The Transformers: Immigration and Tacit Knowledge Development

Knowledge flows associated with international migration and their relationship to economic development have garnered increasing attention. Regardless of whether these accounts focus on "brain drain," "gain" or "circulation," they tend to focus narrowly on knowledge acquired through formal education and portray migrants as simply transferring the knowledge they bring with them or obtain in receiving communities. Through a study of Mexican construction workers in Philadelphia and Raleigh-Durham, we challenge this view and draw attention to the significant tacit knowledge immigrants possess. We find that as immigrants move their knowledge from one labor market context to another, they change its form and composition so radically that it is more accurate to say that it is transformed, rather than merely transferred. How they do so, however, depends heavily on their engagement with localized labor market structures, workplace practices, and construction materials. To explain this variance, we draw on Polanyi’s original articulation of tacit knowledge as a relational form involving two interconnected knowledge terms, one implicit and one explicit. We argue that migration can sever and reconfigure the cognitive connection forged between the two terms on which tacit knowledge is based. The result is new knowledge that migrants are able to draw on in order to innovate and improve work processes and practices.