
Bertelsmann Stiftung.
24.
FavellA (2008) Eurostars and Eurocities: Free Movement and Mobility in an Integrating Europe.
Maldon, UK:
Blackwell.
25.
Glick-SchillerN (1997)
The situation of transnational studies. Identities4(2): 155–166.
26.
GoldringLLandoltP (2013) The conditionality of legal status and rights: Conceptualizing precarious non-citizenship in Canada. In: GoldringLLandoltP (eds) Producing and Negotiating Non-citizenship: Precarious Legal Status in Canada.
Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 3–69.
27.
GouldnerAW (1960)
The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review25(2): 161–178.
28.
GuildE (2017) The legal framework. Who is entitled to move? In: BigoDGuildE (eds) Controlling Frontiers: Free Movement into and Within Europe.
London:
Routledge, 14–48.
29.
HallerW (2019) Capital: Cultural, social and economic. In: RyanJM (ed.) Core Concepts in Sociology.
Chichester:
Wiley Blackwell,
14–16.
MaAS (2014)
Social networks, cultural capital and attachment to the host city: Comparing overseas Chinese students and foreign students in Taipei. Asia Pacific Viewpoint55(2): 226–241.
32.
MasseyDSArangoJHugoG, et al. (1998) Worlds in Motion:Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium.
Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
33.
MeierL (2015a) Introduction: Local lives, work and social identities of migrant professionals in the city. In: MeierL (ed.) Migrant Professionals in the City. Local Encounters, Identities and Inequalities.
Hoboken, NJ:
Taylor and Francis, 1–17.
34.
MeierL (2015b) Learning the city by experiences and images: German finance managers’ encounters in London and in Singapore. In: MeierL (ed.) Migrant Professionals in the City. Local Encounters, Identities and Inequalities.
Hoboken, NJ:
Taylor and Francis, 55–74.
35.
MulhollandJRyanL (2014)
Doing the business: Variegation, opportunity and intercultural experience among intra-EU highly-skilled migrants. International Migration52(3): 55–68.
36.
Murphy-LejeuneE (2002) Student Mobility and Narrative in Europe: The New Strangers.
London:
Routledge.
37.
PécoudA (2017) Immigrant entrepreneurship and mixed cultural competencies: Ethnographic perspectives from Turkish business people in Germany. In: Espinoza-HeroldMContiniRM (eds) Living in Two Homes: Integration, Identity and Education of Transnational Migrants in a Globalized World.
Bingley, UK:
Emerald Publishing, 33–59.
38.
PimpaN (2004)
The relationship between Thai students’ choices of international education and their families. International Education Journal5(3): 352–359.
39.
PitkänenPKorpelaMAksakalM, et al. (eds) (2017) Characteristics of Temporary Migration in European–Asian Transnational Social Spaces.
Dordrecht:
Springer.
40.
PortesA (2014)
Downsides of social capital. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America111(52): 18407–18408.
41.
PortesAMartinezBP (2020)
They are not all the same: Immigrant enterprises, transnationalism, and development. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies46(10): 1991–2007.
42.
PortesAGuarnizoLEHallerW (2002)
Transnational entrepreneurs: An alternative form of immigrant economic adaptation. American Sociological Review67(2): 278–298.
43.
PowerEM (1999)
An introduction to Pierre Bourdieu's key theoretical concepts. Journal for the Study of Food and Society3(1): 48–52.
44.
RobertsonSLOldsKDaleR, et al. (2016) Introduction: Global regionalisms and higher education. In: RobertsonSLOldsKDaleR, et al. (eds) Global Regionalisms and Higher Education: Projects, Processes, Politics.
Cheltenham:
Edward Elgar, 1–23.
45.
SchreierM (2014)
Varianten qualitativer Inhaltsanalyse: Ein Wegweiser im Dickicht der Begrifflichkeiten [Ways of doing qualitative content analysis: Disentangling terms and terminologies]. Forum: Qualitative Social Research15(1), Article 18. Available at: https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/2043/3635 [In German.]
46.
ThondhlanaJMadzivaRMcGrathS (2016)
Negotiating employability: Migrant capitals and networking strategies for Zimbabwean highly skilled migrants in the UK. The Sociological Review64(3): 575–592.
47.
WatersJL (2006)
Geographies of cultural capital: Education, international migration and family strategies between Hong Kong and Canada. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers31(2): 179–192.
48.
WatersJL (2009)
Transnational geographies of academic distinction: The role of social capital in the recognition and evaluation of ‘overseas’ credentials. Globalisation, Societies and Education7(2): 113–129.
49.
WatersJLeungM (2013)
A colourful university life? Transnational higher education and the spatial dimensions of institutional social capital in Hong Kong. Population, Space and Place19(2): 155–167.
50.
WeinarAKlekowski von KoppenfelsA (2020) Highly-Skilled Migration: Between Settlement and Mobility.
Cham:
Springer.
