The Experience of Refugees in the Australian Labor Market

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article applies sophisticated econometric techniques on a representative sample of Australian migrants who arrived as adults to examine the factors associated with success in securing employment and, in particular, to test how well the recent influx of refugees have done. After controlling for a number of other factors relevant to labor market status such as age, gender, education and premigration employment history, it is found that among new arrivals, refugees have employment probabilities which are close to 20 percentage points lower than otherwise comparable nonrefugees. With the passage of time, this differential narrows markedly but, for males at least, is never eliminated completely. It is concluded, however, that the persistence of a differential is not the result of discrimination but rather because refugees have relatively poor English language skills.