Chapter 6: Migrant Education and Employment Equity in Slovenia

This chapter argues that despite the formal preference of European migration policies to attract highly skilled migrants who could fill deficit professions in national labor markets, migrant education remains devalued, unrecognised and frequently denied. The majority of migrants–particularly “third country nationals”–are often perceived as part of an uneducated, low-skilled, replaceable workforce that exists to create economic profits and can be easily discarded. The actual skills of migrants and their levels of prior education do not fit the prevailing European Union (EU) labor market demands for cheap, hardworking and low-skilled workers. Stemming from international research projects FeMiPol and PRIMTS, this chapter uses a comparative approach to show the prevalence of migrant men and women’s deskilling. Applying a narrative biographic interview method, the migrants’ actual experiences and voices provide a unique view of the numerous barriers they encounter in the field regarding recognition of education, language integration and access to re-skilling possibilities. Focusing particularly on Slovenia, the authors highlight the need to recognise the potential of migrants’ educational background and skills, award recognition to educational systems of non-EU countries, and employ flexible reciprocal mechanisms of multicultural integration.