Full Citation

Title: How ‘skill’ definition affects the diversity of skilled immigration policies

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2020

ISBN:

ISSN: 1369-183X

DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1561063

NSFID:

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Abstract: Increasingly, governments focus on skilled immigration not only to fill labour market gaps but also due to a perceived political preference for such migration. Across debates in major immigrant-receiving nations, we observe an assumption that the ‘skill’ in ‘skilled immigration’ is clearly definable and easily differentiated from ‘unskilled’ or ‘semi-skilled’ migrant labour. Academic research in industrial relations and economics provides a more complex reading of the concept of ‘skill’ by interrogating the ways in which skill is accumulated. This article reviews concepts of ‘skill’ embedded in skilled immigration policies in five major Western democratic jurisdictions. It demonstrates the plurality of approaches to defining ‘skill’ within political and policy debates in these countries, and links these back to the prevailing theoretical perspectives. The article argues that greater attention by policy-makers and scholars of skilled immigration to the theoretical assumptions underpinning their preferred models of skilled immigration would better reveal the gendered and racialised biases of existing approaches to skills definition.

Url: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1561063

Url: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1561063

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Authors: Boucher, Anna Katherine

Periodical (Full): Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Issue: 12

Volume: 46

Pages: 2533-2550

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Migration and Immigration, Other

Countries: