This chapter first presents how migrant background influences the labour market outcomes of young adults and shapes the teenage career thinking, exploration, and experience of students. It draws on relevant academic literature and makes extensive use of OECD PISA and PIAAC data and OECD career readiness indicators. The chapter then looks at how career guidance can prepare such young people for the modern labour market and how it can address inequalities related to migrant background, and to a lesser extent ethnicity, in its provision. It presents illustrative examples of practice and discusses the characteristics of effective career guidance provision in this regard.
Challenging Social Inequality Through Career Guidance
Insights from International Data and Practice
Abstract
‘Migrants’ have a broad range of backgrounds. Country of birth, nationality, race and ethnicity as well as year of entry, parents’ country of birth and language spoken at home, and a mix of all these elements may influence students’ education and labour market outcomes. Inequality can be seen to work in different ways in relation to young people with migrant origins in different originating countries within each of these categories. In OECD PISA, ‘immigrant students’ include first- and second- generation immigrant students whose parents were foreign-born. First-generation students who are foreign-born with foreign-born parents range up to 25% of students in Luxembourg with an OECD average of 5% in PISA 2018 (OECD, 2019[1]). For simplicity of comparison, this chapter largely focuses on foreign-born versus native-born young people. However, the paper does discuss race and ethnicity wherever evidence is available by the level of educational attainment or skills to allow reasonable comparisons to be undertaken. It recognises however that the experiences of specific minority groups often vary considerably.
Foreign-born young adults are more likely than their native-born peers to be in NEET when controlling for other factors that commonly influence employment outcomes. Even with the same level of qualification, young people from ethnic monitories are on average less likely to be employed and more likely to be unemployed or inactive. EU data confirm that fewer low-educated, foreign-born young adults tend to be employed than similarly educated native-born counterparts. However, among high-educated, foreign-born young adults, more tend to be employed than native-born counterparts with the same level of education. While PIAAC data cannot confirm a wage difference between foreign-born and native-born young adults, a UK study found that graduate men from all ethnic minority groups have lower earnings than white male British graduates, even after controlling for education and other various demographic characteristics (See Box 4.1).
4.1.1. Employment outcomes by migrant backgrounds
Employment outcomes tend to differ by whether a student is native or foreign born, even with the same prior level of education and skills. Across all countries, foreign-born young adults (16-34) are more likely to be NEET than native-born young adults (Figure 4.1). Across OECD countries, foreign-born young adults are 1.3 times more likely than native born peers to be in NEET when controlling for education, skills, gender and parental education, though this is not statistically significant. Only five countries have a statistically significant result, among which the share of foreign-born NEET ranges from 4% in Austria and Canada to 10% in Australia and 11% in Spain. In these countries, the odds of foreign-born adults being in NEET – after controlling for education, skills and gender and parent education – was twice as high as native born in Austria, 1.9 times in Canada, 1.9 in Australia, 1.7 in Spain, and 2.7 in Estonia.
A higher likelihood of being NEET among foreign-born adults is in line with reported challenges facing foreign-born youth in their transition to work. Even if they have the same qualifications as native-born youth, which signal their level of academic knowledge and practical skills, labour market outcomes and success in apprenticeship and university applications may differ (Drydakis, 2017[2]; Jeon, 2019[3]). Experimental studies have been undertaken in many OECD countries to explore whether individuals from migrant backgrounds and members of ethnic and racial minority groups face discrimination in the labour market. Such ‘correspondence tests’ take the form of fictitious applications being made for jobs by similarly qualified and experienced candidates. In a meta-analysis of 738 ‘correspondence tests’ in 43 separate studies by Zschirnt and Ruedin, systematic evidence of discrimination is revealed with minority candidates needing to send around 50% more applications to be invited for interview than candidates from the majority population. Even when applicants are born in the host country, such patterns of discrimination are evident (2016[4]).
Studies in Greece and Sweden found that both non-natives and natives with an ethnic-minority background face comparable occupational access constraints and are effectively sorted into lower paid vacancies (Bursell and Bygren, 2023[5]; Drydakis, 2017[2]). A similar meta-analysis of 28 correspondence studies in the US by Quillian et al. (2017[6]) finds that on average White Americans received 36% more calls for interview than comparable African Americans and 24% more than Latino Americans. The study found that while evidence of such discrimination against African Americans had stayed at the same rates since 1989, that experienced by Latinos had reduced. Other meta-analyses of correspondence studies undertaken in multiple countries in Europe and North America also find that evidence of discrimination varies across minority groups. Lippens, Vermeiren and Baert (2023[7]) finds that migrants from Arabic backgrounds are ‘severely discriminated against in the hiring process’, but identifies weaker evidence of discrimination faced by White European migrants. Consequently, it can be expected that while all migrants will face additional barriers in understanding education and training systems and labour markets in a host country (Jeon, 2019[3]), further barriers may be apparent linked to patterns of discrimination.
Percentage of NEET among young people (15-34) and their probability of being NEET by migrant status
Note: Countries with a missing value or a small sample size are omitted. Parent education is categorised ‘low’ when neither parent has attained upper secondary, and ‘high’ when at least one parent has attained tertiary. Statistically significant (at p-value<0.1) differences and odds ratios are presented in a filled marker. Differences are the unadjusted differences between the two percentages for each contrast category. The odds ratios take into account the effect of education and literacy score in addition to gender and parent education.
Source: OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) (2012, 2015, 2018).
In EU countries, similar levels of education attainment also lead to different employment rates between foreign-born and native-born inhabitants. However, outcomes reflect different levels of attainment. For example, in the EU-27 countries in 2020 among low-educated young adults (15-29), lower proportions of foreign-born young adults tend to be employed than native-born counterparts. In contrast, among high-educated young adults, more foreign-born people tend to be employed than their native-born counterparts (Figure 4.2). Across all education levels, foreign-born men on average have the highest employment rates among compared groups across the matrix of gender-migrant status.
Employment (%) by migrant status, 2022 Q2
Note: Hungary is 2022Q1 data. High-educated (ISCED 5-8) refers to tertiary educated. Low-educated (ISCED 0-2) refers to below upper secondary education.
Source: Eurostat (2022), LFSQ_ERGANEDM
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/LFSQ_ERGANEDM__custom_3953450/default/table?lang=en
While overlaps are common, migrant background is a different social identity category than race/ethnicity. In some countries, relevant data are available to help understand the experiences of minority groups in the labour market. Data from the UK for example clearly show that race or ethnicity plays a role in education-to-work transitions: among higher education graduates, White graduates were least likely to be unemployed and more likely than other ethnic groups to have transitioned to employment or further study 15 months after graduation (Hubble, Bolton and Lewis, 2021[8]) (Figure 4.3). This gap increases with time following graduation: attrition rates in employment among White graduates are the lowest among compared groups (Figure 4.4).
Share of higher education graduates by activity 15 months after graduation, 2019/20 cohort
Note: Others include travel, caring for someone, retired or unknown pattern of further study. Graduate Outcomes survey data covers UK higher education providers (HEPs) and further education colleges (FECs) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Data is collected approximately 15 months after higher education course completion.
Source: Graduate Outcomes open data repository, https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/graduates/releases
Sustained employment and/or further study (%) in 2018/19 by years after graduation from higher education and by ethnicity
Source: Graduate outcomes (LEO): outcomes in 2018 to 2019, DfE in (Hubble, Bolton and Lewis, 2021[57]).
Studies of US datasets provide comparable results. After controlling for level of education, statistically significant variations are apparent in the employment outcomes of young adults in relation to their ethnic backgrounds with Black, Native American and Hispanic people experiencing the greatest disadvantages (Brown, Lauder and Cheung, 2020[9]; Dozier, 2010[10]; Grodksy and Pager, 2001[11]; Miller, 2020[12]; Wilson and Darity, 2022[13]).
4.1.2. Labour market segmentation by migrant backgrounds
In addition to gender and SES, country of birth is a factor in labour market segmentation. EU-27 data show that across all educational attainment levels, foreign-born young adults (15-29) are overrepresented in low-skilled and low-waged employment such as elementary occupations. Among the low-educated, 32% of foreign-born young adults work in elementary occupations compared to 24% of their native-born peers; among mid-educated, 16% compared to 8%; among high-educated 6% compared to 2%. Services and sales (ISCO 5) and Craft and related trades (ISCO 7) are relatively common among low- and mid-educated young workers for both foreign- and native-born (Figure 4.5).
Percentage of employment by educational attainment, migrant status and occupation, 2021
Source: Eurostat (2022), ESTAT:LFSA_EGAISEDM, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/lfsa_egaisedm/default/table?lang=en
Foreign-born individuals are more likely to work in their host country's high-tech sectors, which may demand relatively less cultural familiarity and linguistic skills that migrants can face greater challenges accumulating, but demand relatively more technical or innovative skills where they can have comparative advantages. This is the case in countries with high shares of immigrants and that are considered relatively welcoming for immigrants. For example, Fassio and Igna (2022[14]) analyse the career paths of young foreign-born university graduates (3 780) in Sweden after graduation during the period of 2000-14 and find that foreign graduates are more likely than Swedish ones to work in high-tech sectors, both in manufacturing and services, and in expanding industries because of their stronger need for new hires.1 In this relationship, foreign students from more culturally distant locations are more likely to work in high-tech or in expanding sectors (Fassio and Igna, 2022[14]). Similarly in the United States, Chiswick and Taengnoi (2007[15]) find that high-skilled immigrants whose native language is culturally distant from English have a greater propensity to be employed in occupations in which communication skills are less important, such as computer scientists and engineers; similar results are also found in Australia (Crown, Faggian and Corcoran, 2020[16]).
4.1.3. Job quality by migrant backgrounds
For countries with available data, foreign-born young adults are less likely to earn high wages than native-born young adults. Looking at top-quartile wage earners, in Slovenia, Spain, Flanders, Italy, Norway and Ireland, foreign-born young adults are significantly less likely to earn in the top-quartile of earners than their native-born counterparts (Figure 4.6). When controlling for education, skills, gender and parental education, in Ireland, native-born young adults are 2.1 times more likely to earn high wages compared to foreign-born peers. This is the opposite however in the US 2012/14 where foreign-born young adults are less likely to earn high wages (odds ratio 0.6). In a regression analysis of wage penalties controlling for education level, SES, gender, age and other variables, foreign-born individuals earn 1.5% less in reference to native-born individuals (a result of pooled OECD data using PIAAC).
Percentage of young adults (16-34) with wage at top quartile and the likelihood of native born to earn top-quartile wage in reference to foreign born
Note: Differences are the unadjusted differences between the two percentages for each contrast category. The odds ratios take into account the effect of education and literacy score in addition to gender and parental education. Statistically significant (p<0.1) differences and odds ratios are presented in a filled marker.
Source: OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) (2012, 2015, 2018).
Turning to ethnicity, analysis of the UK Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset which links school-related data with labour market data, earning gaps increase over time between university graduates from different ethnic backgrounds. Drawing on LEO 2018-19 data, researchers find that while non-White groups tend to cluster around earnings results similar to White graduates, two groups are outliers: young people of Chinese origin who demonstrate the highest average earnings, and Black graduates whose earnings are the lowest. An initial 13% gap between Black graduates and Chinese graduates after one year of graduation increases to 20% ten years after graduation (Figure 4.7). A UK study using LEO also found that, after controlling for prior education attainment and a host of other background characteristics including region dummies, university, subject choice, socio-economic background, language, school-type, attainment through national school age testing and other various demographic characteristics, graduate men from all ethnic minority groups (2002-07 cohort) have lower earnings than male white British graduates (Dearden, Britton and Waltmann, 2021[17]).
Median earnings of higher education graduates, 2018/19 in GBP, UK
Source: Graduate outcomes (LEO): outcomes in 2018 to 2019, DfE, in (Hubble, Bolton and Lewis, 2021[8]).
Looking at other aspects of job quality, using PIAAC and controlling for parental education, gender, skills and education, native-born young adults are more likely to have indefinite work contracts than foreign-born peers, in the Netherlands (odds ratio 2.2), Slovenia (2.5) and Spain (1.8). However, in Israel the opposite is the case (0.5). Among four countries with significant results, native-born young adults are less likely to work full time (30 hours and more a week) than foreign born in Chile/Estonia (odds ratio 0.2) and Israel (0.6) while Sweden was the opposite (1.6). The United States show different results by the year of survey: 2012/2014 (0.7) and 2017 (1.6).
PIAAC data also allow for analysis of whether young adults are working at levels in the labour market aligned with their qualifications. While there are multiple factors regarding overqualification2 and these vary across countries, in most countries with a sizeable immigrant population country of birth is often a factor behind overqualification. Among seven countries in PIAAC that have a statistically significant result, native-born young people have lower odds of having qualification mismatch than foreign-born young people in: Austria (odds ratio 0.5), Denmark (0.4), Finland (0.5), France (0.4), Norway (0.7), Sweden (0.4). Only in Czechia (3.0) are native-born are more likely to have qualification mismatch than their foreign-born peers. In Norway and Sweden, the share of overqualified workers is at least three times higher among foreign-born adults as among the native-born population (OECD, 2022[18]).
In terms of ethnicity, about 40% of Black African people and 39% of people from the Bangladeshi ethnic group in the UK are overqualified for their roles in the workplace, compared with 25% of White workers (Hubble, Bolton and Lewis, 2021[8]). Other studies in Sweden also confirm that over-qualification is associated with ethnic minorities and ‘fields at risk’ such as humanities, law and social work. Unsurprisingly, this also decreases the chances of upward mobility in the labour market (Nordlund, 2018[19]). Such over-qualification compared to native peers has been related to patterns of discrimination. As mentioned above, experimental correspondence studies in several countries reveal the existence of discrimination in application processes due to the applicant’s nationality, place of birth or ethnicity; (Alan and Ertac, 2018[20]; Bursell and Bygren, 2023[5]; Drydakis, 2017[2]; Jeon, 2019[3]).
Six out of the OECD countries which participated in PIAAC have a statistically significant result for the likelihood of young people being satisfied with their job by migrant status, controlling for gender, parent education, skills and education. Native-born young people have higher odds of being satisfied than foreign-born young people in Austria (odds of 1.7), Denmark (1.5), Ireland (1.5), Italy (2.7), the Netherlands (2.2). The United States were an exception, but the results were mixed: 0.5 (in 2012/14, statistically significant) and 1.2 (in 2017, not significant).
On average, foreign-born young people are 1.3 times more likely than native-born peers to be in NEET when controlling for education, skills, and other factors. The level of education plays an important role here: while among low-educated, foreign-born young adults tend to be less employed than similarly educated native-born counterparts and more concentrated in low-paying sectors, high-educated ones tend to be employed relatively more than native-born counterparts with the same level of education. Patterns of over-qualification are apparent linked to migrant backgrounds even after controlling for skills and educational levels. Foreign-born students are also less likely than native-born peers to earn high salaries. The evidence speaks to foreign-born young people often facing additional barriers in converting the human capital into better employment. However, the character of disadvantage encountered often varies by the migrant or ethnic background of the young person.
Reviewing PISA data, foreign-born students tend to be more uncertain about their future careers than similarly performing native-born students in several OECD countries. When describing an occupational expectation, they are more likely to expect to work in high skilled careers than their similarly performing counterparts. Although there is no clear pattern of career misalignment by migrant background, native-born students are in many countries more likely than similarly performing foreign-born students to expect to work in a high-skilled occupation and not expect to complete a tertiary education. Career concentration is higher among foreign-born students, based on combined data from 31 OECD countries. Native-born students tend to participate more in each of the career development activities (CDA) for which data are available in PISA than foreign-born students – the gap is particularly large for internships.
4.2.1. Exploration of potential futures in work
In terms of the participation in career development activities which enable students to explore potential futures in work. foreign-born students tend to participate more in each research-oriented exploring activities (PISA 2018) than native-born students. For example, foreign-born students are 1.2 times more likely than native-born students to have researched the Internet for careers information. However like girls in comparison to boys, they are less likely than native-born students to participate in job shadowing/worksite visits or job fairs (Figure 4.8), activities that bring them into direct contact with people in work and which have been seen in longitudinal analysis to be particularly associated with better long-term employment outcomes (Covacevich et al., 2021[21]). Compared to SES and gender, the role of migrant status in shaping the engagement of young people in career development activities is more limited, but still statistically significant.
Odds ratio of foreign-born students in reference to native-born students, OECD average
Note: Odds ratios are adjusted for gender, SES, reading performance and VET orientation. All results are statistically significant (p value<0.1) (see Box 1.1 about the significance level).
Source: PISA 2018 (OECD, 2019[1]).
4.2.2. Experiencing potential futures in work
Multiple longitudinal analyses indicate that students who gain experience of the working world while still in education can expect to gain enhanced employment outcomes in their mid-twenties (Covacevich et al., 2021[21]). On average across the OECD, there is little difference in the internship experience, however the country variation is significant. With controls in place, including programme orientation (general or vocational education and training), foreign-born students have higher odds of doing an internship in Poland (1.7 times), Iceland (1.4), Spain (1.3) and Belgium (1.2) than native-born students. However, they are less likely than native-born students to do so in Denmark/New Zealand (0.89), Ireland (0.87), Hungary (0.82), Germany (0.78), Slovak Republic (0.71) – countries that have a relatively strong vocational education and training system.
Odds ratio of foreign-born students doing an internship in reference to native-born students, by country
Note: Statistically significant results are presented in a darker colour. Odds ratios are adjusted for gender, SES, reading performance and VET orientation (see Box 1.1 about the significance level).
Source: PISA 2018 (OECD, 2019[1]).
Among countries that have available data, more native-born students tend to have greater volunteer experience and paid-work from occasional informal jobs than foreign-born students. For paid work outside school hours and in a family business, there is no clear pattern across countries. In Canada, the Netherlands, the US and Australia, native-born students experience both more formal paid work outside school hours and from occasional informal jobs significantly more than foreign-born students (ranging from 15 to 30 percentage point difference) (Figure 4.10). Elsewhere however, participation rates are more equal or foreign-born youth are more likely to engage in such workplace experiences.
Note: Statistically significant results are presented in a darker colour (see Box 1.1 about the significance level).
Source: PISA 2018 (OECD, 2019[1]).
4.2.3. Thinking about their future careers
Career uncertainty by migrant background
Data relating to levels of career certainty – a factor associated with better employment outcomes in multiple national longitudinal studies (Covacevich et al., 2021[21]) - by migrant status is mixed. In several countries, among low academic performers, foreign-born students are more likely to be uncertain about their future job than native-born students. This is the case for seven countries that have a statistically significant difference between these two groups, including Israel (15 percentage points), Germany (11), France (11), Iceland (10), Norway (9), Slovenia (8) and the United States (4), after controlling for gender, SES, reading score and education pathway (general v. VET orientation). In other countries with a relatively high numbers of immigrant students including Australia, Canada, Austria, United Kingdom and Netherlands (OECD, 2019[1]), the difference was not statistically significant. Among high performers, Canada, the UK and the US show a slightly higher share of native-born students who are uncertain about their future job, compared to their foreign-born peers (Figure 4.11). When controlling for VET and other characteristics, native-born students are less likely than foreign-born students to be uncertain about their future career in more countries (Figure 4.12)
Percentage of students in PISA 2018 who have no clear idea about their future job, by migrant backgrounds
Note: Statistically significant (p<0.1) differences (see Box 1.1 about the significance level) are presented in darker colour. High performers refer to those who have attained at least minimum proficiency (Level 2) in the three core PISA subjects and are high performers (Level 4) in at least one subject.
Source: PISA 2018 (OECD, 2019[1]).
Probability of native-born students being uncertain about their occupational expectations in reference to foreign-born students
Note: Countries with a statistically significant result (at p-value < 0.1) are in dark colour (see Box 1.1 about the significance level). Odds ratios are adjusted for gender, SES, reading score, school type and VET orientation.
Source: PISA 2018 (OECD, 2019[1]).
Career ambition by migrant background
In many countries, in spite of the fact that their older peers tend to be less likely to work in the highest paying employment, foreign-born students are significantly more ambitious about their future job compared to native-born students. Such ambition is associated in many national longitudinal datasets with better ultimate employment outcomes (Covacevich et al., 2021[21]). This holds the same for both high and low-performing students. For example, among high-performing students, on average across OECD countries, foreign-born students are more than 7 percentage points more likely than native-born peers to expect to work as a manager or professional (ISCO major categories 1 and 2). In Denmark and Norway, high-performing foreign-born students are about 15 pp more likely to express such high occupational ambitions than their native-born counterparts. Other countries with a high level of immigrant students also have more than the OECD average in the difference: New Zealand (14 pp), the UK (13), Canada (12), Germany (10), Sweden (9), Australia (9) and France (9) (Figure 4.13, Panel A). While the career plans of young people in general are strongly focused on managerial and professional occupations, this is especially pronounced in case of foreign-born students with 80% or more of students (who express an occupational expectation) anticipating working in such employment. Even after controlling for SES, gender, type of school, programme orientation (general v. vocational education) and reading scores, native-born students are less likely to expect to work in high-skilled occupations in most OECD countries (Figure 4.13, Panel B). Likewise, in a greater number of countries, foreign-born students are more likely to expect to complete tertiary education (Figure 4.13, Panel C). Because of their high levels of interest in employment in ISCO 1 and 2 occupations and strong desire to attend tertiary education, students from migrant backgrounds tend to be less likely to be misaligned in their educational and employment plans than native-born peers.
A. Percentage of 15-year-old high-performing students who expect to work as in a managerial or professional occupation at age 30
Note: Odds ratios are adjusted for gender, SES, reading score, school type and VET orientation. Statically significant results are in filled markers or in darker colour (see Box 1.1 about the significance level).
Source: PISA 2018 (OECD, 2019[1]).
Career concentration by migrant background
Teenage career concentration – which in the small number of relevant longitudinal studies available tends to be associated with worse than expected employment outcomes (Covacevich et al., 2021[21]) - is usually higher among foreign-born students compared to native-born students. In PISA 2018, among high-performing students, 55% of foreign-born students and 49% of native-born students (expressing an occupational expectation) from 24 OECD countries on average expect to work in one of ten most popular occupations in their country for their gender by the age of 30 (among low-performing students, 53% vs 49%). In Denmark, France and Canada, high-performing foreign-born students are 26, 17 and 14 pp, respectively, more likely than similarly performing native-born students to expect to work in a popular occupation (Figure 4.14).
Percentage of high performers expecting to work in the 10 most popular occupations in their country
Source: PISA 2018 (OECD, 2019[1]).
Foreign-born students are much less likely than native-born peers to expect to work in skilled and semi-skilled occupations, typically entered through vocational education and training programmes, such as skilled agricultural and fishery workers (ISCO major category 6), craft and related trades workers (ISCO major category 7), or plant and machine operators and assemblers (ISCO major category 8). Across OECD countries that have available data, native-born students are 3 percentage points (pp) more likely than foreign-born students to expect to work in these professions. Sweden shows almost 10 pp difference, followed by Australia, Norway (both 9 pp), New Zealand and Canada (both 8 pp).
Looking at only Craft and related trades (ISCO major category 7), in all five countries with available data, more native-born students expect to work in these occupations than foreign-born peers. These five countries have a relatively high share of first-generation students (who are foreign-born and have foreign-born parents) from 6.5% (Germany) to 24.5% (Luxembourg). In all other OECD countries, there were too few observations to provide reliable estimates (i.e., there were fewer than 30 students or fewer than 5 schools with valid data). This means that the level of interest among foreign-born students in these trades may be too low to allow for meaningful analysis, although this may be different when including students with foreign-born parents.
Percentage of 15-year-old students who expect to work in skilled trades (ISCO 6, 7 and 8)
Note: ISCO 6 refer to skilled agricultural and fishery workers, ISCO 7 refer to craft and related trades workers, and ISCO 8 refer to plant and machine operators and assemblers.
Source: Statically significant results are in filled markers or in darker colour (see Box 1.1 about the significance level).
While the experiences of different minority groups vary considerably, analysis of correspondence tests shows systematic evidence of discrimination against people from migrant backgrounds and ethnic minorities. PIAAC data also show that patterns of employment in the early labour market are linked to the migrant status of young adults. As with the socio-economic background and gender of individuals, young people from migrant backgrounds can be seen to face additional barriers in turning their academic achievements into labour market successes. Notably, young adults from migrant backgrounds are:
more likely to be not in education, employment, or training (NEET);
more concentrated in elementary and service professions, notably if low or mid-educated; and,
less likely to earn high wages and to be overqualified for their job.
PIAAC does not include data on the ethnicity of respondents. However, the chapter also draws on a number of longitudinal studies to illustrate the impact that ethnicity can be seen to have on the long-term employment prospects of young adults. Controlling for academic achievement and a range of other social and demographic characteristics, variations in outcomes are also identified with many, but not all ethnic groups being seen to experience significantly worse outcomes than native populations.
It is important not to collapse the experience of new migrants and settled minority ethnic communities. Indeed, within both migrant and settled minority ethnic communities there are substantial differences in culture, religion, employment, skill level and access to financial, social and cultural capital which inevitably impact on young people’s understanding of careers and their initial transitions to the labour market. Such differences are both individual, with more and less advantaged people in all communities, but also patterned by ethnic and migrant groups (Catney, 2015[22]; Flores et al., 2006[23]). Furthermore there is also considerable evidence of intersectionality with the other issues already discussed in this paper, socio-economic disadvantage, gender and sexuality, combining with ethnicity and migrant status to further shape career outcomes (Arifeen and Syed, 2020[24]; London Development Agency, 2008[25]; Semu, 2020[26]). Despite this, and as the data already presented in this chapter shows, there are a range of structural barriers that shape career outcomes that are associated with being outside of the native-born ethnic majority.
Analysis of PISA 2018 data highlights several ways in which migrant status relates to engagement in career guidance. Looking at data across a range of OECD countries shows that:
while migrant students on average undertake greater internet research than native students, they are less likely to participate in more important career exploration activities such as job shadowing/workplace visits and job fairs;
the extent of first-hand experiences of the workplace (through internships, volunteering or part-time working) varies considerably by country;
migrant students are on average more ambitious than native-born peers, being typically more likely to expect to work as managers or professionals and to attend tertiary education;
the occupational plans of migrant students are commonly more concentrated than those of native-born peers; and,
migrant students are much less likely to plan on entering skilled trades and related professions that are typically accessed through programmes of vocational education and training.
Consequently, effective career guidance systems will seek to broaden the career plans of young people from migrant backgrounds, support the development of social capital through guidance activities that allow students to engage with people in relevant work directly and adapt to the specific and sometimes very different needs of migrant and ethnic groups. As in previous chapters, examples of practice identified have been organised under four main categories: providing more intensive support; developing professional capacity and resources; building social capital; and developing critical understanding.
Societies turn to career guidance systems to help students to relate labour market opportunities to their interests and abilities. In the case of many students from ethnic minorities and from migrant backgrounds, evidence exists of additional barriers hindering the transformation of accumulated human capital into successful employment outcomes in comparison to young people from dominant ethnic groups and host country communities (Brown, Lauder and Cheung, 2020[9]; Gaddis, 2015[27]; Punch, 2015[28]; van Zenderen and Lamy, 2011[29]; Zwysen and Longhi, 2018[30]). In the case of migrant students, it is often likely to be the case that family and other close contacts will have a more partial understanding of the labour market, than those from native-born backgrounds. As well as lower levels of familiarity with education and training systems, the parents of young migrants may be disadvantaged by lack of fluency in the language of the host country. Discussions of the role of career guidance with migrants have emphasised its capacity to address these kinds of informational and cultural asymmetries. However, evidence of systemic discrimination within the labour markets has driven strong interest in the means by which guidance systems can help young people objectivise and make sense of additional challenges encountered, focusing on the need to build critical consciousness and addressing the structural inequalities that exist within society (Bimrose and McNair, 2011[31]; Cadenas et al., 2020[32]; Diemer, 2009[33]; Sultana, 2022[34]; Vehviläinen and Souto, 2022[35]).
Similar arguments are also made about career guidance with ethnic minorities, again highlighting the twin issues of ameliorating existing social disadvantage and actively challenging systemic issues (Souto and Sotkasiira, 2022[36]). This discussion suggests that once again while more career guidance is generally a good thing, the nature of this career guidance also matters, both in terms of its effectiveness and in terms of the kinds of policy aims that it is capable of serving. The remainder of this chapter will focus on examples of career guidance practice which are designed to address the experiences of young people from migrant and minority ethnicity backgrounds.
4.3.1. Providing more intense support
The heterogeneous nature of migrant experiences and young people from minority ethnic backgrounds means that it is often important to provide more intensive and personalised forms of support than are generally available.
In Ireland, the formula within the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) programme discussed in Chapter two of this which determines the level of funding which underpins career guidance in schools is primarily determined by a formula assessing the relative affluence of an area, but which also takes account of the numbers of students from Traveller and Roma backgrounds and of refugees within the school population (OECD[37]). The application of the formula results in considerably greater resources being made available to schools serving such students.
An existential career guidance intervention has been trialled in Denmark to support refugees and migrants aged 15-24 (Petersen et al., 2022[38]). The intervention was delivered as ten 2½-hour sessions, once a week, for 10 weeks alongside a language development programme. Through this career counselling, participants were encouraged to reflect on their life goals, their current biography, their values and interests and to make plans for their future. The approach was designed to support young migrants and refugees to adapt to a new life in Denmark and deal with feelings of alienation, identity confusion and loss of meaning. An evaluation of the intervention suggests that it supports the participants to develop a (stronger) sense of belonging and being understood and respected. It also supports participants to improve their language skills and articulate, and begin processes of exploration of, career ambitions for their lives in Denmark.
A similar approach was used in Italy where a seven-week programme called the career guidance pathway was offered to unaccompanied young migrants (Magnano and Zammitti, 2019[39]). Through a series of weekly two-to-three-and-a-half hour sessions the young migrants were engaged in a mix of one-to-one counselling and small group work. The intervention encouraged them to reflect on their culture and history and to consider how their strengths and personal resources might be redeployed within the context of the Italian labour market. The evaluation showed that the intervention resulted in increased knowledge of the Italian labour market, development of professional interests, and greater understanding of the concept of decent work. They also supported young people to make transitions into the workplace, via accessing apprenticeships and other programmes.
4.3.2. Developing professional capacity and providing dedicated resources
Many migrants experience difficulty in understanding the opportunity structure of their new country. Career information has an important role to play in this, but it can be challenging to access for reasons of language, culture or technology. Addressing this and ensuring that migrants can access high quality information about the local labour market is therefore an important aspect of supporting migrant youth.
In some countries, migrants and refugees are able to access a wide range of career guidance services (Jeon, 2019[3]). For example, in Germany, migrants have access to all career guidance provisions, which are generally well developed (Jenschke, Schober and Langner, 2014[40]). This includes access to career guidance in compulsory school and in transitional programmes. This often includes company visits, internships, vocational workshops and tailored occupational information. Germany also offers targeted services such as the Youth Migration Services (Jugendmigrationsdienste) which support the integration of young migrants into education, employment and society. However, this kind of comprehensive career guidance support is not always the case.
In Sweden, multi-lingual, online career guides on different occupations help refugees assess their own skills and qualifications against different occupations (OECD, 2016[41]). The guides were developed together with employers’ organisations, and counsellors from public employment services can assist refugees in using the guides. Such resources are also of relevance to migrant parents and their children with weak Swedish and in part serve to broaden the basis for career thinking. Sweden also uses World Skills Sweden as a tool to increase attractiveness of VET, including informing migrants (and their parents) about the value of VET. While such provision was designed in light of the needs of adults seeking to adapt to a new country and labour market, it also provides resources of use of school-age students and their family members.
In the same fashion, provincial and district commissions in Türkiye have been established to increase understanding of VET amongst Syrian migrants (Jeon, 2019[3]). These commissions carry out activities to increase the awareness of Syrian students and their parents of VET and Vocational Education Centres via brochures and posters prepared by the Ministry of National Education in addition to television and radio programmes. The activities also include visits to refugee camps or refugee families and assistance with skills assessments and preparatory education, including language training.
4.3.3. Building social capital with families and the world of work
Building career relevant social capital is one of the key challenges for young people who are outside of the native-born ethnic majority. So, a wide variety of career guidance interventions focus on how young people can make the most of the social capital they do have, whilst also building new social capital.
Working with families
Family is an important part of all young people’s career building. For those from migrant and minority ethnic communities, family is often particularly important. PISA 2018 data show for example that while on average 20% of foreign-born students within OECD countries agree that the expectations of their parents/guardians are ‘very important’ in their career planning, this applies to only 13% of their native-born peers. Career practitioners have developed approaches to working with families to better support students. In New Zealand, schools are strongly encouraged to work with the families and community organisations of Māori students, helping students to explore ways in which they can develop career ambitions with the support of these important social networks (Ministry of Education, 2009[42]; New Zealand Government, 2021[43])
In the UK, a project developed a Muslim girls careers education pack to address a series of issues that were being reported by Muslim girls (Barket and Irving, 2005[44]). These included the fact that existing career education was often based on the perspectives of the ethnic majority and failed to recognise the importance of faith and community to career decision making. The project involved Muslim girls and their families and communities to develop a new careers education pack. A key element of this was the development of a ‘Careers guide for Muslim parents and family’. An evaluation of the programme found that Muslim girls responded very positively and found the opportunity to talk openly about issues in their faith, family and community were very helpful in their career development.
In the USA, Latino Family Night is an intervention designed to engage parents of Latino students with the school and in providing educational and career support to their children (Gonzalez et al., 2013[45]). The Latino Family Night is promoted with bilingual written invitations and assurance of translation services at the event, individual phone calls from school counsellors or teachers to parents encouraging their attendance, and follow-up encouragement, ideally from someone within the Latino community. At the event, parents have the opportunity to learn about educational and labour market opportunities and to discuss the role that they can play in supporting their children to achieve a positive outcome. The event can also be used to facilitate ongoing partnership between schools and families to support the progression of young people.
Building bonding social capital
Young people from migrant and minority ethnic backgrounds often have a strong attachment to the communities from which they come. The existence of this strong bonding social capital offers students a resource that can be harnessed for their career building. A range of career guidance interventions seek to leverage the community to support the career development of the young people who they are working with.
Research in the USA argues that career guidance should be informed by a Community Cultural Wealth approach (Purgason, Honer and Gaul, 2020[46]). Community Cultural Wealth focuses on the strengths that students bring into the classroom, particularly highlighting the aspirational, familial, linguistic, navigational, resistant, and social capital that young people from migrant and minority ethnic backgrounds can draw from their community. This might include involving families in discussions about career decision making, recognising the career value of second languages that the student speaks, helping students to connect to, and draw on, the support of their own community, for example helping them to access community mentors and finding ways to support students to resist racist or anti-migrant policies and practices. The active decision to construct the student’s background as a source of strength and resource, rather than as a deficit is a key decision. This places responsibility on guidance counsellors to build their understanding of students’ culture and to take care to discuss and represent it positively.
Also in the USA, the Black Achievers programme identifies Black students with the capability to attend tertiary education and provides them with a programme of support which includes both academic and career development activities (Moore-Thomas and Day-Vines, 2010[47]). At the heart of this is a mentoring relationship with a successful Black person from the world of work, who provides them with a role model and personalised support over an extended period. Guidance counsellors are encouraged to recognise the value of these kind of community-based programmes and engage students with them. A small number of other studies have explored mentoring relationships wherein the mentor and mentee share an identity linked to migrant background or ethnicity and found a basis for additional benefits accruing to the mentee involved (Ensher and Murphy, 1997[48]; Kricorian et al., 2020[49]), potentially due to the greater credibility with which the mentor is viewed (Linnehan, 2004[50]).
In the UK, the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA) is an association established by community members to help migrants to access employment, career development and social justice (Frigerio and Nasimi, 2019[51]). Alongside career and employment support, the association also helps new migrants to access language support, engage with the education system, deal with employment issues and access legal support. The ACAA provides advice and support to students primarily through a supplemental school that operates alongside secondary education.
Developing bringing social capital
Other interventions support young people to make contacts beyond their immediate community by building solidarity and supporting integration. Such projects are seeking to expand young people’s social capital beyond their immediate context and community and help them to access some of the social capital that is available to native born and majority ethic students.
The LEAP-Macquarie Mentoring programme in Australia provides a good example of the development of bridging social capital to aid the career development of young migrants (Singh and Tregale, 2015[52]). The programme links high school students from refugee backgrounds with university students who serve as their mentors. The programme includes a university campus visit and on-campus activities for mentees’ parents and/or caregivers, with the mentoring relationship lasting 11 weeks. The programme’s evaluation found benefits for both mentors and mentees. For mentees, it increased their motivation and their interest in higher education and helped them to make a smoother personal, social, and academic transition from high school to university. It also provided them with more clarity about their future plans. For mentors, it provided insights into the experience of migrants, increased their academic skills and supported them to develop more ideas about their future.
The Godparents for Unaccompanied Refugee Minors programme in Austria assigns an Austrian volunteer, or volunteer family, to unaccompanied refugee minors (Raithelhuber, 2021[53]). The role of these ‘godparents’ is to support young migrants to orientate themselves to Austrian society and to provide them with solidarity, fellowship and support. The mentoring role is informal and typically involves meeting together, often over dinner, a couple of times a week. The mentors provide the mentees with help and advice of the kind that might be usually provided by family members. An evaluation found that this relationship helped young people to build social contacts, enhance their communication skills, connect to the education system and other institutions and access emotional and psychosocial support that helped them to make a successful transition to adulthood.
Other programmes are designed to broaden the social capital of ethnic minority students by bringing them into contact with adults well positioned to provide advice and insights of value to transitions. In Australia is the Mimili-UniSA Partnership which is focused on giving indigenous students an extended experience of higher education (Thomas et al., 2014[54]). In the United Kingdom, some schools, such as Addey Stanhope School in London, mark Black History Month by inviting guest speakers from ethnic minorities to speak with students about their career paths (OECD, 2022[55]).
4.3.4. Developing critical understanding of personal relationships to the labour market
Young people from migrant and minority ethnic backgrounds are often very aware of the challenges that they may face in attempting to succeed in society. Such awareness can undermine the self-efficacy of students. Career guidance is designed to foster agency and to help young people not to become fatalistic in the face of such challenges (Gushue et al., 2006[56]). A critical approach can help young people to better understand the challenges that they face and strategies to deal with these challenges, including by contesting them.
Critical consciousness
Over recent years, a series of longitudinal studies have examined relationships between young people of colour’s awareness of societal inequalities, a sense of efficacy to work against such forces and better ultimate individual employment outcomes (Herberle, Rapa and Farago, 2020[57]). Building on initial analysis of the US National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988 by Diemer (2009[58]) drawing on the work of Brazilian theorist Paulo Freire and US psychologist David Blustein, such studies explore the critical consciousness of students and provide new means of addressing inequalities faced by youth facing additional barriers to succeed in working life. While the approach has been applied to all marginalised youth, the focus of research has been particularly on students from minority ethnic groups. In the longitudinal analyses of Diemer (2009[33]), US students of colour who expressed a strong awareness of inequalities and a commitment to address them were found to be more likely to articulate greater occupational ambitions (in terms of occupational prestige) and subsequently more likely to achieve higher levels of occupational attainment (in terms of occupational prestige and earnings) at age 26 than comparable peers (Diemer, 2009[58]). Such critically conscious students are also seen to experience a range of other positive outcomes in teenage career development (such as greater clarity in vocational identity and clearer recognition of the importance of work in adult life (Diemer and Blustein, 2006[59]); education (for example, school engagement (Luginbuhl, McWhirter and Mcwhirter, 2016[60])); as well as within early adulthood, including career-related, civic, social–emotional, and academic outcomes (Mann, Denis and Percy, 2020[61]).
Studies which explore critical consciousness tend to take an intersectional approach focusing on low-income, low-SES students of colour. Studies typically explore the extent to which teenagers from ethnic minority backgrounds express understanding of patterns of inequalities, prejudices and discriminations within society, including the labour market, based on discussions with teachers, relatives and acquaintances and participate in activities designed to challenge inequalities (forms of social capital). A critical teenage understanding of work in the context of social organisation consequently provides a foundation for more informed and ultimately more productive decision-making and accumulation of skills, experience and qualifications. As Herberle, Rapa and Farago note, the evidence on critical consciousness interventions within guidance remains emergent, with a need for more robust evaluations of their impact (2020[57]).
The Ethnographies of Work programme (OECD, 2022[62]) designed by Guttman Community College in New York State (United States) provides a model of the ways in which the insights of critical consciousness research can be integrated into provision. The college primarily serves students from ethnic minority and low-income backgrounds. The Ethnographies of Work programme is delivered over two years. It combines academic study on the character of contemporary work, career exploration through direct interactions with people undertaking employment of interest and a work placement designed to build student understanding of occupational culture though ethnographic research. The programme is explicitly designed to develop both the critical awareness of labour market segmentation and operation and the social capital of students whose family-based networks are commonly narrow and limited with regard to the professional occupations sought by students (Mann, Denis and Percy, 2020[61]).
In Finland, intersectional and anti-racist practitioners have developed a range of strategies that they can use when working with migrant youth to support them to develop a critical understanding of power structures as they develop their careers (Souto and Sotkasiira, 2022[36]). These include challenging normative categories such as ‘migrants’ and focusing on intersectional identities, attending to racialised hierarchies, advocating for minority rights and shifting the location of guidance into community spaces. Critically these practitioners are also involved in a range of advocacy work, representing the needs and desires of their clients into hierarchical social, education and employment systems where migrant and ethnic minority voices often struggle to be heard.
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← 1. The study controls for several factors that are likely to influence the career of graduates, such as the scientific discipline in which they graduated, the specific university from which they earned their tertiary degree, the level of education (bachelor, master or Ph.D.) and some additional individual factors such as the broad geographical area of origin, age and gender, and family conditions (such as being married or having children) as well as the occupational differentiation within each industrial sector. In order to check that the main results were not driven by foreign graduates employed in occupations for which they were over-qualified, the study restricted its sample to graduates employed as professionals or technicians using the ISCO-08 (SSYK) classification.
← 2. Age is another factor that plays a role in overqualification: young people lacking work experience are more likely to accept jobs below their qualification level to enter the labour market. Gender, parental educational attainment, field of study, whether individuals work for the public sector and contract type may also influence the likelihood of being overqualified (OECD, 2022[18])