High-skill migration and recession : gendered perspectives

Abstract

Highly skilled women migrants are doubly-disadvantaged by their sex and outsider status when moving to a new country. They are paid less than their male counterparts, are employed more often than men in jobs below their level of qualification or outside their area of expertise, and often have to face the dual responsibilities of family and work. While migration is an opportunity for them it comes at a high price, with their potential often left unfulfilled. This volume explores the complex relationship between gender and high-skill migration, with a special focus on the impact of the current economic crisis on highly skilled women-migrants in Europe. The contributors examine not only typically 'female' labour market sectors, such as nursing, but also analyse engineering, entrepreneurship and academia. Throughout, the collection adopts an interdisciplinary and multi-methodological approach combining perspectives from Migration Studies, Human Geography, Political Science, Social Anthropology and Legal Studies.