Mentoring immigrant job seekers: a socialization perspective

Purpose While mentoring is an important tool for employee development in organizations, its potential for integrating immigrants at the pre-employment stage remains underexplored. This paper examines the role of mentors in immigrants’ anticipatory socialization. Design/methodology/approach We followed an inductive, qualitative approach to investigate immigrants’ experiences of pre-employment mentoring facilitated by immigrant-serving organizations (ISOs). We drew on semi-structured interviews with immigrants and staff members of ISOs and archival data to understand the context and protégé experiences. Findings Mentors increased immigrants’ job search readiness by socializing them into the labor market, professions and organizations while supporting their emotional coping. Immigrant socialization emerges as a complex, multifaceted process requiring learning knowledge, skills and behaviors at multiple levels. Originality/value The study demonstrates the interrelatedness of mentoring and organizational socialization by elaborating on the process by which mentors support the anticipatory socialization of immigrant job seekers. Additionally, it unpacks the process of immigrant socialization by identifying specific knowledge, skills and behaviors that immigrants acquired through mentoring in order to meet societal, professional and organizational expectations.