The impact of workplace diversity climate on the career satisfaction of skilled migrant employees

Skilled migrant workers often experience downward career mobility post-migration. We investigate how diversity climate as an organizational response to support migrants affects the career satisfaction of migrant employees. Survey data from 179 skilled migrants working in Sweden reveal that perceived diversity climate impacts career satisfaction through a dual-path model. It negatively affects perceived overqualification, which correlates with lower career satisfaction, while positively relating to perceived organizational justice, which correlates with higher career satisfaction. These effects are contingent on individual factors. Lower career adaptability amplifies the negative impact of perceived overqualification, and higher career adaptability strengthens the positive influence of perceived organizational justice. The findings highlight the boundary conditions of workplace diversity climate–career outcome relationships and underscore the interaction of organizational and individual factors and, in particular, the agency and proactivity of skilled migrants through career adaptability.