Inclusive occupational multiliteracies for migrants: a systematic review

Abstract

As in previous decades, demographic, financial and market forces continue to drive the increased migration inflows to recipient countries. Humanitarian reasons are, in turn, currently becoming the main impetus for migrants, who oftentimes flee situations of extreme vulnerability and distress in their countries of origin. The uprooting caused by forced migration must be met with efforts to support migrants’ emotional regrounding in host communities. Such integration greatly depends on social and economic inclusion, especially through access to quality employment opportunities.

This paper examines contributions from previous research exploring a range of literacies aimed at securing employment and navigating the new socio-cultural employment scenarios that are presented to migrants. The results point to the inherent value of learning the vehicular language spoken in the recipient country, in combination with other literacies, referred to here as Inclusive Occupational Multiliteracies (IOM), among which the socio-affective domain also takes a substantial underlying role.