Through a research grant the Department of Sociology (University of Vienna) can employ up to two Ukrainian post-doc researchers in the project DeMiCo for one year. If you have any further questions or interest and are able to live in Vienna for this limited contract period and specialize in migration, language, ethnography, qualitative research and/or sociology, please get in contact with PI Elisabeth Scheibelhofer (Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, elisabeth.scheibelhofer@univie.ac.at)
The project your employment is linked to is the following. You could investigate the situation of highly skilled Ukrainians coming to Vienna right now and/or some years ago:
DeMiCo: Investigating the social construction of deskilling among ’new‘ EU migrants in Vienna
Deskilling is a phenomenon particularly widespread among migrants. Especially the number of highly educated EU mobile citizens (in case of your employment: Ukrainian citizens) who work in a position below their qualification has risen significantly over the past years. However, although we do know about the statistical distribution of skills mismatches and the impact of individual variables on the chances of occupying lesser qualified job positions, few research has so far concentrated on the interplay between institutional and labour market structures and migrants’ agency in this respect. Our project aims to explore the concrete social processes involved in the production of the phenomenon of “deskilling” that may only be retraced from an individual perspective and to examine the phenomenon from different actors’ angles. Applying a qualitative research perspective, we strive to contribute to our understanding of deskilling processes in a migration context. We focus thereby on highly educated migrants from “new” EU member states living and working in the Austrian capital of Vienna (for your employment this would mean Ukrainians). Based on the research principles of constructivist Grounded Theory, we opt for a multi-perspective and longitudinal methodical triangulation, combining a qualitative panel study with migrants (three repetitive interviews over a time-span of two years), interviews with Employment Service (AMS) advisors and other stakeholders, and complementary ethnographical observations.