Exploring careers of skilled immigrants in the Middle-East

The management research on international mobility remains focused on immigrants in the ‘West’ such as in Europe and U.S.A (Al Ariss and Özbilgin, 2010; Inal, Özbilgin and Karataş-Özkan, 2009). Nevertheless, career of skilled immigrants in the Middle-East is under- researched in the management studies (Healy and Özbilgin, 2003). Accordingly, we know little on the career barriers and also on the opportunities as well as the strategies that immigrants in the Middle-East use to advance their careers. This theme is of great importance as of the large numbers of immigrants in this region. For example, organizations in oil exporting countries within the region are in need of employing expatriates from different parts of the world (Richardson and McKenna, 2003). However, in complete contrast to this openness towards attracting an international workforce, granting work and citizenship rights in some Middle-Eastern countries is a very complicated process.

We are interested in empirical and conceptual research that investigates the careers of skilled people undertaking an international mobility to or within the Middle-East region. This includes persons relocating to the Middle-East from European countries, Canada, U.S.A as well as from other countries. This also includes people moving from one Middle-Eastern country to another (such as the case of many Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians) (Yapp, 1995). This international mobility could be undertaken on temporarily or permanent basis.

Countries in the Middle-East as well as immigrants in this region are not homogeneous (Tanova, Karatas-Özkan and Inal 2008). Accordingly, we are interested in studies that situate the career experiences of the immigrants within national and historical settings. This situational approach would offer a good representation of the diversity of careers available for immigrants in this region. Papers could examine the career of immigrants from micro-individual, meso-organizational, and macro contextual levels (Özbilgin, 2006; Syed, 2008). Contributors might decide to focus on one of these levels or to have a multilevel study. Papers using different methodological approaches and inter-disciplinary perspectives are welcome.

Call for papers questions may include (but are not limited to):

• From a regional comparative perspective, what are the limitations and opportunities that the different state policy interventions in the Middle-East present for skilled immigrants’ career development?
• At a national level, how do state policy interventions in the different Middle-Eastern countries influence the career experiences of skilled immigrants?
• How does the intersection of gender and ethnicity affect skilled immigrants' career development in the context of employment in the Middle-East?
• At the micro-individual level, what explains how skilled immigrants can have successful (or unsuccessful) careers in the Middle-East?
• What do we know on immigrant entrepreneurs in the context of the Middle-East?
• Within career and management studies, what theoretical frameworks/sensitizing concepts could be suitable to study careers of skilled immigrants in the Middle-East? What interdisciplinary approaches (e.g. sociological, political, socio-cultural, ideological and economical) could be suitable to examine their career experiences?

Manuscripts (with a word-count of 5000-7000) and correspondence should be submitted via e-mail by November 30th 2010 to either Guest Editors of this special issue (while copying the others) at the following email address:

Akram Al Ariss: akram.alariss@groupe-esc-troyes.com
Nur Koprulu: nkoprulu@ciu.edu.tr
Gozde Inal: ginal@ciu.edu.tr



References
Al Ariss, A. and M. Özbilgin (2010). ‘Understanding Self-Initiated Expatriates: Career Experiences of Lebanese Self-initiated Expatriates’, Thunderbird International Business Review, 54(4).

Inal, G., M., Özbilgin, M. Karatas-Özkan (2009). Understanding Turkish Cypriot Entrepreneurship in Britain. In T. Kucukcan and V. Gungor (eds), Turks in Europe: Culture, Identity, Integration, Amsterdam: Turkevi Research Centre, pp. 483-513.

Özbilgin, M. F. (2006). ‘Relational methods in organization studies: a review of the field’. In O. Kyriakidou and M. F. Özbilgin (eds), Relational Perspectives in Organizational Studies. A Research Companion, pp. 244-264. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Özbilgin, M. and G. Healy (2003). ‘"Don't mention the war" - Middle Eastern careers in context’, Career Development International, 8(7), pp. 325 - 327.

Richardson, J. and S. McKenna (2003). ‘International experience and academic careers: what do academics have to say?’, Personnel Review, 32(6), pp. 774-795.

Syed, J. (2008). ‘Employment prospects for skilled migrants: A relational perspective’, Human Resource Management Review, 18 (1), pp. 28-45.

Tanova, C., M. Karatas-Özkan and G. Inal (2008). ‘The process of choosing a management career. Evaluation of gender and contextual dynamics in a comparative study of six countries: Hungary, Israel, North Cyprus, Turkey, UK and the USA’, Career Development International, 13(4), pp. 291-305.

Yapp, M. (1995). The Near East Since the First World War. London: Longman.