(Peter Lang, 2016)
Co-Editors: Dr. Suchitra Shenoy-Packer and Dr. Elena Gabor (Bradley University)
Meaning of work (MOW) research has grown in recent decades as scholars in the field of organizational communication focus on contemporary tensions surrounding work: greater geographical, economic, and political reach of corporations; technologies replacing humans in the workplace; stagnant incomes leading to a growing gap between the rich and poor; and an intensified population mobility because of perceived opportunities, wars, failing states, and human rights abuses. Finding meaning in work has been argued as being the prerogative of the fortunate few who have the choice of discriminating between the work (or nonwork) options available to them. But, what happens to this choice when the desire to do so takes individuals to foreign lands in the hopes of exercising that choice and finding meaningful work? This volume shows that in addition to cultural adaptation issues, immigrants encounter numerous obstacles in making meaning of their work. Tangibly, immigrant workers experie!
nce stress related to their visa status, language proficiency, money, loss of connections and status in the work context, discounting of skills acquired in their native countries, ethnic/gender discrimination, feelings of isolation and insufficient orientation to new job skills, and wage-based discrimination, to name a few. At the same time, immigration also opens opportunities of self-discovery, creativity, formation of new social networks, and career growth.
The collection of chapters in this book reveals immigrant voices on work and its meanings. The range of topics and issues discussed urge scholars and MOW scholarship to acknowledge immigrant workers’ stories as discursively and materially real and worthy of inclusion in mainstream conversations about work. Our contributors represent diversity in co-cultural affiliations, national origin, and immigration experiences encountered personally and professionally.
Content:
* Suchitra Shenoy-Packer/Elena Gabor: Introduction.
* K. Peter Kuchinke: International Migration and the Meanings of Work: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
* Hannele Välipakka, Cheng Zeng, and Malgorzata Lahti/Stephen Croucher: Experiencing Cultural Contact at Work: An Exploration of Immigrants’ Perceptions of Work in Finland
* Dini M. Homsey and Ryan S. Bisel: Subtle Meaning Evolutions in the Meaning of Work for a Lebanese American Community
* Rahul Mitra: Immigrants’ Negotiations of Career Inheritance: A (Dis)placement Framework
* Yvonne J. Montoya: The Inheritance My Daddy Gave Me: A Glimpse into Mexican Immigrants’ Conceptualizations of Meaningful Work
* Flor Leos Madero: The Labor of Identity Development: Work Lessons from Immigrant Parents
* Suchitra Shenoy-Packer: Discontinuities and Dislocations: Immigrant Meanings of Work during Ambivalent Work-Life “Choices”
* Yea-Wen Chen and Brandi Lawless: Immigrant Women Negotiating Shifting Meanings of Work and Confronting Micro-aggressions with/in the Ivory Tower
* Elena Gabor: Meanings of Work and Emotions of Immigrant Women Engineers in the United States
* Somava Pande and Pamela J. Bettis: In Search of My Niche: International Teaching Assistants’ Negotiation with Meanings of Work
* Stacey M. B. Wieland and Bryleigh Loughlin: From Longing to Work to Loving Retirement: Changing Meanings of Work of a Latvian American in Sweden.
For questions about this co-edited book, please contact: Dr. Suchitra Shenoy-Packer (suchitraspacker@outlook.com) and/or Dr. Elena Gabor (egabor@fsmail.bradley.edu).
To order, follow this link to the Peter Lang catalogue: http://www.peterlang.com/
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