The purpose of this article is to examine how resourceful, job-seeking immigrant women in Norway perceive that the competences and education they acquired from their home country are received in Norway and how their job-seeking experiences influence their work-related self-efficacy and identity. The study is based on 26 in-depth interviews with female immigrants aged 25–67 years from 21 different countries, mostly non-Western. They have lived in Norway for an average of six years. They have clear career ambitions, have deliberately acted to achieve their goal, and are highly active in job seeking, and most of them obtained higher education in their home country. The interviewees exert considerable effort in seeking work, but their efforts are not fruitful. They experience a downgrading of their education, as well as their competences, from their home country. Because their active efforts have not led to work, they have nearly given up trying to gain entry into the Norwegian workforce, and their self-efficacy beliefs and identity regarding having a professional career are weakened. Their affiliation and position conflict with both what they expected to achieve and workfare in Norwegian society; their competences from their home countries are not perceived as valuable in terms of Norwegian expertise and employee qualities. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Agency self-efficacy Female immigrants social mobility job seeking

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