The Enabling State and its Application to Analyse Individualized Vocational Counselling for Third-country nationals Employment-related Transition in Austria, Finland and Czech Republic
Abstract
This study analyses the implication of individual autonomy and responsibility under individualized vocational counselling in realm of enabling state governance to enable young third country immigrant transition to work in Austria, Finland, and Czech Republic. Existing research pointed international migration era of growing population mobility has scattered third-country nationals across European countries' competitive knowledge-based economy.
Individualized vocational counselling is becoming vital to assist migrants' employment-related transition, but the activation policy measure is from a western capitalistic context other than those from migrants that challenge its universal relevance. Analyzing individual autonomy and responsibilities in activation-based counselling governance is keys to interpret the dynamic of contemporary solidarity agenda.
Drawing on document, research using social media, and scholarly text in Austria, Finland and Czech Republic, this paper concludes the converging of service provision in these countries from public to private entities, change of service provision in terms of substance with noncompliance sanction, and the scope of eligibility that offers an increasingly contingent on selective targeted conditionality to reinforce formal rules. Conditionality suggests raising threshold of eligibility and targeting social benefits to those most in need that can stigmatized and impair beneficiaries' development, when looking at issues such as transition from welfare to work of disadvantaged young people in individualized vocational counselling setting.
Despite similar conditionality, the comparative cases are diverse in their counselling governance and institutional context. While Czech Republic is dissimilar to Austria and Finland with its concentration on reintegration on vocational rehabilitation and others services placement/mediation service.
Finland pay more interest in training "trail-out" "work trial" to clarify job seekers' vocational and career choice" and support job seekers into the job market. In Austria, it is tailored to support migrants' needs for sustainable job market inclusion.
The outcome pointed to a move toward an administrative device to achieve greater social justice in time of austerity policy reforms to redistribute scarce resources. This is relevant because it reflects a pivotal shift in the conventional welfare-state discourse based on a social-democratic model and social rights of citizenship to responsibilities that may undermine vulnerable people participation, penalize belongings, and incubate spirit of distrust with lack of cooperation that may impair a solidarity environment