ABSTRACT

This article provides a rationale for adopting the critical realism (CR) instead of pragmatism paradigm when researching skilled migrants' (SMs) workplace integration in Australia. While the extant SM literature has provided an abundance of ‘explanations' reflecting the difficulties SMs face, it appears almost impossible for SMs to overcome some challenges such as discrimination or lack of local work experience. However, there is not a sufficient explanation for why many SMs have successfully integrated within the host labour market despite facing such difficulties. This study was designed to challenge what may have been ‘taken-for-granted' in the literature and explore the causal relationship behind the SMs’ difficulties and success. The CR paradigm provides a new way to examine the problems SMs face and their strategies to overcome such issues. It also empowers researchers to look beyond the empirical layer of evidence and explore how and why things happen the way they do.

摘要

本文提供了在研究澳大利亚技术移民 (SM) 工作场所融入时采用批判现实主义 (CR) 而不是实用主义范式的基本原理。虽然现存的 SM 文献提供了大量反映 SM 所面临困难的“解释”，但 SM 似乎几乎不可能克服一些挑战，例如歧视或缺乏当地工作经验。然而，为什么许多中小企业在面临这些困难的情况下成功地融入了东道国劳动力市场，并没有充分的解释。本研究旨在挑战文献中可能被“视为理所当然”的内容，并探索 SM 困难和成功背后的因果关系。CR 范式提供了一种新的方法来检查 SM 面临的问题及其克服这些问题的策略。它还使研究人员能够超越经验证据层，探索事情如何以及为什么会以这种方式发生。