Page 38 - valuing-diversity-guidance-for-labour-market-integration-of-migrants

Valuing diversity: guidance for labour market integration of migrants

development, how to achieve individual adaptability, life-roles played by
individuals, and associated motivations and self-efficacy beliefs.
The need for targeted approaches for migrants, although acknowledged in
the research community (Bimrose and McNair, 2011; Leung, 2008; Leong, 2011;
Laungani, 2005) has not necessarily led to great increase in
theoretical/methodological proposals. Arredondo (2005) (Bimrose and McNair,
2011), for example, has reviewed 102 articles from the journal of counselling and
development, published from 1990-2001, and concluded that only 3% were
related to immigration. In cases where immigration was addressed, it frequently
narrowed down the topic to very specific groups, such as political refugees, not
addressing the needs of the larger group of migrants for economic reasons.
In spite of its still low representation, guidance and counselling for migrants
is a growing issue and theoretical and practical proposals have arisen, with
emphasis on:
(a) career adaptability among migrants (Savickas, 1997; 2009);
(b) development of cross-cultural competences among practitioners (Sue et al.,
1992; Bimrose, 1998; Watson, 2006; Arthur, 2006), frequently using as
reference models of value orientation among different cultures. These reflect
different world visions of values such as authority, decision-making, group
engagement and success (reference models can be found in Laugani, 1999;
2005; Ibrahim, 1985; Hofstede and Bond, 1988; Launikari and Puukaris,
3
2005 ( ).
Most frequently, the idea of career adaptability is based on the assumption
that an individual can develop skills and sets of knowledge that allow him/her to
enhance his/her self-reflection and adjust to new environments and situations;
this is the main challenge for migrants. In this context, guidance and counselling
activities focus on developing the individual's capacity to think about the future,
while understanding and reassessing past experience, to select and develop the
skills and knowledge necessary to deal with change.
Although useful for guidance and counselling in general, this idea is
especially powerful for groups suffering from discrimination, social exclusion and
cultural alienation. Adaptability presupposes the possibility of bridging career
perceptions across socioeconomic and cultural spaces, so that people explore
their potential in a less constrained manner. This is especially important for
migrants due to the clash between the receiving country culture and their culture
of origin. Migrants are easily stereotyped, or prone to self-stereotype, due to

3
( ) See also Garcea (2005) in Launikari and Puukari’s Multicultural guidance and
counselling for an interesting discussion on this matter.

32