Social recognition beyond employment. refugees embedding deskilling and restructuring identity

Employment is considered the primary sphere of social recognition. However, for refugees this source is often unavailable due to phases of unemployment and deskilling. This article explores practices for sustaining a desirable status and recognition via alternative spheres by analysing Chechen refugees’ interpretations of their employment trajectories, taking into account their status in the region of origin, where many had to abandon employment and education. After this first biographic caesura, they perceive ‘enforced idleness’ during the asylum procedure as a second fracture. Accommodation centres in remote areas and exclusion from the labour market bring about homogeneity of their networks. Positioning themselves as a ‘refugee subject’ becomes central for the rebuilding of identity and for narrating the redirection of career paths. The results, based on interviews in combination with network drawings, reconstruct how refugees make use of their contacts for job-seeking and embedding disruptive life events.