Skilled migrant workplace integration: the choice between pragmatism and critical realism approaches

ABSTRACT

This article provides a rationale for adopting the critical realism (CR) instead of pragmatism paradigm when researching skilled migrants' (SMs) workplace integration in Australia. While the extant SM literature has provided an abundance of ‘explanations' reflecting the difficulties SMs face, it appears almost impossible for SMs to overcome some challenges such as discrimination or lack of local work experience. However, there is not a sufficient explanation for why many SMs have successfully integrated within the host labour market despite facing such difficulties. This study was designed to challenge what may have been ‘taken-for-granted' in the literature and explore the causal relationship behind the SMs’ difficulties and success. The CR paradigm provides a new way to examine the problems SMs face and their strategies to overcome such issues. It also empowers researchers to look beyond the empirical layer of evidence and explore how and why things happen the way they do.

KEYWORDS:

• Pragmatism
• critical realism
• non-English-speaking-background
• skilled migrants
• workplace integration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thi Tuyet Tran

Dr Thi Tuyet Tran (June Tran) is a mobile lecturer and researcher. She has worked in three countries: Australia, Vietnam, and Germany She has developed an interest in interdisciplinary research. Her interests range from labour economics, human resource management to various areas in management and education research such as graduate employability, work integrated learning, university-industry collaboration, language education and cultural study. She is currently based at RMIT University and working toward a research project investigating workplace integration of professional skilled migrants in the Australian labour market.

Roslyn Cameron

Professor Roslyn Cameron is Director of the Centre for Organisational Change and Agility (COCA) at Torrens University, Australia. She has been the recipient of several large-scale workforce development research grants and an array of smaller scale research grants related to skilled migration, workforce readiness/employability and future skilling totalling $1.9m. She has over 90 publications.

Alan Montague

Dr Alan Montague, now semi-retired is still working part-time at RMIT University Melbourne. Alan was a senior lecturer at RMIT University Melbourne. His research and vocational experience in a rich working life links skill/vocational shortages, leadership, government policies relating to education and industry, employment/education program policy development, and management and workforce planning. His research also extends to critical commentary on corporate ethics and the impact of artificial intelligence on organisations and jobs. Alan was the Program Director for the Master of Human Resource Management for over five years. In an earlier career, Alan was a vocational counselor and a very senior bureaucrat in the federal Department of Education and Training.

Nuttawuth Nuenjohn

Dr Nuttawuth Muenjohn is a researcher at RMIT University. His research focuses on Leadership Studies, particularly ‘Leadership in the Asian context' and ‘Workplace Innovation’ from an entrepreneurial perspective. His continuing commitment to research has been achieved through collaborations with international networks in the Asia-Pacific region.

Shea Fan

Dr. Shea Fan is a Senior Lecturer at RMIT University, Australia. Her key research interests include cross-cultural management and international management, with a special focus on an identity perspective. Shea has published in Human Resource Management, the Journal of World Business, Applied Psychology: An International Review, and the International Journal of Human Resource Management.