Highly skilled migrant women represent a tremendous opportunity for modern economies, but often their potential remains untapped due to structural, language and cultural barriers. An increasing number of industrialized countries are looking for skilled talent to support their knowledge-based economies, and skilled workers in areas such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are critical to innovation and economic growth. However, one category of workers struggles to get the recognition it deserves: highly skilled migrant women.

Despite having an academic history of excellence and high education, many of these women end up doing jobs below their skill level or out of their field. The problem is compounded by the fact that the number of women among high-skilled migrants is growing, a phenomenon called feminization of high-skilled migration.

The main difficulties these women face include:

1. Language barriers, which make it difficult to express oneself in work contexts, especially in technical fields;
2. Recognition of qualifications obtained abroad, which are not always considered equivalent or valid;
3. Gender discrimination, which combines with their migrant status, creating additional barriers to labor market access;
4. Over-skilling and underemployment, where many women end up doing jobs that do not reflect their skill level.

However, these women demonstrate great resilience. Some develop independent coping strategies, such as entrepreneurship, especially among those who have experienced being refugees. The research also highlights the importance of public policies and professional support aimed at facilitating their integration.

This article is part of a special issue of the journal Administrative Sciences, which grew out of the conference “Promoting highly skilled migrant women in a global knowledge economy,” held at the University of Bologna in 2019. The article fulfils the role of an introduction and theoretical framework for the entire special issue, which brings together several research contributions devoted to the labor integration of highly skilled migrant women in knowledge-based economies. In addition to providing an overview, it also presents policy recommendations based on the research findings presented, including the importance of gender equality policies and the labor integration of high-skilled migrants from an intersectional perspective. Read the full article.