The jobseeking experiences of skilled migrants in Australia: An exploration of occupational mobility outcomes A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Don Asanka Sanjeewa Livera Tennakoon Master of Manufacturing Management – University of Colombo Bachelor of Science – University of Kelaniya School of Management College of Business RMIT University September 2018 Declaration I certify that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and, ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. Further, I acknowledge the support I have received for my research through the provision of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Don Asanka Sanjeewa Livera Tennakoon 17 September 2018 i Acknowledgements First of all, I am eternally grateful to the participants of this research for their generosity in sharing the lived experience of being skilled migrants to Australia. The way they have navigated through the obstacles of life was truly inspiring.
I hope that this thesis has delivered the value and the recognition that their experience has well deserved. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my senior supervisor Associate Professor Darryn Snell and associate supervisor Dr Margaret Heffernan OAM. Without their mentoring, invaluable comments, constructive criticism and collegiality my journey of doing this thesis would have been a lot more difficult. Much appreciation should also be given to Dr Keith Toh for the invaluable insights on critical realism led research and generous support in formatting the thesis.
Further, my thankfulness should also be extended to all of my colleagues at RMIT for the joyful and pleasant moments throughout this journey. Special thanks should also be extended to Lucy Gatto and her team in the Melbourne based career counselling service from which the qualitative phase participants of the research were sourced. Her generous support in hosting focus group discussions, research interviews and sharing a wealth of information and insights has enriched the qualitative phase of the research. Similarly, many thanks should also be given to Terry O’Reilly for letting me benefit from his extensive experience in the career counselling industry and sharing his webinar series with skilled migrant jobseekers.
Finally, I would like to extend my heartfelt indebtedness to my parents for their selflessness in raising me to who I am today and instilling the value of education. Similarly, I owe my wife Vishani, and children Akein and Kiara, for their love and unwavering support throughout many endeavours in life including this thesis. ii Table of Contents DECLARATION. II TABLE OF CONTENTS.
III LIST OF TABLES. VIII LIST OF FIGURES .IX LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .XI CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .1 The context of the study .1 The change of policy orientation .2 Divisions in the migration literature .2 The importance of the occupational mobility perspective .5 The researcher’s position in the research: An attempt to understand reflexivity. 13 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .2 The terminological complexity of international mobility.1 Terminology to demarcate skilled migrants .3 Key themes highlighted in the migration literature .4 Downward occupational mobility as a global issue: Evidence from countries around the world .5 Skilled migrants’ employment outcomes in Australia: Some quantitative findings .1 Official findings and mobility explanations from the DIBP .2 Alternative perspectives on skilled migrants’ employment outcomes .6 Occupational mobility barriers for skilled migrants in Australia .1 The challenges in qualification recognition .2 The role of professional bodies, recruiters and other forms of labour market ‘gatekeepers’ .3 Australian policies and regulations for equal employment opportunity (EEO) 32 iii 2.7 Structure–agency interplay in migrant employment. 35 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .2 Rejecting methodological individualism: Ontological, analytical and methodological dualism .3 Structure–agency interplay: Ontological assumptions and epistemological orientation .4 The critical realists’ pathway: Ontological realism, epistemological relativism and judgemental rationality .5 Methodological options for critical realist research .6 Adoption of mixed research methodology .7 Defining research participants .1 Phase 1: Quantitative phase .2 Phase 2: Qualitative phase .9 Reliability and validity .10 Ethics consideration of the research.
56 CHAPTER 4 QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS .2 Background to the CSAM dataset .1 CSAM sample selection .2 Outliers, weighting and data coding .3 The sample used in this research: Skill stream primary applicants .3 Characteristics of migrants skills and educational qualifications .1 The extent of home country educational qualifications and skills.2 Skilled migrants’ attainments of Australian qualifications .3 Skilled migrants’ visa reporting categories.4 Skilled migrants’ employment outcomes: A deeper examination .5 The extent of employment among skilled migrants .6 The quantity of work secured by the skilled migrants .7 Mapping skilled migrants’ occupational mobility .1 Occupational mobility in terms of language background .2 Occupational mobility in terms of visa sponsorship status .3 Occupational mobility in terms of gender .8 Benefits of using CSAM data .9 Limitations of using CSAM data. 84 CHAPTER 5 QUALITATIVE FINDINGS .2 Focus group findings: Occupation specific mobility barriers .1 Common occupational mobility barriers for accountancy and finance sector workers .2 Common occupational mobility barriers for administrative and office assistance workers .3 Common occupational mobility barriers for education and scientific industry workers .4 Common occupational mobility barriers for engineers and other technical sector workers .3 Pre-arrival experience and occupational mobility .1 Selected 10 individuals: More detailed personal accounts of the skilled migrant experience .2 Preparation strategies and participants perceptions on Australian labour market in the pre-arrival stage .3 Skill assessment process: Participants’ understanding of the complicated sourcing process .4 Post-arrival jobseeking experience and occupational mobility barriers .1 The similarities and differences between skilled migrants’ previous jobs and comparable Australian jobs.2 The need for Australian context-specific knowledge as a mobility barrier .3 The lack of local work experience as an occupational mobility barrier .4 Recognition of foreign qualifications and work experience .5 Availability of jobs: Participants’ experiences in low job growth industries .6 Participants’ experiences with recruitment services and labour market intermediaries .7 English language proficiency and cultural distance as an occupational mobility barrier .8 Skill atrophy and outdated skills as an occupational mobility barrier .9 Knowledge of local job searching techniques, local referees, social networks and supportive career counselling programs.10 Job searching strategies.5 Post-employment career progression and work experience .1 Use of previously developed skills in new jobs .2 Australian workplace culture, prospects of assimilation and direct or systemic discrimination in the workplace .2 Agents’ motivation and desire to contribute to Australia .3 Intersectionality and experience of dual/multiple disadvantage .4 Skilled migrants’ experiences through the morphogenetic perspective .5 The difference between the agential perception of social structures and real, causally efficacious emergent properties of social structures .6 Skill assessment process: The complicated skilled migration sourcing process .7 Skill transferability through structure–agency perspective .8 Skilled migrant employment through a skill transferability perspective .9 The problems associated with foreign work experience and educational qualification recognition: The subtlety of structural manifestations .10 The role of labour market intermediaries as occupational mobility barriers and facilitators .11 Theoretical framework to understand the interplay between structural and agential concerns of skilled migrants’ occupational mobility .5 Directions for future research. 178 APPENDIX A: AN EXAMPLE OF QUALITATIVE CODE ARRANGEMENT (4 OF THE 30 SECOND-ORDER CODES). 193 APPENDIX B: PARTICIPANT INFORMATION AND CONSENT FORM.
194 APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL FOR THE QUALITATIVE DATA COLLECTION PHASE. 198 APPENDIX D: ETHICS APPROVAL LETTER. 200 APPENDIX E: THE GAP BETWEEN OCCUPATIONAL CEILINGS AND ACTUAL VISA INVITATIONS. 201 APPENDIX F: INDUSTRY PLACEMENT INTRODUCTION LETTER USED BY THE CAREER COUNSELLING PROGRAM.
203 vii List of Tables Table 1: Key diversity descriptors. 19 Table 2: Employment outcomes; after 6 months of arrival or has been granted visa (cohorts 1 to 5 pooled); DIAC (2011). 25 Table 3: Summary of literature review (compiled by author). 36 Table 4: The properties of realists’ stratified ontology.
42 Table 5: Cross-tabulated data variables: developed by the author based on CSAM codebook (DIBP, 2015c). 50 Table 6: Sample descriptive statistics. 61 Table 7: Top 5 pre-immigration educational qualifications. 64 Table 8: Migrants’ visa reporting categories.
65 Table 9: Labour force status of primary visa applicants, based on demographic characteristics. 67 Table 10: Labour force status of primary visa applicants, based on visa grant location. 68 Table 11: Labour force status of offshore primary visa applicants, based on demographic identities. 69 Table 12: Labour force status of offshore primary visa applicants, based on gender identities.
70 Table 13: Number of hours migrants have worked during the reference week in all jobs. 72 Table 14: Skill stream primary applicants’ occupational mobility in terms of language background. 75 Table 15: Skill stream primary applicants’ occupational mobility in terms of visa sponsorship. 77 Table 16: Skill stream primary applicants’ occupational mobility in terms of gender.
80 Table 17: Participant details of the qualitative phase. 86 Table 18: Push and pull factors influencing Neha’s migration decision. 94 Table 19: Push and pull factors influencing Farah’s migration decision. 98 Table 20: Individual in-depth interview phase participants’ employment status.
109 Table 21: Occupational mobility barriers/facilitators identified through the post- arrival jobseeking experience. 116 Table 22: Participants’ reasons to anglicise their names. 134 Table 23: The evolution of participants’ perceptions of Australian society with prolonged stay in Australia. 137 Table 24: Comparison of employability skills.
156 viii List of Figures Figure 1: Major migrant sourcing regions from 2007–08 to 2016–17; adapted from (DIBP, 2017a). 2 Figure 2: Employment outcomes of degree-qualified migrants who arrived in Canada in 1996–2001, by country/region; Hawthorne (2008). 24 Figure 3: The critical realists’ stratified ontology; Bhaskar (2013). 41 Figure 4: An illustration of sequential mixed-method approach; adapted from (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009, p.
47 Figure 5: The research design. 48 Figure 6: CSAM data collection waves; adapted from DIBP (2015b). 58 Figure 7: The DIBP’s statistical treatment of the population file. 59 Figure 8: ANZSCO skill levels of migrants’ nominated occupations.
63 Figure 9: Neha’s jobseeking process. 94 Figure 10: Garry’s jobseeking process. 96 Figure 11: Farah’s jobseeking process. 97 Figure 12: Tashmiha’s jobseeking process.
98 Figure 13: Felix’s jobseeking process. 100 Figure 14: Tino’s jobseeking process. 102 Figure 15: Gayan’s jobseeking process. 104 Figure 16: Ahmed’s jobseeking process.
106 Figure 17: Kevin’s jobseeking process. 107 Figure 18: Cynthia’s jobseeking process. 109 Figure 19: The morphogenetic sequence; adapted from (Archer, 1995). 146 Figure 20: Major skill categories; adapted from Balcar et al.
159 Figure 21: A comparison of skills necessary for two town planning jobs in India and Australia. 160 Figure 22: The theoretical framework to better understand skilled migrants’ occupational mobility .