Lamentable Letting Go: Emotional Detachment Identity Work by Sri Lankan Skilled Immigrant Women in Australia

Gayani Gunasekera (), Mario Fernando and James Reveley
Additional contact information
Gayani Gunasekera: University of Wollongong
Mario Fernando: University of Wollongong
James Reveley: University of Wollongong

Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2025, vol. 26, issue 3, No 22, 1807-1832

Abstract: Abstract The identities of skilled immigrant women are often challenged as they enter the host country’s workforce. As a result, they seek avenues to stabilize their identities and to develop a more socially acceptable self. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews of Sri Lankan skilled immigrant women in Australian workplaces, this study analyses the identity work strategies employed in the sensemaking process through which they establish their identities. While securing their first employment opportunity in the Australian labor market, our respondents engaged in emotional detachment from their professional identity in order to make sense of taking a less socially prestigious job. Our evidence suggests that emotional detachment identity work functions as a bridge between sensebreaking and sensemaking when professional identities are threatened. By enhancing the understanding of identity work strategies employed by skilled immigrant women in their early stages of migration, this finding opens a pathway to future research regarding immigrants’ identity work in different host country contexts.

Keywords: Identity work; Emotional detachment; Skilled immigrant women; Sensemaking; Sensebreaking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12134-025-01255-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:joimai:v:26:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s12134-025-01255-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... tudies/journal/12134

DOI: 10.1007/s12134-025-01255-z

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Migration and Integration is currently edited by Lori Wilkinson

More articles in Journal of International Migration and Integration from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().