Workplace psychosocial stressors experienced by migrant workers in Australia: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

ObjectiveTo explore work-related psychosocial stressors among people of Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic-speaking backgrounds currently working in Australia.MethodsIn 2015, a telephone survey of 585 Vietnamese, Chinese and Arabic-speaking workers asked about workplace bullying, ethnic discrimination, job complexity, degree of control, security and fairness of payment along with demographic and employment information. Estimates of job-related psychosocial stressors were derived and regression analyses used to identify significant associations.ResultsAt least one workplace stressor was reported by 83% of the workers in the study. Education was significantly associated with experiencing any psychosocial stressor and also with the total number of stressors. Workers aged 45 years and older were more likely to be bullied or experience racial discrimination compared with younger workers of any ethnicity. There was a greater likelihood of reporting low control over a job when the interview was conducted in a language other than English and the workers were either Chinese or Arabic. Workers on a fixed-term contract, independent of ethnicity were more likely to report a job with low security. Overall psychosocial job quality decreased with education and was associated with occupation type which interacted with ethnicity and gender.ConclusionsThe results suggest that job-related psychosocial stressors are widespread but not uniform across ethnic groups. Further research into what drives differences in work experience for migrant groups would provide information to guide both employers and migrants in ways to reduce workplace psychosocial stressors.

Mental Well-Being and Its Associated Factors Among Myanmar Migrant Workers in Penang, Malaysia

“…9 In addition, psychological stressors, such as perceived job insecurity, or a lower job satisfaction, do have an impact on the mental well-being of the migrant workers. 10 A hospital-based study was conducted in Malaysia in 1998 to identify the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among the patients from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) migrants. The study found that the majority of migrant patients admitted to the psychiatric ward were unskilled workers (76.9%; n = 39).…”

Job Insecurity: A Comparative Analysis between Migrant and Native Workers in Australia

“…From our results, migrant workers with high school or lower educational attainment had similar job insecurity to Australia-born workers 5+ years post-arrival, which may be partly because lower educated workers may have a lower risk of status inconsistency. Moreover, discrimination may also play a role in higher job insecurity among overeducated migrants, because job insecurity combined with ethnic discrimination has been reported to be the most common combination of psychosocial job stressors among Australian migrant workers [34]. Ethnic and racial minority groups, including migrants, have been reported to be targets of discrimination-related job loss [54], resulting in migrants being the ‘last hired’ and ‘first fired’ [55].…”

“…The number of migrants in Australia is increasing, and nearly 60% are employed [32]. Despite job insecurity being reportedly common among migrant workers [28,33,34], there are few studies on migrants’ job insecurity in Australia [34,35,36,37]. Among those, Daly, Carey, Darcey, Chih, LaMontagne, Milner, and Reid [37] reported that Australia-born workers had lower job insecurity than migrant workers, and McGuinness and Wooden [35] reported that migrants from non-English speaking countries (non-ESC-born) and recently arrived migrants had higher levels of job insecurity.…”

The Influence of Co-Worker Incivility Towards Deviant Behaviour: a Quantitative Study of Casual Dining Restaurants Frontline Employees in the Klang Valley, Malaysia

“…Results indicated that targets of incivility tended to demotivate wellbeing, job satisfaction, work effort, and a higher work turnover (Loh & Loi 2018). Moreover, when employees frequently faced such noxious aspects of the work environment, they become less motivated and unable to focus on their job (Daly & Carey, 2018). In the line of hectic restaurant environment, factors such as rude customers, co-workers or an angry supervisor, may be a fact of life for some employees (Olson & Sinsky, 2019).…”