The untapped workforce potential of refugee women
This Refugee Week (19-25 June), a 聽highlights the need for a national refugee employment strategy to better allow women from refugee background to contribute to Australia鈥檚 labour market.
While industry calls for more expansive migration due to acute labour shortages exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, a new report has identified refugee women as a valuable cohort of capable workers unable to get work in Australia.
The study, led by the University of 亚洲色吧 and Flinders University and funded by the federal Department of Social Services, found refugee women have worse employment outcomes than other groups of migrants, including refugee men. They also are concentrated in occupations that are lower-skilled and lower paid compared to before they migrated.
鈥淭here is an urgent need to address the myriad of systemic barriers facing women from refugee backgrounds from accessing paid work,鈥 says report lead author Associate Professor Anna Ziersch, a social scientist in Flinders鈥 College of Medicine and Public Health.
The study analysed data from the longitudinal study, which collected a range of information from refugee women and men over their first five years in Australia, including Ad