Portrayal of Skilled Migrants' Careers in Business and Management Studies: A Review of the Literature and Future Research Agenda

Published date01 September 2018
AuthorAkram Al Ariss,Marian Crowley‐Henry,Edward O' Connor
Date01 September 2018
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12072
Portrayal of Skilled MigrantsCareers in
Business and Management Studies: A Review
of the Literature and Future Research Agenda
MARIAN CROWLEY-HENRY,
1
EDWARD OCONNOR
1
and AKRAM ALARISS
2
1
Maynooth University School of Business, Maynooth, Ireland
2
Toulouse Business School, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
A systematic literature review in business and management studies was conducted, which paints a portrait of the
existing literature on skilled migrantshost country career experiences. Core themes arising from this review are
presented, including labeling inconsistency concerning the population (with researchers using terminology such as
skilled migrants,’‘immigrant professionalsand qualified immigrantsinterchangeably); the need for including
skilled migrant managers and business professionals in research (rather than concentrating on lower-level
employment categories only); and a more relational, holistic realization of skilled migrantscareers (rather than
the current literatures negative portrayal, propounding the image of migrants as exploited or under-utilized). In
underliningthe gaps in the literature andresearch in this area,a research agenda is proposed. The review is relevant
for individuals following careers in a foreign country; for organizations employing and developing the careers of
internationally mobile employees; and for human resource management professionals supporting international
employees.
Keywords: skilled migrant; career; systematic literature review; immigrant professional; qualified immigrant; self-
initiated expatriate
Introduction
In the last ten years, internationally mobile professionals
beyond the organization-assigned expatriate are
increasingly discussed in management and organization
studies. International migrants, as one category of
international labor inflows to countries, have been
recognized as valuable human resources to organizations
and countries (Syed & Murray 2009; Al Ariss & Syed
2011; Cerdin et al. 2014). Skilled migrants, for the
purpose of this paper, are defined as having a university
degree or extensive experience in a given field (Iredale
1999). Their potential contribution to organizations and
countriesis considerable with skilled migrantsembodying
a significant resource of skills that can alleviate or even
solve skills shortages in specific sectors (Borjas 2001).
Nevertheless, existing knowledge on skilled migrants
careers in management and organization-related studies
requires synthesis, consideration of gaps in the existing
research, and direction towards future research
opportunities. We attempt to contribute to this special
issue by addressing each of these concerns in turn.
Specifically, this paper paints a portrait of the existing
literature on skilled migrantscareers in management
studies. It shines a spotlight on the research gaps in this
area and proposes a research agenda to tackle those
research gaps.
A systematic literature review (SLR) (Tranfield et al.
2003; Petticrew& Roberts 2006) was undertakendrawing
on literature in the business and management domains.
The next section details how this SLR was conducted
facilitating replicability for other researchers. We balance
the discussion on SLRs by both outlining the limitations
of the SLR process and emphasizing its contribution to
management research. Then we highlight, from our
review, the main themes in the literature on skilled
migrants in the business academic domain. We identify
the gaps in the extant literature and, finally, suggest a
research agenda.
Correspondence: Marian Crowley-Henry, Maynooth UniversitySchool of
Business (National University of Ireland Maynooth), RyeHall Extension
(north campus), Maynooth, Ireland, Tel: +353 1 708 4756; Fax: +353
1 628 6519. E-mail: marian.crowleyhenry@nuim.ie
European Management Review, Vol. 15, 375394, (2018)
DOI: 10.1111/emre.12072
©2016 European Academy of Management
The primary contribution of this paper is for the benefit
of management researchers in providing a synthesis of
research themes on skilled migrantscareers in business
and management studies. Second, for organizations,
managers and human resource managers employing
skilled migrants, the paper highlights the common
challenges and benefits associated with this international
labor population across the literature, and the
organizational supports that may be required. Third, for
skilled migrants, the paper unpacks from the detailed
SLR the dynamic multilevel factors impacting on their
workplace experiences and careers in a foreign country,
providing researchers and practitioners alike with a better
understanding of the consolidated facilitators and
challenges skilled migrants face in their careers.
Research approach: the systematic
literature review
The systematic literature review model (S LR) has been
proposed as a useful research method in management
studies in order to overcome the criticism that literature
reviews in this area are deficient in evidence and rigor
(Tranfield et al. 2003). Having attained popularity in the
discipline of medicine, it is acknowledged that, when
applied to manag ement studies and social science
literature, the SLR model relies largely on the subjective
judgement and interpretation of the researcher(s), who
determine the articles to ultimately include or exclude
for particular reasons (Denyer & Tranfield 2009). In this
way, it is recognized that the SLR process is an iterative
process, requiring researchers to engage with each stage
in a reflexive way(Arksey & OMalley 2005: 22). Below
we explain how this was done for this paper.
The five steps in the SLR model are as follows
(Pittaway et al. 2004; Denyer & Tranfield 2009): (1)
scoping study (identification of broad topics to be
included; career and skilled migrant were the core topics
in our search); (2) pilot testing search strings (in our case,
the initial searchwas skilled migrant,or migrationand
career;we subsequently addedimmigrant professional
or qualified immigrantto the search strings); (3)
categorizing results (determining if there is duplication
or irrelevant results; this was the most iterative and time-
consuming of the filtering process, where the coauthors
individuallyand collaboratively determined which articles
were most relevant to the SLR analysis); (4) reviewing
relevant articles/sources (reading remaining sources,
including relevant articles in the references of those
articles returned from the SLR); and finally, (5)
synthesizing and critiquing relevant articles (in order to
determine themes and gaps). While these steps appear
linear, they are actually more reflexive in practice. For
instance, in synthesizing and critiquing the relevant
articles in our SLR (step 5 above), we discovered that
articles on immigrant professionalsand qualified
immigrantswere missing. In our analysis, both qualified
immigrants and immigrant professionals are analogous
with skilled migrants as an international labor category.
This led to us refining our search strings (steps 1 and 2
above) to allow us to categorize and review those returns
(steps 3 and 4).
The Web of Science database (including 2.6 million
records, http://wokinfo.com/) was the repository searched
for the SLR (cf. Özbilgin et al. 2011). Within the Web of
Science database, the Social Sciences Citation Index
(1956present) was selected and all articles between
2000 and 2015 were searched. Our focus in this review
was on recent research and literatureon migrantscareers,
so we limited the search to publications since 2000 (cf.
Andresen et al. 2014).
We searched for articles which had in their topic career
and either migration,or skilled migrant,or qualified
immigrant,or immigrant professional.The initial return
(excluding qualified immigrant or immigrant professional)
was 25,373, which rose to 25,588 when we included those
terms in the search string. We filtered out any non-English
language articles which reduced the articles to 23,934. We
then refined the search to the single research area of
Business and Economics, which reduced the returns to
4,128 articles. Next, we refined by two Web of Science
categories: business and management, which resulted in
451 articles. We refined the search by document type and
kept in only articles (not book reviews, or proceedings
papers). This resulted in 406 articles remaining. Then we
filtered out articles that were not published in general
business and management journals. For instance, we
excluded articles (called source titleson the database)
published in scientific or technological journals such as
Science,Technology and Society and Information Systems
Research, where migration referred to IT systems rather
than the population of migrants being investigated in this
review; and in marketing-specific journals such as
Marketing Science and Advances in Marketing Research,
where the focus was more on consumer migration. Our
focus in the review was on publications in business and
management peer-reviewed journals only, concerning
career and where the population being studied was
identified as skilled migrants, in line with the research focus
in the scoping study (first stage in a SLR). This reduced the
number of potential articles in the review to 217 (see
Appendix 1 for the detailed search string).
Next, we focused on ABS-rated journals only (http://
charteredabs.org/academic-journal-guide-2015-view/), as
a means of further filtering the journals and the
corresponding articles to be reviewed, according to an
objective quality ranking system. Articles published in
ABS-ranked journals undergo a stringent peer-review
process to meet qualityexpectations. This filteringof both
376 M. Crowley-Henry et al.
©2016 European Academy of Management

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