As part of the remit of my ESRC research, which ends on 31.3.10, I said I would disseminate findings on various discussion boards, so here goes:
My study focused on professional migrants who were being deskilled in jobs for which they were overqualified for-- in this case, as social care workers. I wanted to learn what the role of education, literacy, and learning were in their opportunities to advance and their strategies for moving ahead professionally. Many of the participants were former health care professionals (nurses, midwifes, occupation therapists). Currently, migrants (both European and non-European) comprise about 19% of the population in this sector, which is expected to grow in the future, because of the fastly ageing population. This group was found to have few opportunities to improve their situations, the opposite of why they initially migrated. Many of them initially believed, and were often told by recruiters, that the social care sector was a stepping stone in to the health professions and other careers, rather than an occupational dustbin.
I’ll briefly summarise some findings that may be of interest and if you want to learn more about the study, please see the website under findings: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/homework/index.htm :
• Employers in the social care sector confused accents with “language problems” and many workers internalized these beliefs, especially when they were new to a company, thinking they were poor communicators
• This group desired advanced level ESOL, focusing on grammar, and business English, medical and technical English courses, as well as International English Language Test System (IELTS) courses, most of which were unavailable in their communities
• Workplace ESOL courses were regarded primarily as sites of social bonding amongst learners as many already possessed the skills that were being taught
• The Englishes this group appeared to need related to legal and bureaucratic literacies around employment laws, immigration, and housing, so they could better know and assert their rights.
• Newcomer migrant carers often picked up colloquial accents and regional idiomatic expressions with ease and over a short period of time---communicating well with clients once regular contact was established and there were opportunities to practice
• Attendance at FE ESOL courses was episodic due to problems students had with their work schedules and being short-staffed, although they persisted to learn, and studied independently too
• This group appeared to handle workplace paperwork with ease, and even helped their British-born colleagues with spelling issues
This group, highly skilled migrants (those with tertiary education and professionals in their former countries), are often not acknowledged as such, and has been excluded from current policy discourses, especially with regard to deskilling and brain waste. While the LSC reports that this group is desperate enough to take on any kind of work while they “improve their English language levels” this state leaves them vulnerable to workplace exploitation and with little chance to move ahead.
For more on practice, research, and policy implications/recommendations, please see website above. For further enquiries, please contact: Sondra Cuban, [log in to unmask]
Thanks, Sondra
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