Navigating the labour market in a new context can be a challenge for any migrant, and particularly so for former refugees, who are often unable to find employment appropriate for their qualification and experience levels. This study takes an Interactional Sociolinguistic approach to exploring how three former refugees navigate employability in narrative, from the social constructionist perspective of employable identities, emergent from and negotiated within discourse. The study focuses specifically on the participants’ discursive navigation of their various (Bourdieusian) social and cultural capital and its importance to labour market performance. Evident in the data are the difficulties of translating – or having recognised – a lifetime’s accumulation of capital, often rendered worthless upon migration. Such challenges impact upon forced migrants’ ability to successfully enact employability, and subsequently upon their imagined (future) identities. This research highlights former refugees’ complex challenges involved with successful navigation of employability in a new context.

中文翻译：

---

就业身份

在新的背景下进入劳动力市场对任何移民来说都是一个挑战，尤其是对于前难民来说，他们往往无法找到适合其资格和经验水平的工作。本研究采用互动社会语言学方法，从就业身份的社会建构主义角度，探讨三名前难民如何在叙事中驾驭就业能力，这些身份是在话语中产生和协商的。该研究特别关注参与者对其各种（布迪厄式）社会和文化资本的话语导航及其对劳动力市场表现的重要性。数据中可以明显看出，转化——或认识到——一生的资本积累是很困难的，而这些资本积累往往在移民后变得一文不值。这些挑战影响被迫移民成功实现就业的能力，进而影响他们想象的（未来）身份。这项研究强调了前难民在新环境下成功就业所面临的复杂挑战。