News

Shortly, you will find the german version of our annual report for download here.

PERIPHERIE’s new staff members

We are happy to welcome three new staff members to our team!

Alexandra Hofer/ MA

Research Assistant, Sociologist

Main Focus:

• Migration- und Integration Studies
• Empirical Social Research

hofer@peripherie.ac.at

Mag.^a Petra Wlasak, MA

Research Assistant, Political Sciences, Gender Studies

Main Focus:

• Migration- und Integration Studies
• Transcultural Experience
• Interdependency of Social Inequalities

wlasak@peripherie.ac.at

Alexandra Cohal, BEc

Research Assistant, International Economic Relations

Main Focus:

• International Relations
• Integration
• Languages: Romanian, English, French

Current and New Projects

MIQUAM

Female migrants from third countries working in Austria are confronted with two kinds of discrimination concerning their employment. On the one hand, they are generally disadvantaged on the job market because of their sex. Traditionally, women have jobs with less income and status. On the other hand, female migrants as well as male migrants are confronted with structural difficulties on the job market due to their migration status. This ends up in lower employment and a higher unemployment rate, higher participation in unskilled labour and concentration in low-paid economic and service sectors.

The educational background of female migrants from third countries living in Austria can be described as heterogeneous: compared to local women there are more female migrants with low educational background but also more female migrants with high educational background. Thus, there are also more graduates among female migrants. However, because of difficulties with recognition of qualification acquired in the country of origin many female migrants can not or only partially apply their qualification to the Austrian job market. Additionally, in their first years of living in Austria migrants have to struggle with other problems (e.g. obtainment of employment papers, maintenance of the right of residence, etc.). Thus, in spite of high qualification female migrants are often forced to work in low-paid economic sectors where only low qualification is required. Actual qualification of female migrants from third countries and downgrading processes are poorly explored in Austria.

In order to investigate downgrading processes that highly qualified female migrants from third countries in Austria are affected by, the research project MIQUAM was initiated in cooperation with different organisations^*. The aim of the project is to enhance knowledge about qualifications (formal and informal) relevant for the job market of highly qualified female migrants from third countries. For this purpose, concerned female migrants of first generation will be interviewed. In this way, their experiences and their strategies related to application or non-application of their qualification to the job market should become more visible. Furthermore, the point of view of employers and job market experts will be included in order to identify possibilities of how qualification of female migrants from third countries can be used better for the Austrian job market. Therefore, focus groups with entrepreneurs and job market experts will be held. Based on the results of interviews and focus groups, suggestions and recommendations will be developed how the Austrian job market can benefit more from qualifications of female migrants from third countries. These recommendations will be submitted to policy makers in order to sensitise them to the topic of downgrading processes female migrants are subjected to and to foster appropriate measures.

Finally, the results of the research project MIQUAM will be set into an international frame of reference and compared with examples of good practice.

The German version of the final research report can be downloaded here.

Events and Conferences

In time, we will inform you about upcoming events and conferences.

Ö-Cert

Through currently holding the LQW-Certificate, PERIPHERIE qualifies for the Ö-CERT – An overall Framework of Quality for Adult Education in Austria. The application is in progress.