pp. 200
ISBN cartaceo 9791280136381
ISBN pdf 9791280136398
An international discussion on adequate education and new forms of learning was embedded in post-1989 socio-political scenario, which increasingly pronounced a knowledge-based economy. The idea of a time-framed instruction restricted to initial life stages was outdated in a dynamic society, that had changed continuously due to socio-political, economic and technological transformations. The European Union reacted accordingly and suggested to make learning a lifelong and lifewide process promoting geographical mobility for educational and professional motivations in order to stimulate economic growth and personal advancement on the social ladder.
However, recent data shows that successful educational and professional integration and thus an adequate match of competences and occupational profiles is still unsatisfactory in numerous European contexts, especially when speaking of qualified mobility.
This volume tackles the issue of professional inclusion of knowledgeable migrants under consideration of the paradigmatic life course framework and aims to contribute to international research on human capital valorisation. It thus strives to investigate professional trajectories and corresponding skill utilisation of mobile workers in a highly heterogenous European labour market that constantly requires actions to combat unemployment, the waste of skills, the invisibility of (hidden) educational capital and the lack of needed qualifications of its potential workforce.
Giulia Marroccoli is research fellow at the University of Turin, she holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and her thesis analysed upward social mobility among immigrant descendants. Her main research interests include: social inclusion processes of immigrant descendants; interethnic relations; international migration; social stratification and inequalities.
Tanja Schroot holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and works currently as post-doc researcher at the University of Turin. Her particular research interests and several publications are located in the field of intra- and extra- European (highly) qualified mobility and its intersections with education in the light of the Life Long Learning construct and linked professional trajectories.
Introduction
Section 1
Migration and human capital
1.1 Migration decisions: The fundamental nexus between flows
and skills
1.1.1 Critical perspectives on labour migration in the (neo)classical theory
1.1.2 Migration decisions 2.0: moving beyond the economy and towards culture
1.2 Knowledge work(er) in the 21st century
1.2.1 From expats to highly-skilled individuals: a potpourri of categories
1.2.2 Gain or drain? How to deter and attract human capital
1.3 The Italian case and the waste of talents
Section 2
Portraits of departures and mobility
The long romance between Italy and migration
2. (Not) Choosing Italy – Immigrant Stories
2.1 Germany and Romania as places of departure
2.2 Migration to Italy: two samples, two realities
2.2.1 Leaving home and the issue of life quality
2.2.2 Strategies towards socio-economic mobility Socio-educational service providers in the migratory context
Public services
Entrepreneurship and self-employment
Transnational labor opportunities
2.2.3 Move(d) to improve? The interrelation of mobility – capital – culture in (qualified) migration
Section 3
From Italy to beyond: high-skilled people on the move
3.1 Behind the choice to move abroad
3.1.1 Preparing the actual moving: resources and strategies
3.2 On the ground: careers abroad
3.2.1 The transnational careers
3.2.2 Starting from scratch
3.2.3 In between: transferable skills and networks
3.2.4 Human capital evaluation
Getting to know the language: a conditio sine qua non?
Educational credentials: between recognition and further training
3.3. To move or not to move? The issues at stake
3.3.1 A precise contentment
3.3.2 Adjustments in progress
Rethinking one’s mobility
The unlikelihood of coming back: forced decision or reasoned choice?
Conclusion
References