Now let us consider the phenomenon of migration in relation to the developing concepts of career management as outlined above. Along with the changes in the world of work discussed above, international transition is yet another destabilising element in today’s careers. Migration, for whatever reason, pushes individuals away from their career boundaries and into a new environment where they need to re-assess their career in terms of that environment. Boundaryless careers in this sense can also include careers of individuals crossing national and cultural boundaries.
Migrants’ employment failures are a human resource waste, as most of these individuals, especially those who migrate under a skill based entry system, have good work records prior to their migration. Failure can also be a heavy blow to the migrants’ self-esteem
and ego. When it comes to collectivist people, failure is more intensively felt due to the specific characteristic of collectivism; that of ‘losing of face’ (Dunung, 1995). The inability of individuals to adjust to an unfamiliar foreign culture is often blamed for these failures. Individuals experience great trauma from the failure of not obtaining the expected employment, which can lead to financial difficulties, changes of career direction, modification of career goals, or a decline in their standard of living and quality of life.
Hofstede (1991, pp.222-223) says that the number of people in today’s world who have left their native country and moved to a completely different environment is larger than ever before in human history. The ‘great people’s migration’ of the early centuries involved far smaller numbers of people than the present waves. The reasons are wars and other political upheavals as well as poverty in the original location versus presumed riches in the target environment. The reasons stated by Hofstede are some of the many that push individuals away from their native home. The reasons, in a broader view, also include cultural, family and career factors (Carr, Inkson & Thorn, 2004). The effect in all cases is that people and entire families travel into cultural environments vastly different from the ones in which they were mentally programmed, often without any preparation (Hofstede, 1991).
As discussed previously, migration leads to a realisation of differences in environments and this environmental distance can vary greatly and depends wholly on an individual’s comfort zones. Everyone who moves to a different territory experiences some form of differences in life from that of his or her homeland. Acceptance and adaptation depend on the person’s ability to adjust. A new country introduces new people, new language (or at least a different accent in the same language), new systems, new habits and customs etc. A migrant individual entering into that situation sees many differences. According to the cultural dimensions discussed earlier, the gaps between individualism Vs collectivism, masculinity Vs femininity, uncertainty avoidance (strong Vs weak) etc. and the adaptation problems in these cases are specific to the pair of cultures involved.
In general, migrants experience these differences in their work place, public places and schools. According to Hofstede (1991, p.222), migrants are marginal people between two worlds. They alternate daily between one and the other, and the effect of this
marginality is different for different family members and between families even from the same culture. However, restarting their work life in that environment becomes an essential and immediate task to support their survival. And according to Reardon and his associates (2000, p.5) the quality of career life is important because increases in unemployment have been directly related to increases in individual health problems, domestic violence and crime. Thus, a migrant who is able to develop his or her career avoids other characteristic migrant problems. Cultural sensitivity, interpersonal skills, adaptability and flexibility are the most important attributes for a migrant in the world of work.
Theories of career choice and development in a general context offer various conceptualizations of how people make career choices, adjust to those choices and manage work relative to other life roles. Many of these constructs may lack utility for understanding individual career development and vocational behaviour in culturally diverse contexts (Arbona, 1995; Leong & Hartung, 2000). Empirical studies of the influence of specific cultural variables, such as acculturation level and value orientation, on career development and vocational behaviour represent a major trend in multicultural career research (Leong & Hartung, 2000, p. 219).
Bennett (1998, p.69) states that to manage change well, an individual needs to be flexible, positive and proactive. Bearing this in mind, he /she may consider his/her options under four headings:
• What is important for him/her now?
• What will be the effect of his / her career change on family and friends?
• What is happening in the job market?
• What are his / her skills and achievements?
Bennett (1998) emphasizes that whether the change has already happened or is imminent, the individual has an opportunity to think about what is important for him/her at this point in his/her life and career. These questions are equally important to migrants experiencing a major change in their life including career.