Issues and Challenges in the Recruitment and Selection of ...

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persecution. Economic migrants encounter great diversity in their immigrationexperience including their experience of exploitation and their legal status intheir country of destination is a significant determinant of their vulnerabilityin this regard. Those who have rights to travel and work across an extensivearea (as for example are enjoyed by most EU citizens) are extremely mobileon the international (in particularly the EU) labour market. This mobility willbe reflected in their short and long term aspirations, including the desire tosettle permanently in their country of destination, the desire to enhance theirvocational and language skills or the desire to accumulate savings: and all threeorientations will influence their labour market decision making. Recent researchhas highlighted the extent to which contemporary economic migrants (unlikethose of a generation ago), keep their options open with regard to their ongoingplans and the term ‘intentional unpredictability’ (Drinkwater et al, 2006) has beencoined to describe this ‘wait and see’ process.In contrast to economic migrants, the initial motivation for refugee migration isvery different as is the national and international policy context. As such, refugeesmay have far less mobility across national boundaries e.g., refugees in Ireland havethe same entitlement to work here as Irish citizens, but require work permits towork in other EU member states. Due both to the impetus for their migration,the more restricted entitlements they enjoy, and the requirements of seekingcitizenship status, refugees are more likely to have long term aspirations regardingsettling down in their country of destination, and this too will be reflected intheir labour market aspirations. Conversely, in the Irish context whereby theasylum process can take many years, most refugees coming onto the Irish labourmarket are de facto long term unemployed - a situation which can exacerbate thedifficulties they face.1.2 Migration and Labour Market SegmentationOne of the key labour market phenomena that arise from the interaction ofglobalisation and migration is labour market segmentation such that newpatterns of ethnic segmentation are hall marks of the transformation ofthe global economy. Consequently, there are widening gaps both betweenimmigrants and non-immigrants, and among different immigrant categories.Labour market segmentation is a complicated process affecting migrants invery different ways depending on a whole host of factors including ethnicand national background, gender, recentness of arrival, legal status, educationand training. Notwithstanding some research findings that indicate that asubstantial proportion of immigrants have labour market experiences that areindistinguishable from the majority population (Iganski and Payne, 1999), there isa consensus within the literature that labour market segmentation has become10Issues and Challenges in the Recruitment and Selection of Immigrant Workers in Ireland
a defining feature of contemporary immigrant employment, most evident inthe clustering or concentration of immigrants in particular jobs, industries andeconomic sectors.Three key factors have been identified as contributing to labour marketsegmentation and these are particularly relevant to the current study. Firstly,there are the attributes of immigrants themselves: when immigrants lack localknowledge or networks as well as proficiency in the language and are unfamiliarwith local ways of work then their entry point into the labour market is likelyto be at a low level (McCormick, 2008). In this sense, clustering in certainsectors is an integral (though ideally short-lived) element of the migrationexperience. Secondly, employers’ recruitment practices and processes ofglobalised recruitment have been shown to contribute to segmentation: whilethe international race for talent has forged new global recruitment chains torecruit high end workers, at the other end of the job market, many immigrants arevulnerable to exploitation by unethical agencies and employment practices andeven to trafficking. Thirdly, government policy can play a key role in generatingblocks to labour market mobility and hence in determining whether or not labourmarket segmentation continues over time.In social terms, segmentation can lead to the long term marginalisation of certaingroups and embodies the risk of creating racial or ethnic enclaves and generatingracial tensions. In economic terms, segmentation can also limit the positive effectof immigration on economic growth. When highly-skilled migrants are forced intolow–skilled jobs or prohibited from working, their overall contribution to economicgrowth is reduced (Barret et al, 2006).Castle and Miller (1998) have identified how, internationally, governments haveresponded to the problem of segmentation in various ways depending on theiroverall migration policy.• Firstly there are those countries that have developed and implementedactive policies to improve the labour market position of immigrantsand minorities through language courses, basic education, vocationaltraining and legislation (such as, for example, positive action measures).These countries include Australia, Canada, Sweden, Britain, France and theNetherlands.• Secondly, there are countries that focus on reducing formal discriminationby implementing equal opportunities polices, anti-discriminationlegislation and affirmative action but without investing in social policiessuch as training and education. The key example here is the USA.11
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Page 56 and 57: Innovation in the use of testsIrish
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that considered foreign workers to
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Chapter 4Conclusions and Discussion
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of recruitment should be more integ
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Table 4.1:Divergent views of Employ
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Perceive written andlanguage based
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as either a basis for determining e
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It is reasonable to assume that in
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Of more specific relevance to the c
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public sector employers) as well as
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BibliographyBarrett, A and Y McCart
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O’Connell, P and F McGinnity (200
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Public Appointments ServiceChapter
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