Migrants

Introduction

This section provides resources for "making the case" for careers, referring to both challenges that careers services can tackle and evidence that such services work.

The interest in career support for migrants and refugees has increased over the last decade in Europe, as numbers of people to the continent have increased. Career guidance is often part of a wider range of support measures to help people find work in their new homes. Many aspects are covered across different disciplines: prevalent topics in career guidance tend to be inter-cultural sensitivity, strategies to help people who have undergone trauma, and in some cases, the unique challenges of young migrants who travel alone.

The case for careers

The academic literature and many other publications have cited the importance of careers interventions for this client group. Amongst the common drivers are:

• A plethora of research studies have identified career guidance needs of different migrants and refugees, which have some commonality and some uniqueness depending on context, summarised by Sultana (2022).

• Traumatic experiences can lead to migrants seeking less challenging work or overlooking opportunities, which create the need for counselling to account for disrupted life courses (Khoronzhevych & Eriksson, 2024)

A dominant theme in the literature over the past two decades is the requirement for career guidance to adapt to best serve people from different cultures, such that careers advisers adopt practices of intercultural sensitivity e.g. Peavy et al, (2003) and McMahon et al (2019).  

Career guidance can add value with this group in several ways:

• Career guidance plays a multifaceted role in addressing social injustices e.g. Arthur (2013). Narrative techniques are particularly valuable for refugees e.g. Abkhezr (2017).

• Meanwhile, skilled migrants can be a source of competitive advantage to organisations (Zikic, 2014)

• Evaluations are not as prevalent in this areas as with other client groups, but a growing list of case studies show how career interventions can help migrants into work, often in conjunction with other forms of support and as part of a multi-agency model. For instance, several case studies are included in Akkok and Hughes (2023). 

• Initiatives by both grassroots organisations and councils have made a significant positive contribution to migrant outcomes in the UK e.g. Frigerio and Nasimi (2019), aside the support offered by charities (e.g. Refugee Council).

• There are also international case studies, of the sort implemented by the ILO, which are making a fundamental difference with some of the most badly affected areas and people.