(Im)mobilities, waiting and professional aspirations: The career lives of highly skilled Syrian refugees in Switzerland

Abstract This article contributes to emerging research on the dynamics of mobility and immobility in forced migration through a special focus on the experience of waiting in refugees’ professional life. Wide research across the social sciences explores the dynamic relationship between migration control systems and migrants’ experiences of time through the analytical lens of “waiting”. However, it missed considering how the experience of waiting impinges on the professional lives of refugees and how refugees act upon this condition vis-a-vis their work aspirations despite career and social immobility. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring the specific case of Syrian refugees in Switzerland and their experiences of waiting in the context of their highly skilled and professional lives. The immobility inherent to the experience of waiting also becomes a space for imagination, to confront the present condition and aspire for a better future.