Nermin Aydemir JTW Columnist printable version send your friend message to author add comment ()

Friday, 9 January 2009

Concerns over unemployment spreads out all around the world as the impacts of the global economic crisis are felt more deeply every passing day. Things are not easy neither for the companies nor for the governments or for the people. Several companies announces work cuts and close branches. Yet, the problem seems to get even harder for the low-skilled immigrant groups, who already encounter serious difficulties in labor markets in an increasingly globalizing world. The growing necessity to enhance the labor skills of migrant groups is more apparent than ever. What makes employment more important for the immigrant groups is that being an important opportunity to be connected to the social world they live in.

Integrating Immigrants to the Job Market

Those working on the immigration policies in Western European countries have a reason to worry, indeed. Labor costs and the ever-increasing mobility of capital had already led to a significant shift of many different work opportunities to the countries with lower labor costs, which made life highly difficult to the descendants of guest-workers as well as the native Europeans. In fact, economic issues are seen as the EU can be seen as one of the most profound reasons underlying xenophobia in the recent years. Not only the workless native regard immigrants as stealers of their jobs but also those jobless immigrants lose significant opportunities to participate in and to contribute to the society.

Efforts toward integrating immigrants and their descendants seem to carry great weight in this context. Numerous studies, projects and policies have given fruitful results so far. An apparent progress has been achieved in terms of education level, language skill, social capital, competency in the labor market every passing day. Yet, acknowledging the obstacles in this regard and setting up strategies about how to deal with these will contribute to the effectiveness of this process.

The Issues of Capacity and Motivation

The capacity and motivation to be an active participant in the labor market appear as two significant factors, in this regard. The strengthening of the labor force of the immigrant groups seems to be quite helpful in this context since the strengthening of the labor force of those groups also mean the strengthening of their social capacities. Yet, the relationship is two-fold. The increase of the capacity of those newcomers is also very much likely to have a positive effect on the work force of the immigrant group. As for defining capacity, three distinct scholars, Almond, Schlozman and Brady, list socio-economic status, level of education and language skills as significant elements in their study on political participation.[1] It seems not very easy to increase the socio-economic conditions with a magic wand. Advancing the level of education and language skills, however, are much more straightforward targets to achieve. Many universities have already initiated projects to attract immigrant youth, i.e. publishing brochures, meetings with immigrant youth, meetings with immigrant parents, giving voice to the issue in media. Language courses are available in many occasions. However, language learning needs to be facilitated much more effectively.

‘Black schools’, in which the half or more than half of the student population is consisted of immigrant descendants, are regarded among the main barriers toward increasing the education level of the immigrants as well as improving their language capabilities. Being divided in different schools significantly ruins the efforts toward improving the education level and the language competence of young people of foreign origin as well as blocking integration.

The great popularity of TV channels of the country of origin further isolates immigrant groups. The media of the country of origin positively contributes to the socialization, i.e. keeping them away from retiring into their own societies in an ever globalizing world and familiarizing them with the global culture. Yet, being solely informed about the issues of the country of origin gives way to a separation and leads to a lack of knowledge about the career opportunities as well as decreasing their language capabilities if the contact with the new society is limited. Nevertheless, possible contributions of the media of the country of origin appear to be left aside. Satellites carry significant potential to familiarize immigrant groups with the host society, as well. A great amount of immigrant people day and night watch TV channels broadcasting from their countries of origin. Benefiting from these opportunities through making them sources of information is highly likely to increase the familiarity of the immigrant groups with the host society in quite a short time. When one gains knowledge, it is much easier to get interested and once interest arises, knowledge increases as a result.

When it comes to motivation, the study mentioned above addresses knowledge, interest and efficacy as key determinants. A good many number of studies address the issue of familiarity with the host society, in this regard. Quite similar to the case of black schools, here comes the issue of concentration neighborhoods, in which very little number of native population live. It seems quite unreasonable to expect an increase in the labor force of those people through a socio-economic increase in their capacities as long as they stay in those concentration neighborhoods with no or very little contact with the general society. The government policies toward increasing the life conditions as well as stimulating contact within the society are quite sensible, in this regard[2].

Recruiting networks further accelerate the process. The social agents, whether formal or informal, are highly effective in binding those living isolated with the general society. Turkish associations carry particular importance in this process since these are usually the first steps introducing the migrants to the host society. Many start participating in different occasions and increasing their social capacities and motivations once they are somehow connected with the overall society.