People Seeking Asylum in Australia and their Access to Employment: Just What Do We Know?

Abstract

Public and political claims about the employment of people from a refugee background in Australia do not always reflect the research findings in this area. For example, recent claims by a senior Coalition Government Minister about people seeking asylum who arrived to Australia by boat during the previous Labor Government's terms in office posit that many have limited employment prospects. However, given there is little research or government reporting on the experiences of asylum seekers who arrived during this time, and none that focuses specifically on their employment, there is no evidence to support this. A review of research on the employment experiences of people from a refugee background, and Australian policies, suggests a more nuanced picture. This includes research that found while initially people from a refugee background are more likely to be unemployed, have temporary jobs and lower incomes than other newly arrived immigrants, over the longer term second-generation refugees have higher levels of labour market participation than the general population and refugees and their families make significant economic and community contributions to Australia. Research also highlights that refugees may experience a range of barriers to accessing employment, including discrimination, and a review of Australian policies indicates these are likely to have exacerbated some of these barriers for asylum seekers who arrived to Australia by boat. In addition, given previous findings that public attitudes can be influenced by representations made in public and political discourses, the public statements of senior Ministers may be further deepening barriers to accessing employment faced by asylum seekers who arrived by boat.

Labour Force Participation and Employment of Humanitarian Migrants: Evidence from the Building a New Life in Australia Longitudinal Data

“…As the first survey of the population of humanitarian migrants in Australia, the BNLA data is unique. Most studies in Australia and other countries have used a relatively small, and often non-random, sample of a specific ethnic group (Fleay et al 2016), or used general-purpose survey data, which was not representative of humanitarian migrants (Hugo 2013). Our findings may not be generalized to other countries due the inter-country differences in immigration/refugee and welfare policies, geopolitical circumstances, geographical locations and so on that contribute to systematic differences in the populations of humanitarian migrants.…”

Integration and Retention of Refugees in Smaller Communities

“…Higher levels of discrimination are associated with lower levels of life satisfaction, which is a push factor in the decision to relocate (Han and Humphreys, ; Griffiths et al., ; Houle and Schellenberg, ). Refugees identify negative stereotyping and prejudices on the part of employers as barriers to their participation in local labour markets (Fleay et al., ). Such representations of refugees devalue their skills, as they feel forced into undesirable “refugee jobs” within the host country's labour market (Jackson and Bauder, ).…”

Experiences of homelessness by people seeking asylum in Australia: A review of published and “grey” literature

“…Australia's immigration policy has a preference for refugees who are most likely to be able to assimilate into Australia; this includes gaining employment and education (Colic‐Peisker, ). This, alongside research that highlights the skills, drive, and entrepreneurship that are brought to a new country by refugees, suggests that the presence of refugees result in long‐term economic and social benefits to a community (Fleay, Lumbus, & Hartley, ). An investigation of educational achievement of refugees arriving in Australia in 1999/2000 found that, although level of education differs between countries, overall, one third of refugees have a tertiary qualification, another third having completed high school (Forrest et al, ).…”