The Disorientation year? The paradox of the highly skilled migrant ""Orientation year"" policy in The Netherlands

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Master Thesis

Leiden University

Master of Science

Public Administration

Public Management track

Olena Sorkina

S1249304

Supervisor: Dr. Alexandre Afonso

The Disorientation year?

The paradox of the highly skilled

migrant

“Orientation year” policy

in The Netherlands

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Abstract

This thesis analyses, employing qualitative research methods, how the non-Western highly skilled migrants perceive the Dutch labor market after acquiring the Orientation year residence permit and whether they encounter barriers while trying to access it.

The thesis is based on seventeen in-depth semi-structured interviews with highly skilled migrants from outside the European Union who have obtained the Orientation year residence permit between 2012 and 2018.

By employing Rydgren’s concept of labor market exclusion mechanisms, this paper examines how highly skilled migrants perceive the influence of statistical and institutional discrimination and network effects on their employability on the Dutch labor market. The thesis concludes that institutional discrimination appears to be the most significant obstacle to migrants’ employability. Furthermore, depending on a migrants’ background, ethnicity and professional field, other labor market barriers may prevent them from finding employment during the Orientation year.

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Chapter 1 1.1 Introduction

Past decennia are characterized by a very high people mobility, aging populations and fierce competition between developed countries for highly skilled labor. Influenced by the demands of the “knowledge economy”, where human capital plays a central role in the country's economic success, EU members, including the Netherlands have been adapting their policies towards migrants to create new ways to attract highly skilled labor from outside the EU (Zaletel, 2006). The mobility of highly skilled people can be seen as a characteristic trait of globalization. The necessary seamless transfer of qualifications across countries and labor markets is only possible within a particular region or a particular number of countries, such as the European Union (Aure, 2013). Although overall migration in the EU is increasing every year, it has been argued that labor mobility is still not high enough compared to, for example, the mobility of goods and capital (Pritchett, 2006). This could also be an indirect effect of existing misconceptions regarding labor mobility dangers and benefits.

First, despite the fact that we often hear about labor mobility and its disadvantages in the modern world, namely the phenomenon of the ‘brain drain’, scholars around the world increasingly perceive highly skilled migration as a development that, in the longer term, brings benefits to both receiving and sending countries (Suter & Jandl, 2006, Vadean 2007). Ban Ki-moon, the former United Nations Secretary-General, in his speech to the Second UN Global Forum on Migration and Development, referred to a “triple win” in this respect: movement of skills for the benefit of the individual, the country of origin and the destination country (UN, 2008).

Secondly, despite public opinion drawing on the fears for domestic labor market competition and sharing welfare state benefits with migrants as a consequence of labor migration of poorer countries, recent studies on the topic have found little to no proof for job displacement of host country nationals by migrants (Nannestad, 2007; Martin, 2010; Glover et al, 2003; Lucchino et al, 2012; Dustmann & Frattini, 2013; Craig, 2015). However, although the overall impact of labor migrants on the economy tends to be positive, two forms of job displacement may take place (Netto & Craig, 2017). First, according to studies by Somerville & Sumption (2008) displacement may occur in so called ‘expat jobs’ where no host

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country-specific knowledge is required with fluency in English or other third languages. Secondly, following the study by Wadsworth (2010) on the UK labor market a displacement occurs in the low skilled sectors, where, according to his study a significant number of migrant workers ends up working. However, more recent migrants, in much less significant number, occupy very high-level positions due to their high educational qualifications.

Dutch immigration policy after the year 2000 has been changing from ‘restrictive’ to ‘selective’. The Orientation year1_{policy is a result of the general shift in the economic and}

migration policy of the Netherlands from ‘no, unless’ to ‘yes, provided that’,2_allowing

highly skilled graduates from outside the EU one-year access to the Dutch labor market. This has been a result of the international competition for ‘brains’, labor mobility and the aging population in the Netherlands: more people are retiring, and fewer people can contribute to the pension fund. For the year 2018, the largest segment of the Dutch population is between the ages of 46 and 56, and according to the prognosis by the Central Statistics Office in the Netherlands3_{, the Dutch population will continue to grow older over the next 10-15 years,}

causing the effect of a “reversed population pyramid” (Bevolkingspiramide voor de periode 1950-2060).

1.2 Problem definition and research question

The starting point of this study is the observation of highly skilled migrants who went through the Orientation year program and had to return to their home country or request a different kind of residence permit, such as residence permit for the family reunion purposes, so-called ‘stay with the partner’4_{residence permit. It was observed that some migrants from}

the researcher's network were not happy with the existing job opportunities and often experienced the labor market competition as unfair and the employers reluctant to cooperate in changing their status to an official working status with the employer as a sponsor. From the researcher's perspective, it was often observed that the requirement of knowledge of the Dutch language was often “a stumbling rock” on the road of highly skilled migrants to their

1_{Official translation, also known as Search Year and Zoekjaar. Original: Zoekjaar hoogopgeleiden, hereinafter}

referred to as Orientation year

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success on the Dutch labor market. The researcher wondered whether, despite the Dutch widely proclaimed culture of ‘openness’ and ‘loyalty’ to minorities and migrants, some real barriers to the Dutch labor market and general acceptance to the Dutch society could exist. In order to identify these barriers and the perceptions of potential barriers amongst

participants in the Orientation year, the following research question was formulated. What factors affecting labor market participation do highly skilled migrants who participated in the Orientation year in the Netherlands distinguish and how do these factors influence their labor market prospects?

A multi-level approach to the question of migration has provided the opportunity to reveal the complexity of highly skilled migration participation in the labor market (Netto et al., 2015). Such an approach includes macro, national, meso and micro levels and looks at the factors that contribute to migration development on each of these levels.

The Macro level concentrates on supranational factors of globalization, which attract migrants to “certain destinations, or the historical relationships between sending and

receiving countries, for example, those arising out of colonialism or geographical proximity” (Netto & Craig, 2017 p.614). From the macro-level perspective, including the economic factors and factors of globalization, that tend to attract migrants to certain destinations, we should also consider “the historical relationship between sending and receiving countries, for example, those arising out of colonialism or geographical proximity” (Netto & Craig, 2017, p.614). This thesis is not focusing on macro level dynamics. It does not attempt to find the reasoning behind migrants’ choice to come to the Netherlands and is not accounting for the historical relationships between countries, except for three cases mentioned later in the research, in particular highly skilled migrants that participated in the interviews from Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey. Geographical proximity as a macro level factor is also not accounted for in this thesis, since all the respondents come from the countries that are not part of the European Union and are therefore not geographically close.

National level factors include “immigration policies, labor market shortages, cultural norms, linguistic factors and the presence of established migrant communities” (Netto & Craig, 2017 p.614). Contrary to the macro level factors these are highly accounted for in this thesis. The

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primary focus of the research is the Orientation year program that is a part of a more extensive national immigration policy aimed at highly skilled migrants in the Netherlands. Furthermore, cultural norms in the Netherlands, as well as linguistic factors, also play a very important role in the thesis and can even be considered as one of the central themes in the study. First, the Dutch culture of inclusiveness and tolerance is contrasted with acts of perceived discriminatory behavior towards highly skilled migrants. Secondly, although English is the second most widely spoken language in the Netherlands and regarded as a second language by many, the command of Dutch is seemingly still important. Most companies on the Dutch labor market still require good knowledge of Dutch as a job requirement or an ‘asset’ during the application or as a significant factor for promotion or contract extension in the current position (Yao & Van Ours, 2015).

Meso level factors that include among others household dynamics, which may contribute to gendered patterns of migration (e.g. Hoang, 2011), or organisational factors, such as

employer attitudes to migrant women, or equal opportunities policies (Kamenou et al., 2012; Netto & Craig, 2017) are only regarded in this thesis from the perspective of the employer. Employers attitude towards highly skilled migrants play a vital role as a support mechanism for the immigration policy that is introduced by the government to work and to be successful. The researcher believes that universities, as well as employers, constitute the meso level in this study. The manner in which the university approaches the dissemination of information about the Orientation year and how it prepares or guides the future graduates in their career choices plays an essential role in the success of the current highly skilled migration scheme in the Netherlands.

Micro level factors that are addressed in this thesis may include career aspirations and decision-making processes of migrants themselves (Netto & Craig, 2017). Career aspirations play an important role in the overall success of highly skilled migrants trying to access the Dutch labor market as they result in the overall attitude of migrants towards the job-hunting activities and their resilience in the face of difficulties they encounter in the process. The decision-making process applies not only towards their Orientation year but also to the decisions that they made while studying, such as engaging in extra-curricular activities or extending their study period to take an internship.

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Therefore, the aim of this study is, by attempting to capture the perceptions of highly skilled migrants from outside the European Union, to make findings that could reveal something novel regarding migrants labor market prospects and how the factors mentioned above contribute to the interpretation of their perceptions by transforming them into the central themes of the study.

1.3 Justification and academic relevance

According to Netto and Craig (2017), “understanding the wide range of societal, institutional and individual factors which contribute to the role that migrants play in the labor market will advance current policy and theoretical debates relating to this area” (Netto & Craig, 2017 p.607). While migrants can be found in both highly skilled jobs as well as low skilled jobs, in this thesis the focus is on highly skilled migration in the Netherlands for five main reasons. First, from the academic point of view, the developments in highly skilled migration have been affecting the ongoing scholarly debate on “brain drain”, “brain gain” and “brain circulation” between countries (de Haas, 2007; Docquier & Rapoport 2008; Lowell & Findlay 2002). Highly skilled migration is a very prominent topic in academic literature, as is the highly skilled migration to the European Union from non-EU states. However, highly skilled migration to the Netherlands seems not to be as well researched, and academic literature is lacking an overview of the immigration developments in past decennia considering the new policies that have been adopted in the Netherlands.

Furthermore, academic literature on the Orientation year, in particular, is very scarce, with only three publications mentioning ‘search year or ‘Orientation year’. Two of them are by the OECD from 2012 and 2016 (OECD, 2012; OECD, 2016) and the third is a publication by Reslow (2018) on the unfulfilled expectations of temporary highly skilled migrants in the Netherlands, which combines different policies and does not concentrate on the Orientation year alone. Therefore, the researcher believes that the thesis can contribute to the gap in academic literature by focusing solely on the Orientation year program in the Netherlands from the migrants’ perspective. There is one additional publication in the Dutch language that was commissioned by the Ministry of Security and Justice as an evaluation of the policy for highly skilled migrants in 2014 (Kulu-Glasgow et al., 2014). However, the study is focusing on the experience of migrants that were part of the Orientation year program between 2009

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and 2012 and does not consider the effects of discrimination or networking on migrants’ employability during the Orientation year. In contrast to this study the current thesis, concentrates on the period between 2012 and 2018 and analysis how networking and different types of discrimination affect migrants’ chances to find employment in the Netherlands.

Secondly, from the European point of view, highly skilled migration has been one of the main topics of the voluntary EU migration agenda for the past decennia. The introduction of the EU’s “Blue Card” directive of 2009 and the single permit and rights directive of 2011 has proven the significance of highly skilled migration for the EU (Roos, 2015). The most recent EU directive on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purpose of research, studies, and training that came into effect on May 12th, 2016 is another example of EU willingness to attract more highly skilled migrants. With this directive, the mobility of third country researchers or students is improved within the EU. Students, and researchers from third countries are now allowed to stay in the EU for at least nine months after the completion of their studies to search to employment. This means that other EU countries, who did not have a program similar to Orientation year program, were obliged to adopt one until the May 23rd, 2018, which was set as a deadline for member states to

translate the directive into the national law that was agreed by the Council (Council Directive of 11 May 2016).

Thirdly, students from outside the EU are a significant component of migration flows to Europe with a large part staying in the host countries to further work or create a family (Coleman, 2015). Furthermore, despite the efforts of the Chinese government to improve the quality of their education, and keep Chinese students at Chinese universities, students from China remain and are projected to remain the largest student migration group, followed by India, South Korea, Morocco and Turkey (Banks et al., 2007). However, graduates may be difficult to separate in studies from the rest of the highly skilled migration flow, and by concentrating solely on the Orientation year policy in the Netherlands, that is accommodated for the students from outside the European Union, such separation has become possible. Fourthly, the political landscape in the Netherlands has been changing dramatically over the

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migrants into the Dutch society, while, at the same time making the Netherlands more

attractive for highly skilled migrants. Labor migration policy focus lies, first, on an admission policy based on labor market demand, second, an active admission and recruiting of the highly skilled workforce and third, selective admission of non-highly skilled workers (Boom et al., 2010) and the Orientation year policy is a result of such selective admission

procedures.

Finally, the Orientation year policy, which is aimed at the highly skilled migrants in the Netherlands has recently been undergoing several changes. On March 1st, 2016, researchers have been added to the scheme (Besluit van 17 februari 2016), on October 1st, 2017, the procedures of application from outside the Netherlands were clarified (Besluit van de

Staatsecretaris van Veiligheid en Justitie van 15 september 2017) and the most recent one on May 3rd, 2018, reducing the cost for the Orientation year residence permit (Besluit van 9 april 2018), which establishes the actuality of the policy for Dutch society. Therefore, an analysis of highly skilled migrants' perceptions of the program and their experience with the program over the course of the past six years would be of high relevance to the Dutch policy-makers.

1.4 Reader’s Guide (Thesis Structure)

In the background section, some short introduction into the migrant history of the

Netherlands is presented as well as the immigration policy developments that have led to the creation of the Orientation year program.

The theoretical framework touches upon main theories regarding highly skilled migration, its benefits for both sending and receiving countries and labor market prospects of highly skilled migrants based on the literature from different countries. Later, the potential barriers to migrants’ employment are presented together with the labor market exclusion theory. Based on the labor market exclusion theory, three main exclusion mechanisms are identified: statistical discrimination, institutional discrimination and access to networks. Later in the theoretical part, the researcher’s hypotheses are being presented based on the labor market exclusion theory.

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The methodology section highlights the conceptual trends and combines them with methods and techniques used in qualitative research, providing the link between technique and theory. Some ethical considerations and limitations are presented.

In the discussion part, we are looking at the various labor market factors that were identified by highly skilled migrants as either barriers to their employment prospects during the

Orientation year in the Netherlands or advantages in getting access to the Dutch labor market. In the analysis section, various factors identified by the highly skilled migrants are combined into labor market exclusion mechanisms and analyzed based on the theory.

The results based on the hypotheses presented earlier in the study are discussed in the results section together with some policy discussion and policy recommendations and criticisms based on the perceptions of the interviewees. After the summary of the findings suggestions for future research are provided. The general conclusion, where the research question is answered and the important findings are presented forms the last part of the thesis.

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Chapter 2: Background

2.1 Migrant history of the Netherlands

The Netherlands has a long migration history. If we focus on recent migration patterns, the most significant migration took place less than 80 years ago. Starting with the labor migration in the late 1950s of Turkish and Moroccan 'gastarbeiders'5_{, who were invited to}

satisfy the demand of the emerging Dutch economy. Shortly after that migrants from the former colonies of Indonesia and Suriname after gaining independence, having received an opportunity to obtain a Dutch passport and to live in the Netherlands took their chance for ‘a better future’ in the Netherlands. Since that time migration to the Netherlands has never ceased, it only continued in ‘waves’, as some regions were becoming destabilized, the Netherlands would feel the influx of migrants from said regions, such as Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria (Van Amersfoort & Van Niekerk, 2006). Dutch politics has always been concerned with migrantions in the Netherlands. However, depending on the government’s priorities or international decisions and European Union obligations immigrants’ problems and challenges were appearing, disappearing and reappearing again on the Dutch political agenda.

Despite the challenges that migration brings, Dutch culture remained known for its

transcontinental connections of its first maritime travellers, salesmen, and its people known for being open to foreign cultures, foreign traditions, and foreign languages. Besides the obvious comparatively stable and now booming economic situation, this fame of ‘openness’ is what attracts migrants to the Netherlands up to this day.

2.2 Highly skilled migration policy agenda-setting

The starting point in the change process of the Dutch highly skilled migration policy has been the introduction of the Law on Foreigners 2000 (Vw 2000)6_{, Decree on Foreigners 2000 (Vb}

5_{Commonly used Dutch word in relation to migrants around the named period as the temporary labor force} 6_{Author’s translation, also found as Aliens Act}_._{Original: Vreemdelingenwet 2000}

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2000)7_{and Circular on Foreigners 2000 (Vc 2000)}8_{. However, after the year 2000 Dutch}

immigration policy has seen some significant changes. At the end of 2004, as a result of the aspiration of the Dutch Government to follow the European Lisbon strategy and to attract more highly skilled labor force, the decision was taken to create a separate admission regulation for highly skilled migrants. The Dutch government at the time favored the introduction of a new migration policy for highly skilled individuals and therefore, in 2004, the Regulation for highly skilled migrants9_{was adopted, allowing for a quicker, more}

effective admission procedure for migrants that represent a high value for the Dutch economy (Brief van De Minister voor Vreemdelingenzaken en Integratie, 2006).

A whole set of new programs such as special regulations for highly skilled migrants was adopted, such as a regulation for starting a business, an Orientation year program for highly educated graduates, and the so-called “30 percent ruling”10_{. All these efforts were focused on}

making the Netherlands as attractive as possible for highly skilled migrants (Besluit van de Staatssecretaris van Justitie van 12 december 2008; Jennissen & Nikolaas, 2014). However, due to the enlargement of the European Union and the fear to receive an unmanageable flow of immigrants coming from these countries the regulation was ‘frozen’ until May 2007 for immigrants coming from countries of a ‘big bang’ enlargement and till November 2011 for Bulgarians and Romanians (Jennissen & Nikolaas, 2014). The world economic crisis of 2007-2008 contributed to higher unemployment as well as the continuous migration flow to the Netherlands from the countries that suffered from the crisis and attracting highly skilled labor force was again not on the political agenda. (Jennissen & Nikolaas, 2013).

As a result of the past crisis and the enlargement of the EU, the past ten years have been marked with an ‘easing’ of the regulations for the highly skilled migrants and stricter rules for other types of the migrants who are coming to the Netherlands from outside the European Union. Despite the seemingly overall closed character of the immigration policy, Dutch immigration policy towards highly-skilled migrants from outside the EU has come a long way from being one of the most restrictive policies in Europe to putting the Netherlands back

7_{Author’s translation, also found as Aliens Decree}_._{Original: Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000} 8_{Author’s translation, also found as Aliens Circular}_._{Original: Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000} 9_{Author’s translation. Original: Kennismigrantenregeling}

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on the map as an attractive destination for highly skilled migrants (Suter & Jandl, 2006). Considering the less restrictive regimes in the European countries the proposed changes to the policy were supposed to put the Netherlands in an equal position next to the neighboring countries. Many European countries already had such policies in place, for example,

employment seeking graduates in UK, Germany, and France even before 2008 already could qualify for up to two years, one year or six-month residence permit respectively (Suter & Jandl, 2006).

2.3 The road towards the Orientation year

The change of the immigration policy started with a program of the Dutch Ministry of Justice “Towards the modern immigration policy”11_{that was presented to the House of}

Representatives on the 22nd of May 2006 (Brief van De Minister voor Vreemdelingenzaken en Integratie, 2006). One of the goals of the cabinet was the creation of a modern and consistent policy that reflected the needs of the Dutch society and labor market

(Adviescommissie voor Vreemdelingenzaken, 2007). The primary concern expressed was that a large number of students were going back to their home countries after graduating from Dutch universities without getting the possibility to explore their opportunities on the Dutch labor market due to the fact that they were only able to stay in the Netherlands for a

maximum period of three months after receiving their diploma. Furthermore, those three months were not used by the graduates since they were not considered as a window of opportunity for accessing the labor market (Vreemdelingenzaken en Integratie, 2006).

Graduates would need to meet a minimum salary requirement of EUR 46.541 per year, which was established in the Regulation for highly skilled migrants from 2004 and for migrants younger than 30 years EUR 34.130 per year already in the first year of their employement (Adviescommissie voor Vreemdelingenzaken, 2007).

In October 2007 the Dutch Council of Ministers agreed to expand the search period up to 1 year, during which the graduates are given full access to the Dutch labor market with no restrictions. Finally, in 2008 the Orientation year policy for highly-educated migrants followed, in the form of a special residence permit for a period of one year, meant for the graduates from a Dutch university or a Top 200 university in the world for the purpose of

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seeking for a job in the Netherlands. Another important aspect of the policy is the reduced salary criterium, now only requiring a minimum of EUR 25.000 per year, regardless of the age of the highly skilled migrant (Kabinet akkoord met nieuw toelatingsbeleid voor

Nederland, 2008). The new policy did not replace any existing policy on foreigners but was added as a new article to the Vc 2000. An important aspect of this policy from the

international point of view has been ensuring the balance between the European competition for “brains” and policy harmonization at the European level (Adviescommissie voor

Vreemdelingenzaken, 2007; Kabinetsreactie, 2007).

The concrete policy changes were as follows: the extension of the employment search period up to one year, setting lower and more differentiated salary expectations and allowing the graduates to work without any restrictions during one year, however without having access to welfare benefits, such as unemployment benefits. The policy further established that there was no need for differentiating the sectors where the highly-educated workforce is needed the most, as it was believed that the labor market would self-regulate. Furthermore, the so-called ‘talent scheme’ was introduced. The ‘talent scheme’ consists of a points system, whereby points are awarded for particular achievements, skills or characteristics of highly skilled migrants. For example, 5 points are awarded for being fluent in English or Dutch, another 5 points are added for being between 21 and 40 years old. Furthermore, the highly skilled migrants receive 30 points for finishing a Ph.D. and 25 points for receiving a Master’s degree, with a general minimum amount of 35 points required to receive the Orientation year permit. It has also been established that this procedure from the bureaucratic point of view should not take longer than two weeks and that students without an actual diploma but with fulfilled requirements for obtaining the degree can already apply for the permit

(Adviescommissie voor Vreemdelingenzaken, 2007).

The Orientation year policy has seen some changes since it was adopted. The most recent changes were made on March 1st, 2016, October 1st, 2017 and May 3rd, 2018. Some

important amendments include, adding researchers and postdocs to the program (Besluit van 17 februari 2016), clarifying the procedures of application from outside the Netherlands and allowing students to apply for the year as soon as they pass their last exam (Besluit van de Staatsecretaris van Veiligheid en Justitie van 15 september 2017) and most recently reducing

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Chapter 3: Theoretical framework & Literature Review

3.1 Definition of key concepts

As this thesis discusses highly skilled migration, it is necessary to define the term highly skilled. According to Koser and Salt (1997), there is some conceptional and definitional debate since “highly skilled” could be defined in different terms, both as an occupation and as a qualification. According to the UN definition, a highly skilled migrant is a person with tertiary education. (Lowell, 2004) This definition is directly related to the purpose of this study, and since we are looking at highly skilled migrants who just graduated university in or outside the Netherlands, therefore, the UN definition is further applied in this thesis.

Other terms and concepts used in this study:

With the term third-country nationals, European institutions determine nationals of countries that are not members states of the European Union.

Brain drain usually refers to the emigration of highly skilled labor force, primarily from developing countries towards developed countries. Brain gain, on the opposite, is the immigration of highly skilled labor force typically to developed countries (Bartram et al., 2014). One of the ways to benefit from brain drain is to transform it into brain circulation, which is defined as highly skilled migrants engaging with their country of origin and

supporting ties after migration through engaging in business relationships, trade, investment and social networking, exchanging ideas and best practices (Chand, 2018).

Integration appears to be a controversial concept, the definition of which is determined by a particular country. According to Schneider and Crul (2010), integration includes “structural aspects of incorporation into society, especially with regard to educational achievements and access to the labor market” (Schneider and Crul 2010, p.1145) while the word assimilation implies that “immigrants and/or their offspring can become similar” to the society and its norms and thus ‘successful assimilation’ is a “degree of incorporation into patterns of economic and social success” (Schneider and Crul 2010, p.1145). As Schneider and Crul (2010) argue, integration is a predominantly European term while assimilation tends to appear more in the US debate.

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Discrimination is defined as the differential treatment of individuals based on their personal or group characteristics that has a negative impact on the individuals’ outcomes. On the labor market, discrimination refers to behaviors towards the individuals that limit access to any aspect of employment (Smith, 2013). Institutional discrimination refers to the exercising of neutral mechanisms or structures that separate outcomes for various groups. Institutional discrimination is often indirect and becomes an outcome of unintended discriminatory actions due to the routine operations, procedures and normative practices (Smith, 2013; Styker et al., 2012). Statistical discrimination is a type of profiling, when common characteristics of the group are attributed to an individual, often reflecting on known stereotypes about the particular group (Smith, 2013).

3.2 Highly skilled migration in academic literature

According to Koser and Salt (1997), a particular shift in the academic literature on highly skilled migration exists. They noted that the theory is more complete when it comes to the demand of highly skilled migrants compared to the supply and is much less determined by the personal aspirations of migrants but instead by the country or regional demand.

Therefore, in their review of the literature, they distinguish macro-, meso- and micro- levels of analysis. Koser and Salt (1997) suggest that the macro-level concerns with the global or national factors, which cause either some countries to be in demand of highly skilled

migration or to become the suppliers of highly skilled migrants to other countries. Meso-level concentrates on the role of state and other key actors such as multinational corporations on the demand and supply of highly skilled migrants. And lastly, micro-level focuses on the highly skilled migrants' experience and perceptions, as well as motivations to migrate. When analysing the literature, apart from the different levels as described above, different themes surrounding highly skilled migration appear to be prominent. They revolve mostly around gender, profession, and ethnicity of migrants.

Gendered ‘configurations’ addressed by Jungwirth (2011) are often discussed in the international literature and despite highly skilled migration first being predominantly male phenomenon (Kofman, 2000; Kraler, 2011), highly skilled female migration becomes more recognized besides the ‘typical’ female highly skilled migration sectors such as healthcare

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almost as often as men (Fechter & Coles, 2007) and the academic literature presents the perceptions and experience of both women being in the ‘lead’ of the decision to migrate (Roos, 2013; Spadavecchia, 2013; Jungwirth, 2011; Gu, 2016) and women who become the ‘follower’ of their partner’s professional career (Ryan & Mulholland, 2014) or so-called ‘dependent’ migrant (Aure, 2013). This could be a positive phenomenon as argued in the study by Ryan and Mullholand (2014), where wives play an essential role in the networking and creating a social life for the family after migration, but could also have adverse effects as demonstrated the study by Aure (2013), where partners, being a dependent migrant suffer the most from occupational downgrade when living in the host country.

This is supported by the study conducted in the Netherlands by Yao and Van Ours (2015). They demonstrate the wage gap between migrant men and women in the Netherlands who have poor Dutch language skills. They find that women earn significantly less with the same ‘poor’ level of Dutch compared to men. They conclude that almost 80 percent of female and 50 percent of male migrants are working in the spheres that required Dutch and mention that women are mostly employed in business services, education, public administration and health care. However, they do not specify how the industries and level of positions where women are employed compare to those where men are employed. Furthermore, the study looks at all migrants in the Netherlands and does not separate between highly skilled migrants from the migration population, which could be the most significant limitation of this study.

Exploring the migration experience of highly skilled Indians in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, Kõu, & Bailey (2014) demonstrate that geographical mobility is an inseparable part of the professional careers of many highly skilled Indians. They also break two stereotypes regarding the migration of Indians to the Western countries. First, economic motives do not appear to be the primary drive to migrate, and secondly, spouses are no longer passive followers, but rather active agents in the decision and the process to migrate. In their next study (Kõu, & Bailey 2017), they show highly skilled Indian women pursuing their careers in the Netherlands and the UK while redefining the role of women in their society. Apart from gender, academic literature often concentrates on particular professions that prevail in migration flows in certain countries. Depending on the demand, certain periods are characterized by overwhelming migration of certain professions. These professions often include medical specialists (Khan, 2006; Kevat et al., 2012), programmers or IT specialists

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(Kumar & Binod, 2012) and scientists or engineers (Mustafa, 2017; Van Noorden, 2012; Gu, 2016). Such ‘pull’ of particular professions can cause a negative impact on the sending countries welfare (Kay Mortley, 2009) and even cause skills shortages in sectors vital to the functioning of the internal state infrastructure (Rasool & Botha, 2011).

Ethnicity is another important aspect that occupies a large segment of academic literature, due to the fact that, depending on where the highly skilled migrant comes from and what country or region he or she ends up in, will determine, to a large extent, his professional success, the length of his stay and whether he or she chooses to integrate in the receiving country or return back home (Konzett-Smoliner, 2016). Apart from countries policies, attitudes of the country’s nationals towards certain ethnicities are, therefore, very important when talked about ethnicity, since they often will determine how ‘welcome’ or not the highly skilled migrant will end up feeling (Jagganath G, 2014). Therefore, it is not surprising that a lot of academic literature is focused on ‘challenges’ that migrants of certain ethnicity or origin face in different countries, discrimination probably being the most significant of them (Oishi & Skrentny, 2012; Yeoh et al., 2016).

Furthermore, various academic articles analyse the limits of immigration policies in different countries and how it affects highly skilled migration (Oishi & Skrentny, 2012), comparing policies between countries (OECD, 2013; Cohen et al., 2015), not many studies focus on one particular program from the range of migration policies. Therefore, this thesis is contributing to this niche in the academic literature by concentrating on one specific policy program on the micro-level rather than the overall state migration policy. In this thesis, we are not trying to distinguish between gender, ethnicity or profession of the highly skilled migrants, but rather examine the combination of factors and how they relate to each other.

3.3 Effects of highly skilled migration

The shift towards the knowledge-driven, human capital-oriented economy has become one of the leading public policy themes for the past 20 years (Laroche et al., 1999). The important contribution of human capital theory to the general labor market academic discussion lies in emphasizing the importance of training and education as direct means of improving the individual’s position on the labor market as well as general labor market outcomes (Becker

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endogenous growth theory, based on the contribution by Romer (1986) and Lucas (1988). According to this theory, human capital, as well as ‘imported’ human capital, ensures sustained economic growth, as it is responsible for the creation of new knowledge. The theory also touches upon the ‘spillover’ benefits of the highly skilled migrants for the host economy (Straubhaar, 2002; Zaletel, 2006). However, highly skilled migration may have both positive and negative effects for both sending and receiving countries. According to Zaletel (2006), the positive effects of highly skilled migration include increased innovation capacity, increase in the stock of human capital, international dissemination of knowledge, better job matches and increased enrolment in graduate programs. Furthermore, increased competition for human capital may result in incentives on the state level to invest in human capital.

Cultural diversity remains one of the most researched migration benefits, as migrants from different countries are able to provide complementary skills, not only because they perform different tasks, but namely because they bring their own different perspectives, skills, and abilities to the same tasks due to their culture-specific background. Furthermore, according to the research on the benefits of migration by Damelang and Haas (2012), “innovations are more likely to occur because differences in knowledge and capabilities of workers from diverse cultural backgrounds drive R&D performance” (Damelang & Haas, 2012, p.365). However, based on the socio-cultural mixed embeddedness hypothesis, such knowledge exchange is only possible under the condition of interaction between foreign and native workers in order to promote alternative ways of thinking (Kloosterman and Rath, 2001). Based on the research by Suedekum et al. (2009) comparing German regions based on how culturally diverse they are, the regions with the higher diversity boast higher workforce productivity than the more homogeneous ones. Finally, the studies by Hunt and Gauthier-Loiselle (2010) in the US and by Bosetti et al. (2012) in Europe, studying the effects of highly skilled migrants on innovation, found a proof for establishing a positive relationship between the two by counting the number of patents per capita or by the number of citations to published articles. Furthermore, highly skilled migrants have applied two times more for patents compared to the natives in the US, as concluded in the research by Kerr and Lincoln (2010).

For the sending country, such positive effects may include the provision of more rewarding job opportunities to highly skilled workers, a stimulus to invest in domestic education,

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technology transfer and integration of the global market (Zaletel, 2006, p.618). Furthermore, according to the study by Sturge et al. (2016) with highly skilled migrants in the Netherlands and their capacity to serve as actors of development, it is observed that highly skilled

migrants are likely to contribute to the development and the build-up of economic and social capital in their countries of origin through the so-called ‘social and economic remittances’ (Sturge et al, 2016). The return of such highly skilled individuals, means the increase of the local capital, transfer of skills and links to foreign networks. Barrett and Goggin in their study on possible labor market benefits by migrants returning to their home countries have

concluded that that migrants who have migrated earn on the average seven percent more than their never migrated peers, however, the differences are most visible with those who have completed a postgraduate qualification (Barrett & Goggin, 2010).

According to the study by Rolfe (2017) on the benefits of employing of the EU Migrants in low-skilled sectors the growth of the key sectors of the UK economy are in many cases dependent on migrants’ presence, and therefore new migration policies are needed as markets can draw measurable benefits from such presence. In the same key Frattini (2017), when evaluating the labor market integration of new immigrants in the UK and comparing them to the UK non-migrant population, based on their employment probability, occupational

distribution and sectors of occupation, shows that new immigrants are able to perform as well as or better than non-migrants, finding employment in the early stages after their arrival. And, however, these findings are quite individual, they often have to do with the fact that the ‘newcomers’ are younger and possess a higher educational background than the natives of the country (Frattini, 2017). This finding is supported by the study by Netto and Craig that claim that there are “sound economic rationales for identifying the sectors in which migrants work and their contributions to the labor market since they constitute an important component of labor and skills supply.” (2017, p.608)

Skills is a general topic that links all these studies together, and it also appears to be a major factor in evaluating the impact of migration. First of all, the impact on the country’s economy is higher if the host country is more directed towards highly skilled migration (Kim et al., 2010). Secondly, the effect on the productivity and innovation is higher within highly skilled sectors (Huber et al., 2010). Thirdly, as suggested by Wadsworth (2010), considering the fact

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sector, it appears to be hard to find the evidence of much highly skilled labor displacement, at least on the example of the UK.

3.4 Labor market exclusion of highly skilled migrants

When discussing the effects of highly skilled migration the migrant’s perspective should not be overlooked. The academic interest in the migrants’ own experiences sparked due to socio-cultural changes and geopolitical changes in Eastern Europe among other regions. Besides the issues of ‘brain drain’ and ‘brain waste’ or ‘brain abuse’ arose with highly skilled, often overqualified non-Europeans taking the ‘unwanted’ jobs in the West (Koser and Salt, 1997; Bauder 2003). It is a rather known phenomenon of ‘occupational downgrading’, as discussed in the studies by Frattini (2017) on the labor market integration of new immigrants in the UK, Christensen (2017), a comparative study of care workers in Norway and the UK and Creese and Wiebe (2009) on the African immigrants in Canada. This phenomenon occurs not only in the EU labor migration when migrants from European low-wage countries, but also outside Europe many of the countries that do not belong to the EU, serve an example of such countries, occupy lower paid, often low-level jobs for which they are overqualified. Furthermore, two studies by Jendrissek (2013) on the example of the European Union and Berggren and Omarsson (2001) on the example of Sweden come to a similar conclusion, that people originating from low-wage countries have often a higher educational profile compared to the country’s nationals occupying the same or higher profile jobs. Berggen and Omarsson (2001) demonstrate that only 40 percent of the highly skilled migrants, compared to 90 percent of Swedish-born academics, managed to find a job that matched their academic degree. Frattini (2017) shows that such skills downgrading despite the migrants’ possession of high levels of education has become even more common in recent years and creates a larger negative impact on migrant employment in local European markets in the longer run. This underutilization of human capital that often occurs in Western developed countries is a paradox on its own when Europe is in search for highly skilled individuals with tertiary education and finding skilled labor has been one of the biggest challenges that EU labor mobility is facing in recent years (Jendrissek, 2013).

Different countries of the European Union display the range of widely different factors that have contributed to labor migration in general and to the factors that now constitute “the

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treatment of migrant workers within workplaces and local communities” (Netto & Craig, 2017, p.608). Therefore, sharp differences can be found in local migrant participation of highly skilled migrants on the labor markets, and factors that are responsible for such differences include “demographic factors, levels of regulation, social protection, labor shortages, employer expectations and perceptions of migrants, the (under-) utilization of the skills, knowledge and experience that migrants bring with them and the aspirations of migrants themselves” (Netto & Craig, 2017, p.608).

Aure (2013) states in her research based on the Norwegian dependent highly skilled migrants’ example that “migrants with higher education, even migrants with Norwegian education, long-term residency and language proficiency - experience greater risks of unemployment and over-qualification than the ethnic majority” (Aure, 2013, p.275). As shown on the example of most Western labor markets (McGovern, 2009), including Germany (Kalter & Granato, 2007) and the research on labor market barriers in the Netherlands (Cohen & Rettab, 2010), ethnic minorities and even more workers “identified as belonging to a less-favoured ethnic group” (Cohen & Rettab, 2010, p.193) with the same level of productive ability experience “lower rates of labor market participation, higher unemployment rates and they less often achieve high occupational status” (Fleischmann & Höhne, 2013, p.1325). Another study, concentrating particularly on the highly skilled migrants in the Netherlands explores the wage gap between native and migrant graduates of higher education institutions. In the study Gheasi et al. (2017) are evaluating the wages of young graduates who are equally educated and they come to a conclusion that even despite acquiring Dutch language skills and integrating in the society, migrants with a non-OECD background still earn less than their Dutch peers. They also draw the conclusion that older graduates are at a bigger disadvantage, since migrants who graduate at an older age experience a significant wage difference

compared to natives of a similar age and education.

3.4.1 Statistical discrimination

The studies by Scott (2013) and McCollum & Findlay (2015) are discussing an issue based on the concepts of so-called ‘ethnic hiring’ or ‘ethnic queues’, whereby representatives of particular countries or races are more gladly hired for particular functions mostly based on employers’ general knowledge about their work ethic. However, in these studies, no

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tertiary education or secondary education and little support has been found for these

culturally embedded expectations on work performance. Hudson et al. (2017) present social homophily as a possible explanation for the concept of ‘ethnic hiring’. This could be

explained by the natural tendency to more easily associate and bond with people who are more similar to you - which can cause employers to unwillingly favor one ethnic group over the other. And however unintentional it may sound, the consequences remain in giving the labor opportunities to some and withholding such opportunities from the others (Hudson et al. 2017).

Statistical or “preference-based” discrimination occurs when migrant groups or ethnic minorities are treated differently because they attributed particular personal characteristics and expected certain behavioral patterns. Examples vary depending on the origin, from being credited as being “lazy”, “aggressive”, “always being late” etc. Such beliefs often have nothing to do with individual’s personal characteristics and merely describe both exaggerated and simplified way of looking at one’s origin. In this way, statistical discrimination is similar to stereotyping, a process of ascribing characteristics to an individual “which are seen to be shared by all or most of his or her fellow group members” (Brown, 1995, p.82). Such type of stereotypical thinking often concentrates on one outstanding group characteristic, tends to see the nation as a homogeneous group, while completely disregarding the social status,

education, religion, etc. (Rydgren, 2004).

Akerlof (1976) argues that whenever a rational employer is unable to measure applicant’s skills adequately, he or she will tend to use such factors as race and sex to come to a decision regarding an application. Therefore, the employer’s previously acquired knowledge or personal experience with particular origins will have an impact on his or her choice.

Furthermore, statistical discrimination is often considered as economic decision-making and is even claimed to reduce inefficiencies. The study by Haagsma (1998, p.321) has concluded as there is no firm basis for the claim of the efficiency of statistical discrimination, there is no excuse in an “uncomfortable trade-off between equality and efficiency”.

Another example of statistical discrimination is presented in the study by Knocke and Hertzberg (2000). The study was conducted in Sweden among the labor market actors

responsible for employment. As most of the interviews have shown when a migrant is calling for a job opening with an uncommon sounding name, the employers are more likely to

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respond that the job has been already taken. Furthermore, applicants with foreign-sounding names are often disregarded even though they speak the language of the country fluently. This happens of course under the condition that the “key actors holding gatekeeper positions” are country natives, which is often the case in the example of Sweden (Rydgren, 2004,

p.711).

Aure (2013) after having conducted research in liberal Norway, concludes that many

migrants do not even get a chance to get in touch with or meet a future employer, as they are being sorted out prior to the interview stage. Several qualitative studies have demonstrated unsettling attitudes in the informal workplace environment, such as racist stereotyping and discriminatory jokes to bullying and harassment happening even among organizations that are publicly advocating for inclusiveness (Hudson et al., 2013; Ogbonna and Harris, 2006). However xenophobic it may sound, this fact seems to be “impossible to alter on an individual level” according to Aure (2013, p.283). At the policy level, it is possible to fight some of the stereotypes by ensuring the adequate access to bridging courses, adequate accreditation systems, and high-quality job-seeking training. There should be a possibility to develop schemes to recruit highly skilled migrants on a regular, recurring basis (Aure, 2013; Liebig, 2009). The techniques that could be used by highly skilled migrants to fight this trend are applying to the most relevant jobs, “negotiate and transfer their skills via conscious utilization of local contextual knowledge and networks” (Aure, 2013, p.283).

Various studies have shown the negative influence of social stigma and discriminatory

experience on mental and physical health (Wang et al., 2010; Lin et al., 2011; Crengle, 2012). Furthermore, migrants’ quality of life appears to be affected by the discriminatory experience as well (Wang et al., 2010). Stigma towards migrants may be the result of people’s views on their language, ethnicity or socioeconomic status that is associated with their origin in a particular country (Major & O’Brien, 2005). Negative attitudes towards migrants may harm many aspects of their lives, starting from daily life, family, employment, work attitudes, job commitment (Link & Phelan, 2001). One of the conclusions of the search by Wang et al. (2010) is that migrants require training that should include making migrants aware about possible stigma existing in the country, policies, and regulations that would help to overcome any of the potential negative effects and improve their vocational skills. Furthermore, the

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services” especially for migrants who recently experienced moving to a different country or are already in distress (Wang et al., 2010 p.91).

3.4.2 Institutional discrimination

Institutional discrimination may occur in different forms and is mostly connected with the fact that both formally and informally established rules, regulations and laws and “ways of doing things”, often intentionally or unintentionally disfavor particular groups, to which migrants also could belong.

Many authors have identified immigration policies as one of the main drivers of international migration, next to immigration networks and income differentials between the sending and receiving countries. Immigration policies can also be viewed as one of the main barriers to migration (Mayda, 2010; Ortega and Peri, 2013, Facchini et al., 2015). At a national level, migration policies are, primarily, a way of meeting labor demands in the country. If the country is not experiencing demand in a particular profession or skill, they quickly become a barrier rather than a driver. Longer-term solutions, proactive strategies directed towards a longer-term perspective, rather than just filling the gaps in the labor market is the future of migration policy in order to ensure the sustainable slow to respond to shortages but also to give highly skilled migrants from outside the EU more opportunities in the receiving country. Immigration, as well as citizenship policies, always have to do with the dimensions of equity (Stone, 2012). Different European markets and European jurisdictions have shown very uneven responses to the challenges of integrating migrants into their local labor markets (Craig, 2015). Zanfrini (2015) in his study on the value of diversity and reinventing the commonly accepted European approaches to integration states the tensions between immigration policies, which are conflicted by the European values and principles of

inclusiveness, solidarity and equal opportunities for all while at the same time driven by the need to fulfill the labor shortages, while balancing in the border of policies’ political

viability. The study reveals as a result of these tensions that institutions allow discriminatory processes to occur unintentionally and such processes even could become common practice in some cases (Zanfrini, 2015). Membership is one of them and has to do with setting

particular criteria for admitting new members and making them eligible for whatever benefits a country has to offer.

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Studies have revealed that highly skilled migrants may experience problems finding fitting jobs and getting promoted at their current positions (Favell, 2008; Perthe, 2007). Moreover, despite the fact that the issues they experience are contextual and may be related to other factors like gender, skill type and profession, their country of origin, residency length and term and language proficiency seem to play a big role as well (Aure, 2013). Csedo (2008) in her research includes such important transferable skills such as labor market information, destination language proficiency, occupational licenses, credentials and task-specific skills. She also highlights the importance of the employers’ recognition, familiarity and value awareness of the migrant employees’ transferable skills (Csedo, 2008).

One of the potential institutional barriers lies in the policy concept of rank-based distribution that holds for purposes of distributing resources. The main issue with such distribution is “whether the lines between ranks are drawn correctly, or, put another way, whether the different ranks indeed represent different skills, knowledge, or other relevant factors” (Stone, 2012, p.49). Challenges with such distribution types remain unresolved, as the evaluation of the individuals may not always be complete and fair and assigning to ranks, scoring

individuals and setting criteria for differentiation asks for a great deal of objectivity, which sometimes brings a challenge in itself given the people’s different backgrounds. One of the potential barriers to effective recognition of previous educational and professional skills has been presented in the research by Muller et al. (2017) based on the healthcare care sector case study in the Netherlands. The study reveals that despite the fact that the Netherlands has a well-developed system for the recognition of qualifications received from outside the Netherlands, such qualifications are considered as being nowhere near equivalent to the similar Dutch obtained specializations. The study presents another paradox, that is no doubt present in other countries of the European Union, that despite the serious health care labor shortage the Netherlands is experiencing at the moment, the processes of diplomas’

recognition and professionals’ accreditation are nowhere near perfect and present somewhat unnecessary barriers to highly skilled migrants filling the labor market gap (Muller et al., 2017).

The only way to overcome this institutional barrier in evaluating the quality of previously taken academic studies abroad is to follow a study in the country where one seeks

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Swedes, migrants still score lower in terms of labor market outcomes, with a gap of 26 percent. Moreover, the study identified that, in particular, highly skilled migrants from Africa and Asia have the least chances to find a suitable job compared to their peers from other counties. The prevailing explanations for this phenomenon are the lack of written and spoken native language of the destination country and so-called “country-specific social

competence” (Rydgren, 2004, p.702), which can be roughly explained as a lack in understanding socio-cultural factors and mentality differences. This understanding is acquired with time by a large number of migrants, and, therefore the differences between country natives and migrants reduces over time. Researchers on migration and labor markets agree that in the longer run, under the condition that migrants assimilate, adjust their skills to the new conditions of the receiving country’s labor market, highly skilled migrants improve their overall positions. Furthermore, they are more likely to become accepted by the

employers and increase their employment chances as well as their wages. However, there is no indication for how long this period of assimilation may take (Chiswick, 1978). The duration for the assimilation may vary significantly per person and depend on many contextual factors.

Furthermore, it is claimed by Cohen and Rettab (2010) that such assimilation periods may be very lengthy when institutional barriers are present in labor markets and even despite the migrants’ efforts to adjust and integrate into the society, they may settle for much lower wages level than the nationals. Moreover, the time required to acquire these ‘country-specific’ skills is often longer than anticipated, and based on the study by Schroder et al. (2000), unemployment rates are closest to the country’s nationals after the migrants have lived in the country for 20 years and longer, however even then, they appear to be

significantly higher. This data, is, however, in itself country-specific and, as mentioned earlier, some migrants suffer from unemployment more than others.

Another example is qualification discrimination whereby the “differences in the distribution of achieved characteristics (e.g., education) demanded by employers cause inequality” between migrants and country natives (Rydgren, 2004 p.707). However, when the distribution of qualification between applicants appears to be identical, measurement discrimination may occur as a result of the employer’s inability to establish measuring standards for different groups (Berk, 1999). This type of discrimination is often called “spillover discrimination” or “side effect discrimination” due to the fact that one type of

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discriminatory actions causes another a discrimination in a different or even after a long period of time. An example of spillover discrimination could be the fact that migrants

children are often refused access to the better schools, therefore they are refused the access to better education, they will have less chances in the future to get into the university or college of their choice, and as a spillover effect they have less chance to end up in a job with high wages (Lindgren, 2002).

Institutional discrimination is especially applicable with respect to recruitment, hiring and working practices established at the companies. One of the examples of institutional discrimination for highly skilled migrants may be a requirement for a good spoken and written native language. As discussed in the studies by Rydgren (2004), Knocke and

Hertzberg (2000), such requirements are often motivated by the obvious necessity to possess certain language skills, but there is also often no objective ground found for such condition. Depending on the market, the percentage of jobs with such requirement may vary, however even in the job descriptions, where it is not mentioned that the position requires a “near-native” language level, one can often find a note that the applicants with the knowledge of the given language will be given preference, or are “at an advantage” compared to their peers. Although the language skill could be acquired over time, at the moment of application the migrant has no control over it. Furthermore, language knowledge often has no “direct bearing on the ability of the applicant to perform duties” (Berk, 1999, p.1) and is often motivated by the employees’ comfort in using their native language.

3.4.3 Access to networks

Due to the demographic challenges that Europe and the Netherlands, in particular, are facing it is of great importance that the skills, competencies, and knowledge of all working

population in the Netherlands, migrant population skills included are used to their fullest Pijpers et al. (2015). However, according to the recent study by Muller et al. (2017) in the Dutch healthcare sector, highly skilled migrants from outside the European Union are at a disadvantage, “as they face various barriers to entering labor market such as inadequate experience, low proficiency in the language of the host country, difficulties in having the education and skills acquired in the country of origin recognised and a lack of useful social relations and references” (Muller et al., 2017 p.682).

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According to Aure, (2013, p.283) “labor markets are not in fact ‘markets but rather place-specific, cultural, relational and gendered social systems”. This has been addressed in the literature much earlier with the emergence of the cultural capital theory, whereby human capital is seen as culturally specific and these specific characteristics can and should be used as cultural assets to ensure the place on the labor market (Oakley et al., 2017). This is

supported by the studies by Jones (1996) and Meyer (2001) that both focus on contextual, network-related and social labor market constitution. Meyer (2001) establishes the

importance of professional social networks among migrants, due to the fact that “individual's skills are dependent on the networks that mobilize and activate them” (Meyer, 2001, p.101) while Jones (1996) claims that labor markets are culturally embedded rather than driven by economic supply and demand and that “skills are inseparable not only from individuals but also from a complex set of expectations, needs, and rights attached to persons” (Jones, 1996, p.109). In the same line Boswell (2008) argues that more attention has to be paid to the social context surrounding migration and the impact of both opportunities that are presented to migrants as well as constraints that migrants face in the labor markets. According to the above mentioned human capital theory, any inequality experienced by migrant workers in the labor market for a larger part is a consequence of the individual migrant’s characteristics, job-related skills and qualifications, previous education and training and the lengths of stay in the host countries (Becker, 1975, Birrell & Healy 2008, Cobb-Clark, 2003). Boswell (2008) in his study emphasizes that besides language skills, education and work experience such social, political and religious aspects play an important role in the acceptance of the migrants in the receiving country, and building a social network might just be the piece that connects all of them.

A study conducted by Knocke (1994) demonstrates that recruiting managers have a preference for the country’s natives when making both hiring and promotion decisions. Besides the existence of possible statistical and institutional discrimination, another

explanation for this phenomenon is the access to existing personal networks (Schierup et al., 1994). As individuals are more likely to employ someone that belongs to the same network as they do, even information about openings may circular in the networks first before making its way to the public (Granovetter, 1974). One of the main networks characteristics is

homophily, a natural tendency of people to surround themselves with people who are similar to them in ways that are important or relevant to them (Lin, 1999). Therefore, if ethnicity or origin is of importance or relevance for a particular network, no matter, whether it is