Skilled migration has become a significant strategy for meeting skill demands and shortages in Australia; however, many skilled migrants experience barriers to securing employment which creates an array of social and economic insecurities and vulnerabilities. Those whose overseas qualifications and work experience are not recognised in host countries will often experience skill wastage and atrophy and exploitation. The recognition of overseas qualifications and experience (ROQE) has been identified as a ‘central immigration issue of the new century … in all post-industrial societies receiving immigrants’. For many skilled migrants, ROQE creates a barrier for securing employment commensurate with qualifications and experience and thereby creates skills wastage and downward mobility. The aim of this paper is to analyse ROQE through the dual theoretical lenses of human capital theory and the critical analyses of knowledge hierarchies. Data from a survey of skilled migrants in Western Australia are used to compare the occupations of skilled migrants prior to entering Australia and their current occupation. The paper offers a dual lens theoretical analysis of the problematic ROQE phenomenon and concludes with policy- and practice-based strategies that would assist in reducing skills wastage and the exploitation of skilled migrants.

The unanticipated road to skills wastage for skilled migrants: the non-recognition of overseas qualifications and experience (ROQE)

Despite clear aspirations by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to create an effective and transparent framework to facilitate movements among skilled professionals within the ASEAN by December 2015, progress has been slow and uneven. This report examines the challenges ASEAN member states face in achieving the goal of greater mobility for the highly skilled, including hurdles in recognizing professional qualifications, opening up access to certain jobs, and a limited willingness by professionals to move due to perceived cultural, language, and socioeconomic differences. The cost of these barriers is staggering and could reduce the region's competitiveness in the global market. This report launches a multi-year effort by the Asian Development Bank and the Migration Policy Institute to better understand the issues and develop strategies to gradually overcome the problems. It offers a range of policy recommendations that have been discussed among experts in a high-level expert meeting, taking into account best practices locally and across the region.

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Achieving Skill Mobility in the ASEAN Economic Community: Challenges, Opportunities, and Policy Implications

Covid-19 has provoked a deep social crisis in Spain that has inflicted a major wound in the living conditions of the population, but especially in the most vulnerable sectors, among which the immigrant communities stand out. During this health crisis, the awareness of immigrants without papers as essential subjects who make an indispensable contribution, but who are the object of non-rights, has crystallized into a relevant political struggle around the movement #RegularizacionYa. The aim of this article is to analyze the emergence and development of this social mobilization that is framed in the critical citizenship studies and more specifically in the literature on acts of citizenship and performative citizenship of Engin Isin.

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Luchando por sus derechos en tiempos de Covid-19. Resistencias y reclamaciones de regularización de los migrantes Sinpapeles en España

Skilled Labor Mobility and Migration

Crises can function as catalysts for policy change, but change depends on multiple factors such as the actual content of the event, the agenda-setting power of the advocates of change, and their abilities to foster advocacy coalitions and break up policy monopolies. The COVID-19 crisis is an event that halted virtually all movement, including labor migration across the world, thus having great potential to act as a major focusing event. This article will look into the possibilities of this crisis to induce permanent labor migration policy change based on the case of Estonia. The article thus contributes to the literature on migration policy change from the Central and East European perspective.

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COVID-19 Crisis and Labor Migration Policy: A Perspective From Estonia

Commentary: How is COVID-19 Reshaping Labour Migration?

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Reinventing Mutual Recognition Arrangements: Lessons from International Experiences and Insights for the Asean Region

Indian and Chinese nationals comprise two of the largest foreign-born nationality groups in the United States, and are growing rapidly. Indian and Chinese immigrants tend to enter the United States through skilled migration channels—either pursuing further education or entering on temporary work visas for specialty occupations—and go on to enjoy higher employment rates and higher median household incomes than the US-born population. Despite these successes, these groups still face some integration challenges, such as cultural integration and English language proficiency. Immigrant integration services in the United States are relatively decentralised, with crucial services provided by a wide array of actors. Federal funds are usually directed and supplemented by state and local government actors, who then work closely with civil society organisations, including Indian and Chinese diaspora groups, to provide support in areas such as social services, language training, credential recognition and naturalization assistance. Meanwhile, India and China are starting to expand their diaspora engagement activities to include integration services at destination.

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A Comparative Analysis of the Migration and Integration of Indian and Chinese Immigrants in the United States

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Improving migrants' labour market integration in Europe from the outset : a cooperative approach to predeparture measures

In the last few years, the importance of cooperating on issues of migration has become ever more apparent. The 2015–16 migration crisis in Europe and successive surges in irregular migration at the US–Mexico border since 2014 have illustrated the limitations of acting unilaterally and demonstrated the role that cooperation can play in managing migration more effectively. As a result, governments in Europe and North America have invested significant resources and political capital in their relationships with key countries of origin and transit. But an initial review suggests that while recent partnerships on migration are distinguished by their scope and ambition, they raise similar questions to their predecessors: namely, how effective they are in achieving their goals and whether they constitute true ‘partnerships’ in the proper sense of the term.

Kate Hooper

Papers

Commentary: How is COVID-19 Reshaping Labour Migration?

Reinventing Mutual Recognition Arrangements: Lessons from International Experiences and Insights for the Asean Region

A Comparative Analysis of the Migration and Integration of Indian and Chinese Immigrants in the United States

Improving migrants' labour market integration in Europe from the outset : a cooperative approach to predeparture measures

Reconsidering the Partnership Approach in International Migration Cooperation