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Career Strategies and Spatial Mobility among Skilled Migrants in G ermany: The Role of Gender in the Work‐Family Interaction
Author(s) -
Shinozaki Kyoko
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-9663
pISSN - 0040-747X
DOI - 10.1111/tesg.12111
Subject(s) - negotiation , context (archaeology) , work (physics) , sociology , perspective (graphical) , dual (grammatical number) , human capital , cultural capital , career development , gender studies , economic growth , economics , pedagogy , social science , mechanical engineering , art , literature , artificial intelligence , paleontology , biology , computer science , engineering
This paper aims to unravel the gendered career strategies of skilled migrants in G ermany's financial and academic sectors. Such careers are being developed not only in tandem, but also often in negotiation, with gender relations in the family. Much of the existing literature in skilled migration studies has concentrated on the principal migrant and work‐related context, treating the family as a rather secondary terrain. Drawing on participant observation and interviews, this paper shows that these two terrains, work and family, are closely interrelated in building skilled migrant workers' career pathways. My analysis of the experiences of migrant, dual‐career couples shows that their transnational career strategies have a strong bearing on the fine balancing act and negotiation of intra‐family gender relations, which are neither pre‐given nor fixed. Key to understanding their strategies are migrants' transnationalising cultural capital, access to childcare provision, a life‐stage perspective, and the role of dual‐career policies.