A theory of organisational attachment for skill discounted migrants that recognises different work motivations

This paper revises Treuren, Stothard, Hutchinson and Manoharan’s (2017) theory of skill discounted migrant workplace attachment to recognise different migrant work motivations. Treuren et al. (2017) proposed that skill discounted migrants would immediately adopt strategies to enable them to acquire a less discounted job elsewhere, leading to a specific type of organisational attachment. Based on a series of interviews with migrants living in Canada, Bauder (2005) identified four distinct and different motivations towards work, of which one corresponds to the motivation assumed in Treuren et al. (2017). We proposed two more, making for six migrant motivations. This paper sketches how differently motivated skill discounted migrants are likely to be attached to their employer.