How Refugees Experience the Australian Workplace: A Comparative Mixed Methods Study.

Patricia Cain,Alison Daly,Alison Reid

doi:10.3390/ijerph18084023

Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence indicating poorer working conditions for migrant workers, particularly refugees, compared with native-born workers. Our objectives were to compare exposure to workplace psychosocial stressors in working refugees with other migrant groups and Australian-born workers of Caucasian ancestry and to describe the working experience of refugees. Cross-sectional surveys collected information on the workplace stressors of job complexity, control, security, bullying, and racial discrimination from six migrant groups (n = 1062) and Caucasian Australians (n = 1051); semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used with currently employed refugees (n = 30). Content analysis examined the qualitative data. Compared to all other groups, working refugees were more likely to report experiencing racial discrimination in the workplace and to report exposure to more than three hazards. Content analysis indicated that working refugees are working below their capacity, in terms of hours and qualifications, and in jobs that were low status and lacked security. Despite challenging work conditions, participants reported adequate health and safety training and feeling a sense of pride in their work. These findings highlight the need for better support for refugees in negotiating the workplace once they find employment and the importance of employers providing an inclusive and equitable workplace.

Highlights

Refugees and asylum seekers make up an increasing component (29%) of the global migrant population of 272 million [1]
Men and women born in Afghanistan, Iraq, and South Sudan, who had arrived in Australia as a refugee or asylum seeker, were currently working, and able to be interviewed in English were invited to participate
Comparison of workplace psychosocial stressors between refugee workers, Australian-born of Caucasian ancestry, and other migrant workers found Vietnamese, Chinese, and Arabic-speaking workers all had significantly lower mean scores for job complexity, control, security, and overall job quality, indicating that while they considered their jobs less complex, they felt they had less control in the work environment, that their jobs were less secure, and this resulted in an overall lower job quality score

Summary

Introduction

Refugees and asylum seekers make up an increasing component (29%) of the global migrant population of 272 million [1]. 45.7 million internally displaced people, 26 million refugees (those who have had their claim for refugee status recognised under the 1951 Convention), and 4.2 million asylum seekers (those who have not yet had their claim for refugee status recognised). Sixty-eight percent of refugees currently come from five countries: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar [2]. 170,000 people were accepted as part of the displaced persons program established at the end of World War II [3]. In the 2018–2019 period, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Syria, and Afghanistan were the top five sending countries [4]. Most people arrived in Australian from South Sudan during the period 2001–2006 [5]

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Methods

Discussion

Conclusion