Career crafting in transition: Strategies of migrant women in vocational settings

Abstract

In response to the volatile nature of contemporary labor markets, individuals are increasingly expected to self-manage their career trajectories. Although career self-management presents inherent challenges for the general working population, these difficulties may be exacerbated for vulnerable groups. To date, however, empirical research on the career crafting behaviors of vulnerable populations remains scarce. To extend career crafting research to underrepresented groups, we explored the career crafting strategies that migrant women engage in to achieve their future work selves, as well as the influence of resource availability on the adoption of these strategies. Based on migrant women's career orientation and temporal focus (present vs. future), we identified four career crafting strategies: (1) career planning, (2) career balancing, (3) career architecting and (4) career navigating. Our findings suggest that migrant women do not solely adopt one strategy throughout their entire career. Instead, we conceptualize career crafting as an agentic process wherein individuals seek optimal fit between their career crafting strategy and their (migration) context at the current stage of their career. Consequently, we do not state that one strategy is optimal compared to others – rather that the optimum can be found when achieving the right contextual fit, particularly in the context of vulnerability. Our findings underscore the importance of acknowledging the enabling and constraining circumstances that influence career crafting strategies of migrant women. • Migrant women's career crafting strategies can be distinguished by career-orientation. • Migrant women's career crafting focuses on shaping the future or securing the present. • Career crafting is an agentic process to seek optimal fit with the individual context.