Migrants' Unemployment: The Determinants of Employment Success*

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of individual characteristics on the chance of being unemployed. Most of the attention is focused on the characteristics specific to migrants; birthplace, period of residence, and proficiency in the English language. The analysis is based on data from the 1981 Census. The results indicate that a migrant is less likely to be unemployed the longer he has been in Australia. The likelihood of being unemployed falls most during the first two years after arrival for all birthplace groups. Most of the higher unemployment rate for migrants relative to Australian‐born is due to the high chance of recently arrived migrants being unemployed. It is argued that immigration policy should not be determined without regard to the labour market situation

Competency-based assessment, employment and immigrant background: an exploratory investigation of adult language learners in Australia

“…The finding suggested that the greater an immigrant's competency in English, the more likely s/he is to have a job. This finding is consistent with prior studies which have found that English language skills play an important role in immigrant employability (Chiswick, Lee, and Miller 2002;Inglis and Stromback 1986;Stevens 1999).…”

Is a Risk Index Approach to Unemployment Possible?

“…The sample size in Table 3 is 1782. This is similar to Harris (1996), but only one-¢fth of the size of the male sample used by Inglis and Stromback (1986). About onehalf of the variables in the current analysis are signi¢cant whereas about two-thirds of the variables in Inglis and Stromback (1986) are signi¢cant.…”

“…This is similar to Harris (1996), but only one-¢fth of the size of the male sample used by Inglis and Stromback (1986). About onehalf of the variables in the current analysis are signi¢cant whereas about two-thirds of the variables in Inglis and Stromback (1986) are signi¢cant. We do not consider altering signi¢-cance levels to compare across samples of di¡erent sizes^see, for example, the comments of Maddala (1992, p. 32)^but simply note that some of the insigni¢cant regressors in Table 3 may be found to be signi¢cant by researchers having access to larger samples.…”

“…The level of English pro¢ciency is another variable that has been shown in previous studies^see, for example, Inglis and Stromback (1986) and Miller and Neo (1997)^to have a signi¢cant e¡ect on the unemployment outcome of individuals. Individuals with limited English skills are also shown in this study to have inferior job market prospects.…”

The ABS Survey of Employment and Unemployment Patterns

“…These cross-sectional data sets usually contain quite detailed data on which individuals are employed at a given instance in time, which individuals are unemployed and which individuals are not participating in the labour market. The availability in the survey of a wide range of demographic, educational and labour market information on the respondents has facilitated much labour market research (for example, Brooks & Volker 1985;Inglis & Stromback 1986). However, by their very nature, crosssectional data sets provide relatively little information on the evolution of membership of particular labour market destinations.…”