Chapter 4. Research methodology
4.5 Introducing the sample and gaining access
The respondents were selected to maximise opportunities to learn from their career stories. Therefore, the sample is purposeful rather than truly representative. Following Stake’s
suggestion (1995), the main criterion for including or excluding the participants was not “What stories represent the totality of skilled migrants’ career projects in the field?”, but “What
selection of career stories will enhance our understanding of skilled migrants’ career projects and mechanisms that influence them?” The goal was to include individuals with internal
conversations dominated by the three MoRs associated with ‘active agency’ – autonomous, communicative and meta (Archer, 2007). For this reason, the data was collected and analysed simultaneously. Next, the sample was designed to allow for contrastive explanation (Lawson, 1997, 2003; Tsang and Ellsaesser, 2011) as the principal approach to data analysis28. The sample was aiming at a variety of individuals regarding age, gender, origin, ethnicity, occupational status etc. The participants were also selected with an objective to create a diverse sample, reflecting the structure of the economy of the North-East –dominated by jobs in the private sector, engineering, higher education, health and social care.
Skilled migrants were defined as individuals born outside the UK to non-British parents and who were educated at college diploma level and above and/or had experience in ‘skilled
occupations’29 (according to the Standard Occupational Classification, 2010)30. In line with
previous work, this definition aimed to transcend the overly simplistic “skill in the person” approach to classifying skilled migrants by including also the “skill in the job” element. Further, the analysis of the context paid attention to “skill in the setting” (Cockburn, 1983; Grugulis, 2007). Not all respondents were employed in skilled occupations at the time of the interviews – some had previous experience in skilled jobs and/or possessed high levels of education, but were not utilising it for their work. Additionally, indigenous respondents with similar socio-
demographic characteristics and in similar education/employment situations were also
28 This approach will be presented later in this chapter.
29 Major groups One (managers, directors and senior officials), Two (professional occupations) and Three (associate professional and technical occupations).
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interviewed. This sub-sample was included to enable contrastive explanation, with an intention to explore idiosyncrasies in skilled migrants’ careers.
Altogether 45 interviews with skilled migrants and 18 with indigenes were conducted, but six of them were eventually omitted. Once the equipment failed and the interview was not recorded. The researcher was not aware of the failure and no notes sufficient for analysis had been made during the interview. One interview produced data of an inadequate quality, which could not have been used for the purpose of the thesis. It is hard to assert confidently why this happened. The respondent was rather reserved and not keen on providing extensive answers. The
researcher, perhaps, lacked experience at interviewing and follow-up questions did not prove helpful. As a result, the data was very thin, lacking depth and richness, and not suitable for the thesis. Four more interviews were rejected at a later stage. An internal dialogue of one
respondent was classified as dominated by fractured reflexivity31. Unlike the other three modes, fractured reflexives are ‘passive agents’ (Archer, 2007) and, therefore, were outside the interest of this study. On three further occasions the dominant MoR was impossible to identify, as the dialogues with internal selves appeared to be governed, equally, by autonomous and meta- reflexivity (two respondents) and autonomous and communicative reflexivity (one respondent). Such eventuality was warned of (Archer, 2007) and, therefore, was anticipated. Data supplied by these interviews was interesting, but insufficient for identification of tendencies and making credible conclusions.
In total, 41 migrant respondents and 16 indigenous were included in the sample (Table 4.1). The number of men and women was approximately equal (21/20 and 9/7 for migrants and the
indigenes respectively). Respondents’ age varied from 24 to 61 years (25-61 for migrants and 24-60 for the indigenes), all of them were active in the labour market at the time they were interviewed. The sample included respondents coming from different countries (19 EEA passport holders and 22 non-EEA citizens) and, therefore, differently affected by regulation policies. Migrant respondents were from countries with substantial (e.g. Poland, Germany, India) and limited (e.g. Kazakhstan, Peru, Serbia) numbers of ex-compatriots in the North-East. To maximise the diversity, no more than two respondents from the same country were included. The only exception was Lithuania with three respondents – partially to represent the recent wave of Eastern-European migrants and partially because the third respondent presented a particularly interesting career story.
83 Name Gender Age Country of
origin
Education Occupation Mode of reflexivity
Career project
Migrant respondents
Ahmed Male 37 Iran Masters Bank manager CR Conformity/Runaway
Akande Male 42 Nigeria PhD Graduate tutor AR Conformity
Asel Female 38 Kazakhsta n
Diploma Accountant technician
CR Conformity/Runaway
Brandon Male 45 Ireland Bachelor Self-employed accounting consultant
AR Runaway
Calvin Male 34 Jamaica Masters Engineer MR Runaway
Celine Female 29 Belgium Bachelor Engineer AR Conformity
Dabeet Male 38 India Bachelor Physician AR Conformity
David Male 44 Romania Bachelor Marketing director
AR Reformation
Ecrin Female 37 Turkey Bachelor Commercial manager
AR Reformation
Emiliano Male 45 Spain Masters Engineering manager
AR Reformation/Runaway
Ernie Male 44 Australia Bachelor Strategic planning manager
CR Conformity/Trickery
Hong Female 34 China Bachelor HR manager AR Reformation
Fabio Male 31 Italy PhD Lecturer AR Trickery
Gaspar Male 44 Portugal PhD Research
assistant
MR Hideaway
Ida Female 61 Germany Bachelor Self-employed translator
MR Runaway
Janek Male 29 Hungary Masters IT professional AR Conformity Jennifer Female 35 USA Diploma Administrator CR Conformity
Joaquin Male 41 Colombia PhD Lecturer AR Trickery
John Male 25 Denmark Bachelor Senior recruitment consultant
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Kamran Male 30 Pakistan Masters Senior HR team leader
CR Conformity/Trickery
Karolina Female 38 Lithuania Bachelor Nurse CR Conformity/Runaway
Lew Male 37 Poland PhD Lecturer MR Hideaway
Margret Female 55 Germany Bachelor Self-employed translator
AR Runaway
Maria Female 42 Peru Masters Engineer AR Trickery
Mira Female 35 Vietnam Bachelor Council worker
CR Conformity/Trickery
Nuria Female 43 Spain Bachelor Teacher CR Conformity
Oleg Male 37 Ukraine PhD Lecturer MR Hideaway
Ralf Male N/A Japan (also an EU passport holder) Masters Marketing director AR Reformation
Reece Male 24 South Africa
Bachelor Engineer AR Conformity
Roberto Male N/A Mexico Masters Intellectual property manager
CR Conformity
Ruta Female 32 Lithuania Bachelor Administrator MR Hideaway
Sara Female 44 Italy PhD Lecturer MR Hideaway
Simona Female N/A Romania Diploma Interpreter AR Trickery Stojan Male 27 Serbia Masters Project
engineer
CR Conformity/Trickery
Tara Female 39 Canada Masters Teacher AR Trickery
Timur Male 44 Uzbekista n
PhD Lecturer AR Trickery
Tiwa Female 36 Nigeria Masters Accountant AR Conformity
Kristina Female N/A Lithuania Bachelor HR manager AR Trickery Trisha Female 42 India Masters Head of
external relations
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Uri Female 42 Israel Bachelor Marketing director
AR Reformation
Zara Female 35 Sweden PhD Business
development manager
CR Conformity
Indigenous respondents
Ben Male 53 UK PhD Lecturer AR Reformation
George Male 61 UK Bachelor Self-employed
educator
AR Runaway/Reformation
Harry Male 30 UK Bachelor Tax advisor AR Trickery
Helen Female 29 UK Masters HR consultant AR Trickery
Ian Male 50 UK PhD Lecturer MR Hideaway
Kevin Male 40 UK Bachelor Self-employed
credit manager
AR Runaway
Lauren Female 33 UK Diploma Tax
professional
CR Conformity
Lynn Female 38 UK Bachelor Charity
volunteer/ landlady
MR Runaway
Luke Male 25 UK Bachelor Engineer MR Runaway
Natalie Female 24 UK Bachelor Optometrist AR Conformity
Oliver Male 34 UK Bachelor Policy advisor CR Conformity
Terry Male N/A UK Bachelor Self-employed
property manger
AR Runaway
Theresa Female 40 UK Masters HR officer AR Reformation
Tony Male 28 UK Bachelor Accountant AR Conformity
Victoria Female 37 UK Bachelor Finance manager
AR Trickery
Yasmin Female 33 UK Masters Engineer CR Conformity/Runaway
Table 4.1 Interviewees
The interviews confirmed the significance of reflexivity for dispositions to develop career projects. All three MoRs under investigation in this thesis were present in the sample and the respondents were divided into sub-groups based on the MoR dominant in their internal
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conversations – based upon concerns and decision-making (Archer, 2003, 2008; see 4.7 for more details). 33 individuals (23 migrants and 10 native-born) were classified as pronounced
practitioners of autonomous reflexivity, 14 (11 and 3) – communicative and 10 (7 and 3) were registered as meta-reflexives (see 4.7). The analysis of empirical data revealed that concerns associated with different MoRs encouraged proclivities for certain types of relations with the context. In short, when dominant, communicative reflexivity promoted compliance with the social world; autonomous reflexivity was associated with a tendency to re-shape the world; whereas meta-reflexives had a strong inclination towards withdrawing from the existing order. These proclivities guided the respondents towards developing specific career projects. Five types of career projects have been identified from the interviewees’ career stories (Table 6.1). Three of them were associated with the MoRs, being the preferential choice of their practitioners: ARs and reformation, CRs and conformity, MRs and runaway. However, due to other causal
mechanisms operating in the setting, not all respondents were able to apply their preferred career projects and act in accordance to their reflexive tendencies. Consequently, many used alternative strategies. Some of the respondents applied career projects associated with other MoRs, whereas some others utilised intermediate projects, which were identified as trickery and hideaway.
Career project Meaning
Conformity Compliance with the social setting and
replication of behavioural patterns of the dominant group
Hideaway A form of escapism, meaning that agents
remain in their current setting, but seek isolation from it
Reformation Active transformation of the social setting and
its conventions and imposing of new norms
Runaway Movements between employers, jobs,
occupations and locations in search for the ‘better’ context
Trickery32 Practitioners do not attempt to actively
change the context, but seek to become exempt from the governing rules, i.e. to circumvent them
Table 4.2 Typology of career projects
The expectations formed upon the review of the existing studies (Archer, 2003, 2007) did not anticipate considerable dissimilarities between internal conversations of migrant and indigenous practitioners of the same MoRs. The analysis, indeed, did not reveal differences between inner
32 It is acknowledged that this word may have a negative connotation. However, it reflects the essence of this type of career projects, as the respondents’ projects were aimed at “tricking” and “cheating” the contextual norms (see 6.4 and 7.2).
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dialogues of migrants and the indigenes and their inclinations for particular relations with the context. In simple terms, autonomous reflexive migrants and autonomous reflexives indigenes had similar concerns, had proclivities for similar career projects and generally had more in common with each other than, for example, autonomous reflexive migrants and communicative reflexive migrants. The major difference, as will be discussed later, was inequality in
accessibility of career projects for migrants and the indigenes.
It ought to be stressed that career projects were not mutually exclusive. On the one hand, all MoRs are present in internal conversations of most social agents (Archer, 2007). For this reason, concerns and tendencies can become more or less prominent in some circumstances or at some stages of life and/or career. On the other hand, contextual conditions may not allow for
consistent reliance exclusively on one project – e.g. some career obstacles are more difficult to change or circumvent than others and have to be conformed to. As a consequence, individuals can be engaged in different actions at different periods of time or even simultaneously, but, as will be discussed later, a case is made that one type of career projects was particularly important in all individual career stories.
As will be discussed in section 4.8, issues of anonymity and confidentiality were crucial for this study. Many respondents were easily identifiable because of a small number of migrants and skilled (particularly senior) positions in the North-East. Therefore, for ethical reasons only a limited amount of information can be included in the table33. More parameters, however, were used in the analysis. For the same reason, the table provides a rather broad description of the respondents’ occupations. Nonetheless, the table illustrates that the sample was biased towards sectors prominent on the local labour market, such as higher education and engineering. A significant proportion of respondents (20) were employed in the public sector, which is
particularly important in the regional economy. Ten respondents (four indigenes, five EEA and one non-EEA migrant) were engaged in various forms of freelance and self-employment activities or had such experience previously34. This suggests an adequate representation of the
regional labour market, implying a good opportunity to explore the underlying causal mechanisms.
Skilled migrants are notorious for being a difficult to access group (see Hagan et al., 2011) and this proved to be true. Having few migrants in the North-East (ONS, 2012a) made this task even more difficult. Access to participants had to be obtained via various channels and, so, access
33 All names and some countries of origin were changed to maintain anonymity of the respondents (see 4.8). 34 Sometimes in addition to day jobs.
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took a considerable amount of time. Initially the researcher utilised his personal contacts to identify potential respondents. This gained access to 22 respondents35 – 14 migrants and 8 indigenes. No close friends or family members were interviewed and the respondents were either rather distant acquaintances or ‘friends of friends’. Second, websites of local companies were explored and cold emails inviting to participate in the research were sent to those individuals whose profiles suggested they might fit the research goals. Third, InterNations – a social media platform designed for people who live and work abroad – was used to approach migrants in the North-East, similarly via cold messages. 42 migrants and 19 indigenes were contacted via
corporate websites and 67 migrants via InterNations. Altogether 32 agreed to be interviewed and, finally, 26 interviews were conducted (24 with migrants and two with indigenes). Finally,
snowballing (Goodman, 1961) was also used. Although this method has proved useful when studying hard-to-identify or hard-to-approach groups of population (Dickmann and Mills, 2010; Hagan et al., 2011), it granted access only to nine participants in this study. Snowballing was more useful for gaining access to the indigenes (six) than migrants (three). This was mainly because of homogeneity of migrants’ contacts – whereas the indigenes were connected to a broad range of different people, migrants were linked mainly to ‘similar’ people, typically other migrants, often from the same country/region and of the same gender. Thus, most of their contacts were not suitable for contrastive explanation. Further, migrants in general had more low-skilled contacts, which did not suit the objectives of the thesis.