The construction of Lithuanian migrants' professional career paths: Moving up and down career track

Recently the phenomenon of Lithuanians’ migration on a mass scale has drawn attention of scientists, politicians and publicists. The main focus of the migration analysis points out the economic explanation of labour force flows as well as implying the understanding of diverse costs and risks migrants are taking. Scientists have mainly studied the change of Lithuanian migration pattern (Sipavičienė, 2006), the economic consequences of migration (Sarvutytė, 2011), the relationship with the family members who live in Lithuania (Maslauskaitė, Stankūnienė, 2007), the brain-drain (Kazlauskienė, 2006), the meaning of social networks in migration (Gečienė, 2009), as well as other aspects of this phenomenon. However the analysis of the changes in Lithuanian career paths has not been referred to so far, especially in migration analysis context. Therefore the goal of this paper is to analyse Lithuanian migrants career trajectories (movements up and down the career track) prior to migration and in the destination country.  

The chosen theory of career construction provides the contextual approach to the analysis of career paths. According to this theory, the career is understood as a subjective structure that comprises the aspirations of the past, present and future (Savickas, 2002). The paper addresses the following questions: what are the contextual factors influencing individual career paths in migration context? What kind of career move: horizontal, vertical or multidirectional could be defined as typical for migrants? What is the role of qualification and education in shaping the career paths? How the migration decisions are related to the transformation of professional career moves?

The paper analyses transformations of professional career path of 89 Lithuanian migrants (with diverse socio-demographic characteristics) in European countries. The empirical analysis is based on qualitative research data which was conducted during the period of 2008-2010 in several European countries, including United Kingdom, Denmark, Spain, and Germany.