Papers by Romina Seminario
Social Networks , 2022
In this article, I analyse the tensions between transnationalism and integration as dynamic embed... more In this article, I analyse the tensions between transnationalism and integration as dynamic embedding practices. To elucidate patterns of embedding, I compare the life stories and networking accounts of an heterogeneous group of Peruvians with different social mobility outcomes. Despite length of stay, embedding practices show scarce and inconstant ties with host-country nationals, whereas Peruvians and other migrants represent persistent and close ties with members of this group. While the quantity and quality of ties with members of the host society have been predominantly analysed to asses degrees of integration, most research has only focused on conationals in home and host countries to enquiry about transnationalism. Moreover, the ties with migrants of other nationalities and co-nationals at alternative destinations are subsumed under a broad "transnational" category. Besides the dual compatriot networks, the analysis of Peruvian migrants' embedding practices reveals multifocal transnationalism based on ties with other Peruvians across several countries that in turn might enhance forms of integration in Switzerland. The result of uppward mobility at destination depending on close and stable ties with geographically scattered co-nationals contributes to the debates about social capital in migration studies.
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Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2019
Much research to date has shown that migrants from the Global South to the wealthier
nations of t... more Much research to date has shown that migrants from the Global South to the wealthier
nations of the North often experience a devaluation of their educational credentials,
notably because their initial qualifications are not recognised in their host countries. The
limited validity of educational achievements is often identified as the main cause of the
relatively unfavourable labour market outcomes of highly skilled migrants, who tend to
be concentrated in the least prestigious employment sectors and to bare an unequal share
of precarious jobs. In this article, we adopt a slightly different approach to this issue, by
focussing on the professional and personal trajectories of migrants who acquired
education credentials in their host country. Although previous research has stressed
the difficulties faced by non-EU students in Swiss HE institutions, both in terms of
successfully completing their educational programme and in finding qualified jobs
afterwards, the aim of the article is to better understand the gender dynamics that are
associated with post-graduation employment trajectories. By examining the employment
outcomes of Peruvian graduates, from Swiss Higher Education (HE) institutions,
we are able to reveal the influence of educational credentials on their subsequent lifecourse
is mediated by events in other life spheres.Using a gender-sensitive approach, we
analyse the effects of legal barriers and family dynamics on the employment trajectories
of migrant graduates.We show that obtaining a Swiss HE qualification is rarely enough
to guarantee access to the upper reaches of the Swiss labour market. In most cases, such
qualifications need to be combined with marriage to a Swiss (or EU) citizen before these
highly qualified migrants are able to settle legally in the host country and start a career
that is congruent to their educational credentials. However, the family reunification route
into legal residency is not without its own hazards. For women in particular, it may
cancel out some of the advantages associated with having a Swiss qualification and lead
to precarious or under-qualified positions on the labour market.
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Remittances review, 2019
Remittances are sent and received to maintain family livelihoods, to cover the education costs of... more Remittances are sent and received to maintain family livelihoods, to cover the education costs of younger members, to provide care services for ageing family members, to support business ventures, etc. Although a growing body of literature assesses the role of remittances in the migration-development nexus, past studies have rarely focused on time-sensitive dimensions such as family life-cycles and life-course stages. In addition, a dynamic analysis of social stratification based on gender, age, citizenship status and class within and between these families serves to enrich a transnational perspective on remittances. Life-course perspectives represent a suitable framework for tracing money circulation across multiple national settings and dynamic processes of social stratification. Beyond the common image of remittances being sent from host to home countries, Peruvians in Switzerland also receive money from their home country.
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Journal of International Mobility, 2019
Drawing on a life-course perspective, this paper focuses on the analysis of the transnational edu... more Drawing on a life-course perspective, this paper focuses on the analysis of the transnational education to employment transitions that particularly shows the interdependence of professional and family trajectories in a migration context. I focus on Peruvian migration to study in a Swiss Higher Education institution and subsequent job-hunting in the Swiss labour market; and link them with transnational family configurations. I present two types of life-courses found among highly skilled Peruvian men and women: the concordance or discordance between education credentials and current employment conditions. Although many studies have emphasised the problems of validating foreign degrees as the greatest barrier for highly skilled foreigners, I argue that having a Swiss degree does not automatically guarantee adequate employment for Peruvian men and women in Switzerland. The findings clearly stress the ambivalent role of Swiss degrees for migrants, as well as, the heterogeneous impact of partnership and parenthood. These processes can be explained by different opportunities and limitations based on fields of qualification and dynamic gender normativity in couple’s negotiations and employer-employee relations.
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Women's Studies International Forum, 2018
Highlights
•The article compares upward and downward social mobility of immigrant women in the ca... more Highlights
•The article compares upward and downward social mobility of immigrant women in the care sector.
•It also investigates how some immigrant women achieve skilled care jobs while others remain in precarious jobs in the care sector.
•Three explanatory factors were found: couple’s negotiations, social network composition and professional aspirations.
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Migration Letters, 2018
Biographic research about migrant's gender identities grasps tendencies of normativity change chr... more Biographic research about migrant's gender identities grasps tendencies of normativity change chronologically and transnationally. Transition to employment stories of Peruvian graduates from Swiss universities evoke continuities and changes in femininities and masculinities from Peru to Switzerland. Binational marriages that mediate employment transition after graduation play an ambivalent role in the attainment of jobs commensurate to skills. Career, partner, and care are key elements of transgressing and reinforcing non/hegemonic masculinities and un/desirable femininities from super scientist women to failing male breadwinners. Feminization of highly skilled migration from Peru is linked to urban middle classes where femininities are increasingly based on career advancement. However, these professional-oriented femininities might be neutralized in favour of care-oriented femininities from family models in Switzerland. While Peruvian female graduates constructed an ideal of care/career integration predominantly, male counterparts emphasized the risk of career success at the expense of partnership.
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Research on the risks of under- or unemployment faced by highly qualified non-EU immigrants to Sw... more Research on the risks of under- or unemployment faced by highly qualified non-EU immigrants to Switzerland has focused on the absence of recognition of their foreign qualifications as a major source of vulnerability in the host country. The aim of this paper is to study the employment trajectories of a specific group of migrants who have graduated from a Swiss higher education (HE) institution.
Drawing on a life-course perspective, the paper is based on sixteen biographical interviews with a diverse group of highly skilled Peruvian men and women living in Switzerland, after having graduated from a Swiss HE institution. We identify three ideal-type trajectories of migrant graduates with a Swiss HE qualification, based on their field of study, their route of access to formal residential status (essential employment clause / bi-national marriage) and the domestic division of labor and care responsibilities within their households.
We show that obtaining a Swiss HE qualification is rarely enough to guarantee non-European graduates access to a stable job that is commensurate to their qualifications. The ability of these Swiss-trained migrants to translate their educational credentials into favorable professional outcomes is highly dependent on family formation patterns and gender arrangements. Some routes to formal residential rights in Switzerland after graduation would seem to cancel out the advantages associated with having a Swiss qualification and lead to long-term precarious employment experiences, especially for female graduates from the humanities and social sciences who receive residential qualifications through marriage to a Swiss or EU national, rather than on the basis of their own contribution to the Swiss labor market.
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In this paper, I compare the professional trajectories of Peruvian men and women according to the... more In this paper, I compare the professional trajectories of Peruvian men and women according to the evolution of their legal situation in Switzerland. From a life-course perspective, the classification of immigrant’s experiences among different types of mobility such as irregular, student and family migration is not static or univocal. Legal status and entitlements that characterize them change, and immigrants might be classified in various streams across their life-course. In particular, the dynamics of legal configurations such as evolving migration regimes in the host county and immigrant’s practices to navigate restrictive laws show the utility of a time-sensitive analysis beyond entry categorisations. Legal trajectories impact downward and upward employment experiences, as well as, professional continuity between home and host countries. However, irregular legal situations at the beginning do not automatically correspond to downward professional trajectories or advantageous legal situations at the beginning always lead to upward employment experiences. Gender and social class play an important role to explain these paradoxes.
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Talks by Romina Seminario
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Conference Presentations by Romina Seminario
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Books by Romina Seminario
Gender and Migration: a Gender-Sensitive Approach to Migration Dynamics
The aim of this article is to investigate the different types of il/legalities that Swiss immigra... more The aim of this article is to investigate the different types of il/legalities that Swiss immigration controls produce and their impact on the professional trajectories of highly skilled migrant men and women from South America. Although I will consider the issue of migrants having to validate their foreign educational credentials and professional experiences, my main interest lies in the valuing of degrees obtained in Swiss higher education (HE) institutions. In fact, reskilling in the sense of achieving post-obligatory education in the host country has been considered as improving the labour market participation of highly skilled migrants. However, I will focus here on the ways in which particular immigration controls such as the creation of categories of entry, the influencing of employment relations, and the institutionalisation of uncertainty (Anderson, 2010) mediate the employment conditions of highly skilled migrants with Swiss degrees. I will thus explore precariousness (Anderson, 2010) among highly skilled South American men and women working in gendered and foreign-based employment sectors such as care and academia. The Swiss migration regime creates il/ legalities according to the independent (student or worker) or dependent (family reunification) way of obtaining a residence permit. Drawing on a life course perspective, immigration controls reduce the value of Swiss degrees by reducing immigrants’ legal opportunities to work to a dependent legal situation or a no-permit situation. A hierarchy of professions, family caregiving norms and nationality stereotypes influences the assessing of their skills. These finding stress the interest of investigating skills as a relational concept that is constructed and valued by key actors in a transnational space in order to fashion highly skilled migrants as precarious workers.
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Papers by Romina Seminario
nations of the North often experience a devaluation of their educational credentials,
notably because their initial qualifications are not recognised in their host countries. The
limited validity of educational achievements is often identified as the main cause of the
relatively unfavourable labour market outcomes of highly skilled migrants, who tend to
be concentrated in the least prestigious employment sectors and to bare an unequal share
of precarious jobs. In this article, we adopt a slightly different approach to this issue, by
focussing on the professional and personal trajectories of migrants who acquired
education credentials in their host country. Although previous research has stressed
the difficulties faced by non-EU students in Swiss HE institutions, both in terms of
successfully completing their educational programme and in finding qualified jobs
afterwards, the aim of the article is to better understand the gender dynamics that are
associated with post-graduation employment trajectories. By examining the employment
outcomes of Peruvian graduates, from Swiss Higher Education (HE) institutions,
we are able to reveal the influence of educational credentials on their subsequent lifecourse
is mediated by events in other life spheres.Using a gender-sensitive approach, we
analyse the effects of legal barriers and family dynamics on the employment trajectories
of migrant graduates.We show that obtaining a Swiss HE qualification is rarely enough
to guarantee access to the upper reaches of the Swiss labour market. In most cases, such
qualifications need to be combined with marriage to a Swiss (or EU) citizen before these
highly qualified migrants are able to settle legally in the host country and start a career
that is congruent to their educational credentials. However, the family reunification route
into legal residency is not without its own hazards. For women in particular, it may
cancel out some of the advantages associated with having a Swiss qualification and lead
to precarious or under-qualified positions on the labour market.
•The article compares upward and downward social mobility of immigrant women in the care sector.
•It also investigates how some immigrant women achieve skilled care jobs while others remain in precarious jobs in the care sector.
•Three explanatory factors were found: couple’s negotiations, social network composition and professional aspirations.
Drawing on a life-course perspective, the paper is based on sixteen biographical interviews with a diverse group of highly skilled Peruvian men and women living in Switzerland, after having graduated from a Swiss HE institution. We identify three ideal-type trajectories of migrant graduates with a Swiss HE qualification, based on their field of study, their route of access to formal residential status (essential employment clause / bi-national marriage) and the domestic division of labor and care responsibilities within their households.
We show that obtaining a Swiss HE qualification is rarely enough to guarantee non-European graduates access to a stable job that is commensurate to their qualifications. The ability of these Swiss-trained migrants to translate their educational credentials into favorable professional outcomes is highly dependent on family formation patterns and gender arrangements. Some routes to formal residential rights in Switzerland after graduation would seem to cancel out the advantages associated with having a Swiss qualification and lead to long-term precarious employment experiences, especially for female graduates from the humanities and social sciences who receive residential qualifications through marriage to a Swiss or EU national, rather than on the basis of their own contribution to the Swiss labor market.
Talks by Romina Seminario
Conference Presentations by Romina Seminario
Books by Romina Seminario
nations of the North often experience a devaluation of their educational credentials,
notably because their initial qualifications are not recognised in their host countries. The
limited validity of educational achievements is often identified as the main cause of the
relatively unfavourable labour market outcomes of highly skilled migrants, who tend to
be concentrated in the least prestigious employment sectors and to bare an unequal share
of precarious jobs. In this article, we adopt a slightly different approach to this issue, by
focussing on the professional and personal trajectories of migrants who acquired
education credentials in their host country. Although previous research has stressed
the difficulties faced by non-EU students in Swiss HE institutions, both in terms of
successfully completing their educational programme and in finding qualified jobs
afterwards, the aim of the article is to better understand the gender dynamics that are
associated with post-graduation employment trajectories. By examining the employment
outcomes of Peruvian graduates, from Swiss Higher Education (HE) institutions,
we are able to reveal the influence of educational credentials on their subsequent lifecourse
is mediated by events in other life spheres.Using a gender-sensitive approach, we
analyse the effects of legal barriers and family dynamics on the employment trajectories
of migrant graduates.We show that obtaining a Swiss HE qualification is rarely enough
to guarantee access to the upper reaches of the Swiss labour market. In most cases, such
qualifications need to be combined with marriage to a Swiss (or EU) citizen before these
highly qualified migrants are able to settle legally in the host country and start a career
that is congruent to their educational credentials. However, the family reunification route
into legal residency is not without its own hazards. For women in particular, it may
cancel out some of the advantages associated with having a Swiss qualification and lead
to precarious or under-qualified positions on the labour market.
•The article compares upward and downward social mobility of immigrant women in the care sector.
•It also investigates how some immigrant women achieve skilled care jobs while others remain in precarious jobs in the care sector.
•Three explanatory factors were found: couple’s negotiations, social network composition and professional aspirations.
Drawing on a life-course perspective, the paper is based on sixteen biographical interviews with a diverse group of highly skilled Peruvian men and women living in Switzerland, after having graduated from a Swiss HE institution. We identify three ideal-type trajectories of migrant graduates with a Swiss HE qualification, based on their field of study, their route of access to formal residential status (essential employment clause / bi-national marriage) and the domestic division of labor and care responsibilities within their households.
We show that obtaining a Swiss HE qualification is rarely enough to guarantee non-European graduates access to a stable job that is commensurate to their qualifications. The ability of these Swiss-trained migrants to translate their educational credentials into favorable professional outcomes is highly dependent on family formation patterns and gender arrangements. Some routes to formal residential rights in Switzerland after graduation would seem to cancel out the advantages associated with having a Swiss qualification and lead to long-term precarious employment experiences, especially for female graduates from the humanities and social sciences who receive residential qualifications through marriage to a Swiss or EU national, rather than on the basis of their own contribution to the Swiss labor market.