Pathways to Prosperity: Canada

Date: July 2, 2015 until July 5, 2015.

Migration and work-based mobility has become more ubiquitous today than ever before (OECD, 2013). Migrants and their relationships to host societies and institutions have been studied from many different perspectives (e.g., sociological, psychological, economic and labor perspectives) but still remain understudied by organizational scholars (Binggeli et al., 2013). In this sub-theme, in accordance with the overall Colloquium theme, we seek to create reflexive exchange between scholars involved in studying migration and its consequences for individuals, organizations and societies. Migrants’ lives are filled with logos relating to migration motivations as well pathos accompanying their journeys. In addition, power structures as well as cultural pressures affect migration and acculturation.

Our goal is to bring together scholars interested in formulating a multidisciplinary approach to better understand migrant relationships with the workplace, labour market, culture as well as society of the host country. The magnitude of the work and life transition calls for understanding both micro career forces and adaptation (Zikic et al., 2010), as well as macro structural and institutional factors that frame the migration experience (Reitz et al., 2014; Fang et al., 2009). We are interested in both high-skilled as well as low-skilled migration, second generation issues as well as permanent and circular/return migration (Tung, 2008). Organization studies remain focused on the most privileged migrants, while countries continue to rely on unskilled migrants in building their economic success. Hence, unskilled migration remains a hidden facet of organizations. We seek to understand how studying migrants in the organizational context can be informed and enriched by research in related disciplines, such as sociology and geography (e.g., Boyd & Schellenberg, 2007; Bauder, 2003).

In keeping with the EGOS Colloquium 2015 theme, we ask how migration broadens the notion of diversity in organizations, as well as what responsibilities organizations have to this facet of globalization. The goal is to understand positive as well as negative outcomes of immigrant diversity at the individual, societal as well organizational level. Topics papers might address – by no means exhaustive – are as follows:

• What distinguishes today’s migration pattern from yester years?
• How may migrants change or diversify our societies? How does migration fundamentally or temporarily transform identities, practices, and induce cross cultural fertilization and learning in the workplace?
• How does migration complicate our understanding of “bringing your whole self to work” (Conger, 1994; Pratt & Ashforth, 2003) and the relationship between work and community?
• How do organizations foster or deter migration and the integration of migrants into workplaces? How can organizations benefit from bicultural and multicultural workers?
• How do individuals construct careers and mobility for themselves, whether with or without help from organizations? How do migrants construct meaning out of their work? Under what conditions do migrants engage in collective action to exert their rights (Yu, 2014)?
• How are patterns of immigrant entrepreneurship impacting host and origin economies?
• How can organizational and management studies become more open to migration, theoretically and practically?
• What can be done at the institutional levels, both in the host and origin countries, to improve the situation of migrants and of organizations employing them?
• How do migrant experiences compare across continents?

Convenors:
Jelena Zikic, York University, Toronto, Canada
jelenaz@yorku.ca
Kyoung-Hee Yu, University of New South Wales, Australia
khyu@unsw.edu.au
Robert MacKenzie, University of Leeds, UK
rfm@lubs.leeds.ac.uk