THE NOSTALGIA - Perceptions of Non-European Skilled-immigrants on their Professional Career Sacrifices in Sweden

Abstract

Purpose: Purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions of high-skilled non-European immigrants about their professional career sacrifices after migrating to Sweden. Focus group of this thesis are the non-European immigrants who are academically or professionally qualified, and who have had a professional career before migrating to Sweden, but those who are unemployed at the moment or those who engaged with low-skilled jobs. Moreover, the focus group only includes individuals who moved as the dependents, due to family reunification purpose. Theory: Stigma Theory of Goffman comprehends the social disapproval and discrediting for different subsets of the society. Therefore, this theory was applied as the underlying theory of this master thesis. Method: Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with high-skilled non-European immigrants who have been working as engineers, managers, finance and banking professionals etc., and who are currently unemployed or working in warehouses, restaurants, foods delivery sector etc. Purposive sampling and snowball sampling methods were used to contact the respondents, and the collected data were analysed through thematic coding, with the help of stigma theory. Result: Results revealed that the informants are dual self-stigmatized. In one hand, they are not receiving expected employment opportunities due to the stereotypes of the employers regarding the immigrants. On the other hand, they are again affected from the public stigma of their home countries about the low-skilled workers. Thus, the informants are struggling with both these stigmatizations. However, they deploy different de-stigmatization strategies to break through the dual stigmatization, while sacrificing their present and living with nostalgic memories for a hope of a better future.