“I have an accent, so people know I’m not from here”: a racial and ethnic analysis of international STEM faculty in Hawai‘i

• Published in: Ethnic and racial studies Vol. 45; no. 10; pp. 1873 - 1895
• Main Authors: Rita, Nathalie P., Karides, Marina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 01.08.2022
• Subjects: Belonging; Career development; Career pathways; College faculty; Discrimination; Embodiment; Employment; Ethnicity; Higher education; Immigration policy; Internal migration; Labor migration; Migrant workers; Migrants; Migration; Occupational choice; Qualifications; Racism; Science and technology; STEM education; Stories; Work skills; Workplaces; Hawaii; United States > US
• ISSN: 0141-9870; 1466-4356
• DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2021.1981965

Immigration policies in the Global North often prioritize migrants based on professional qualifications, leading to a reliance on the labour of “highly-skilled migrants” (HSM), especially in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Yet, the workplace experiences of HSM have been understudied, including in higher education. Based on 50 interviews with STEM faculty in Hawai‘i, we identified that HSM faculty held distinct ways of negotiating employment circumstances that were categorically different than Hawai‘i or U.S.-born faculty. While some HSM expressed feelings of inclusion in their multi-ethnic workplace, others shared stories of bias and discrimination. To untangle this divergence, we conceptualize the professional workplace in Hawai‘i as one shaped by histories of occupation and migration. Using “ethnic embodiment” (Retsikas) and Hill-Collins’ “outsider within”, our analysis contributes to scholarship on the career pathways of HSM, as we consider how histories of place can influence perceptions of ethnic and racial belongingness.