The international mobility of academics. A labour market perspective.

Autor/in	Bauder, Harald
Titel	The international mobility of academics. A labour market perspective. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Die internationale Mobilität von Akademikern. Arbeitsmarktaspekte.
Quelle	In: International migration, 53 (2015) 1, S. 83-96 PDF als Volltext Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; gedruckt; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0020-7985; 1468-2435
DOI	10.1111/j.1468-2435.2012.00783.x
Schlagwörter	Kultur; Mobilitätsbarriere; Migration; Politische Ökonomie; Sozialkapital; Arbeitsmigration; Arbeitsmobilität; Auslandstätigkeit; Berufliche Mobilität; Segmentationstheorie; Akademiker; Habitus; Theorie; Hochschulabsolvent; Institution; Migrant
Abstract	Robert Park presented a powerful narrative about migration. He suggested that migration is 'an agency of progress'; it interrupts 'the routine of existing habit' and releases 'energies that were formerly controlled by custom and tradition'. A similar narrative dominates the literature of transnational academic mobility today: migration exposes academics to new contexts and unleashes creative forces that propel scientific knowledge production. Academics, however, are not only knowledge producers but also workers who are, like all migrants, embedded in employment relations and social and cultural contexts. The contemporary literature, however, rarely assumes a labour market perspective when examining transnational academic mobility. In this article, I address this shortcoming. In particular, I assume political-economy and segmentation-theory perspectives of labour mobility. The first thesis I pursue in this article is that academic labour operates in a separate labour market in which the experiences of international mobility differ from the experiences workers have in other occupations. (...) A second question I pursue is whether academics are able to retain or increase the value of their labour through mobility. The conventional narrative in the migration literature is that migration devalues labour, allocates it to the lower labour market segments, and contributes to the flexibilization and neoliberalization of labour markets. (...) The migration literature has paid relatively little attention to how migrant workers may be able to retain or increase the value of their labour through migration. (...) Thus, my third research question is: To what degree is academic labour mobility representative of labour mobility in other occupations and labour market segments? With this question, I explore whether beneficial circumstances and practices may also apply in occupations in which migrant labour is typically devalued. (...) In the following sections, I begin theorizing labour mobility before discussing the mobility of academic labour. Then, I discuss the institutional contexts of academic mobility, mobility as an academic practice, and academic mobility constraints. I conclude with a reflection on the research thesis and questions, and proposals of further critical research. (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ".
Erfasst von	Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nürnberg
Update	2015/3