Skills As Borders, Skills As Routes

In migration policy, skilled migration is increasingly framed as the only positive form of global mobility. In Europe, other categories of migrants—such as irregular migrants, recognized refugees, international students, and family migrants—are often problematized as lacking labor market value and, therefore, undeserving of host country privileges. The discourse around skilled migration reinforces the assumption that merit is confined to those who meet certain seemingly objective standards and add economic value. Tied to institutionalized hierarchies, skill becomes a proxy for filtering migrants by gender, race, ethnicity, and class. It prioritises the interests of specific sectors through a bartering game of rights and restrictions. Migrants who are discursively distanced from the label of "skilled" face disadvantages through restrictive policies, such as the denial of work permits, temporary permits with no rights, high income thresholds, or a lack of pathways to permanent residence.

In this presentation, we examine the material impact of the misrecognition of skill on the lived experiences of individuals who arrived in the EU as non-labor migrants. Drawing on 110 in-depth interviews, we foreground the skills and professional trajectories of individuals often marginalized in these discussions. Our findings reveal significant heterogeneity in terms of skills, credentials, aspirations, challenges, and strategies.

Moreover, embodied skills, soft skills, and the ability to acquire and develop new capabilities are intrinsic to every migration journey. For many, the motivation to acquire or change legal status is closely tied to professional aspirations. This research highlights the pressing need to rethink skilled migration as more than just the movement of credentials-based skills. Instead, skills should be understood as central to mobility, shaping the routes people take and the resources they draw on to navigate inequalities of access—across borders, boundaries and legal categories.