From surviving to thriving: ‘success stories’ of highly skilled refugees in the UK

ABSTRACT

This article is located in the context of the refugee emergency in Europe and responses to it. We draw data from a qualitative study exploring challenges and factors that facilitated professional success in the experiences of five highly skilled refugees as they seek gainful employment in the UK. Findings emphasise the importance of motivation and resilience, and of (re)building social networks in professional (re)integration. Relatedly, the paper also examines how the concept of ‘intercultural communicative competence’ might guide ethical responses to the needs of these groups.

Il presente articolo si colloca all’interno del contesto dell’emergenza dei rifugiati in Europa e delle risposte ad essa. Lo studio di matrice qualitativa esplora le sfide incontrate da cinque rifugiati altamente qualificati nella ricerca di lavoro nel Regno Unito e i fattori che ne hanno determinato il successo professionale. I risultati della ricerca enfatizzano l’importanza che ricoprono la motivazione, la resilienza e la capacità di (ri)costruire una rete di contatti sociali per la (re)integrazione professionale. Inoltre, l’articolo esamina come il concetto di ‘competenza comunicativa interculturale’ possa collaborare ad elaborare delle risposte etiche alle necessità di questi gruppi.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugee reintegration
• intercultural communicative competence
• resilience
• ethics
• highly skilled refugees

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to our five participants for sharing their stories with us. This work would have not been possible without the funding of Erasmus + and the support of other colleagues involved in the Critical Skills of Life and Work project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sara Ganassin is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and Communication at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Newcastle University (UK). Her research interests include internationalisation of higher education; mobility, migrant and refugee communities; and Chinese heritage language learning and teaching. She has been involved in different European projects on internationalisation and intercultural learning. Sara also previously worked in the voluntary sector as project coordinator and researcher with migrant and refugee women and young people.

Tony Young is a Reader in Applied Linguistics and Communication at Newcastle University in the UK. His research explores aspects of intergroup and intercultural communication in health, language education and higher educational contexts. He is currently involved with projects to help the reintegration of displaced people in Europe; to support the communicative needs of people living with dementia in the UK and Malaysia; and to investigate the experiences of people in ‘internationalising’ universities in the global North and global South.

ORCID

Sara Ganassin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0373-542X

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 This study was developed as part of the Critical Skills for Life and Work project: Developing the Professional Intercultural Communicative Competence of Highly Skilled Refugees; a two-year Erasmus + development of innovation project (2017–2019) funded by the European Commission (KA204:26667). Please see cslw.eu for a project description, and for free downloadable employment-related language learning materials for teachers and learners.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission [grant number KA204:26667].