Eurocentrism in Theories of Migrants’ Labor Market Outcomes and the Deviant Case of Southward Migration – the Theoretical Blindness to the Coloniality of Power

The literature on migrants’ labor market outcomes makes a false generalization: The literature almost exclusively examines and theorizes based on cases of what I call ‘Northward migration.’ Drawing mostly on data from the Global North, the literature finds that migrants experience lower labor market outcomes than receiving society members, and generalizes this as an outcome of migration 'as such.' I argue that ‘Northward migration’ is just one possible case of moving through global power relations, and the attempt to develop general migration theories from this single case has caused migration scholars to overlook the impact of global power relations on migrants’ labor market outcomes. The opposite case, which I call ‘Southward migration,’ is theoretically highly informative, because Southward migrants have been document to experience labor market privilege vis-à-vis receiving society members, receiving higher earnings and better job statuses for equal human capital. Drawing on a case study in Hong Kong that systematically compares the accounts of 64 Southward and Northward migrants, receiving society members, managers, entrepreneurs, and headhunters, I explain the mechanisms of how various axes of the coloniality of power impact the labor market outcomes of Southward migrants, constituting glass escalators for them, while creating barriers and obstacles for Northward migrants. I end with an urgent call that migration studies need to take into account the overlooked effects of Global Power relations.