Exploring the journeys to re-employment of highly-skilled refugee women in the UK: Insights from the ESRI project

A small body of research has explored the barriers to employment faced by highly-skilled refugees, highlighting the importance of resilience and intercultural communicative competence (Young et al., 2022). In their journeys to appropriate qualified (re) employment, women are comparatively more disadvantaged than men (e.g., they are often the main caregivers in their families). However, little attention has been given to the specific experiences and needs of women-refugees with professional qualifications and/or professional experience. This talk presents the initial findings from an ongoing project funded by the British Academy Leverhulme Small Research Grants scheme: ESRI (Exploring the experiences of highly-skilled refugee women in the UK: An intersectional approach). It draws data from the first phase of the project, a series of nine qualitative interviews that explored the personal (e.g., mental health) and structural barriers (e.g., recognition of qualifications) encountered by the participants in their journeys to re-employment in the UK. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019) and discourse analysis (Cameron, 2001) were used to uncover the participants’ realities as discourses that shape and are being shaped by social construction. Ultimately, this approach enabled us to unpack how of gender, race/ethnicity, and language can result in compounded disadvantages for displaced women.