Chinese Immigrant Academic Librarians' Experiences and Perceptions of Career Advancement in New Zealand

Abstract

For many professionals, career advancement is an important goal and part of their professional life. Nevertheless, due to the ever-competitive nature of the workplaces, the prosperity of advancement is limited as the availability of resources and positions are always scarce in any given organization including the library field. Many international studies suggest that job advancement prosperity is generally even more limited for Chinese immigrants as a minority group that work and live in Western countries such as New Zealand, where the host country’s culture, value, and language are very different from those of their own country. This study has been set out to explore Chinese immigrant academic librarians’ experiences and perceptions of career advancement in New Zealand, which is an area that has yet to be studied in this country.