Positioning Strategies of Involuntary Skilled Immigrants in a Host Country

The study introduces and tests a framework of four distinct positioning strategies for employability formation in a new market: JOB-, GROWTH-, EDGE-, and SELF-focused. Findings reveal that the institutional context of the home country is a more consistent predictor of positioning strategy than individual intentions. Specifically, immigrants fleeing political repression (a case of Belarus) favor an emergent, open-minded, EDGE-focused strategy, identifying as innovation-driven experts. Conversely, those displaced by war (a case of Ukraine) adopt an Intended, Prepossession-oriented JOB-focused strategy, positioning themselves as a reliable workforce. With additional nuanced gender differences identified, these results underscore the necessity of tailoring integration policies to the specific strategic profiles of involuntary skilled immigrants. While the study examines strategies among skilled involuntary immigrants from Belarus and Ukraine entering the EU labor markets, the proposed typology offers a promising framework for examining other professional cohorts who, despite possessing significant human capital, face acute uncertainty when positioning themselves in a new labor market.