SDEST: Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ethnographic Investigation of International Migration in the Irish Information Technology Industry

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation research project investigates the use of immigrant labor in the information technology industry, an industry that is recruiting foreign temporary workers in increasingly large numbers. Ethnographic research using interviews, participant-observation, and archival techniques will be conducted over the course of 12 months in Dublin, Ireland, the largest software-exporting region in the world. The main objective is to construct a model of how rapid technological change, the employment policies of IT firms and the career related attitudes of IT professionals are contributing to an intensification of labor migration in the industry. This investigation will offer significant new insights into processes within the IT industry that create the supply of and demand for immigrant workers. This knowledge can be used to inform decision making about future policies for managing the immigration of IT professionals. In addition, by documenting the ways that careers in the IT industry are changing as the pace of technological change quickens and firms reorganize around more flexible forms of production, the knowledge gained from this project can assist policymakers in evaluating future prospects for careers in an industry that will provide many of the jobs of the 21St century.