After a decade in Australia, many still struggle to have their skills and qualifications recognised
Many migrant workers who used to be managers and professionals are still experiencing an “occupational downgrade” as their skills and qualifications remain unrecognised 10 years after arriving in Australia, a report by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) found.
The report, titled “Economic participation of humanitarian migrants in Australia,” was part of the Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants (BNLA) research findings, the largest longitudinal study of humanitarian migrants in Australia. It found that about 30% of employed women and 19% of employed men held managerial and professional roles prior to their arrival in Australia. However, this number dropped to 17% and 10% respectively after staying in the country for 10 years.
Half of the male migrants held such roles in business, human resources, marketing, and ICT in their home country. After a decade of staying in Australia, they now worked as technicians, tradespersons or machinery operators.
Meanwhile, 67% of women migrants who stated that they were managers and professionals were not in paid work despite being in Australia for 10 years. The remaining number were revealed to be working in roles such as carers, cleaners, education aides, or sales assistants.
The report surveyed 2,400 humanitarian migrants over a 10-year period, which began after their first visas were granted to them in 2013. Dr. John van Kooy, the report’s lead author, pointed out that understanding and supporting people from diverse cultural and migration backgrounds was important for employers and mainstream employment agencies to practice.
“Many refugees have their careers interrupted by forced migration and while waiting for their visas to be granted. Language can also be a barrier to finding suitable employment initially,” said van Kooy.
“Employers and employment agencies who are culturally competent, flexible, and able to respond to the specific needs of refugee workers, will be in the best position to utilise this significant skill base,” he added.
A report by national not-for-profit service provider SSI in 2024 revealed that there was a potential benefit in employing refugees as well as other migrants that were believed to have underutilised skills.
“In addition to having remarkable personal qualities like resilience and determination, professionals from refugee backgrounds bring skills we urgently need—in health, education, engineering and more. Yet many of these skills are currently being wasted,” said SSI Head of Strategic Relations Dane Moores.
The BNLA study is funded by the Department of Social Services. It explored the various outcomes for humanitarian migrants, which includes health, education, workforce participation, social connections, and self-agency.
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