“I Couldn’t Do Anything Practical”: US Citizen Integration into European Labor Markets

De-skilling among migrants is a common, almost apocryphal, phenomenon – the house cleaner with an MA degree, the taxi driver with post-secondary education, the skilled laborer engaging in unskilled labor and so forth. Similarly, higher concentrations of one particular ethnicity may emerge in specific labor market niches. There is, however, an assumption that these phenomena characterize only those from the Global South and/ or those with low skills. This paper argues that a similar phenomenon exists among US citizens in Germany, France and the UK. Drawing on research (interviews and survey) carried out in 2011, this paper will examine the labor market integration of US citizens in these three countries. The paper will look more closely at the links between the reasons for migration and employment. Broadly, many of those US citizens who did not migrate to Europe specifically for employment are similarly subject both to de-skilling and what might be termed “niche” employment – employment specifically related to their native English skills and/or American culture. Editing, translating and English-language teaching are common among those Americans who did not migrate specifically for a career. This paper thus contributes both to the literature on the immigrant niche economies, while also broadening the scope.