High-Skilled Migrant Workers’ Psychological Well-Being: The Role of Language Proficiency, Self-Efficacy and Job-Skills Mismatch, 2020-2023

The UK’s workforce is increasingly reliant on migrant workers, particularly high-skilled non-EU immigrants, exemplified by the recent influx via the BNO route for Hong Kong immigrants. While language proficiency is a key determinant of migrant well-being and career success, the specific mechanisms by which it affects mental health, especially in the context of career challenges remain unexplored. This study recruit Indians and Hong Kong high-skilled migrant workers in the UK to understand the interrelationship between English proficiency, self-efficacy, job-skills mismatch, and mental well-being. The present research aims to explore the intricate connection between language proficiency and mental well-being, through a serial mediation model in which language proficiency is related to mental well-being, via self-efficacy and job skills mismatch, in a sample of 233 Hong Kong and Indian UK-based migrant workers. Results showed self-efficacy and job skills mismatch were directly related to mental well-being, but not language proficiency. Self-efficacy mediated the paths between language proficiency and job skills mismatch and language proficiency and mental well-being,. Job skills mismatch mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and mental well-being. Self-efficacy and job skills mismatch fully mediated the relationship between language proficiency and mental well-being. Cross-cultural comparisons between Chinese and Indian migrants were also discussed.