Lamentable Letting Go: Emotional Detachment Identity Work by Sri Lankan Skilled Immigrant Women in Australia

Abstract The identities of skilled immigrant women are often challenged as they enter the host country’s workforce. As a result, they seek avenues to stabilize their identities and to develop a more socially acceptable self. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews of Sri Lankan skilled immigrant women in Australian workplaces, this study analyses the identity work strategies employed in the sensemaking process through which they establish their identities. While securing their first employment opportunity in the Australian labor market, our respondents engaged in emotional detachment from their professional identity in order to make sense of taking a less socially prestigious job. Our evidence suggests that emotional detachment identity work functions as a bridge between sensebreaking and sensemaking when professional identities are threatened. By enhancing the understanding of identity work strategies employed by skilled immigrant women in their early stages of migration, this finding opens a pathway to future research regarding immigrants’ identity work in different host country contexts.