Integration into the Australian Labour Market: The Experience of Three “Visibly Different” Groups of Recently Arrived Refugees1

This paper explores the effects of “visible difference” on employment outcomes of three recently arrived refugee2 groups: ex-Yugoslavs, black Africans, and people from the Middle East. The paper draws on data collected through a survey (150 questionnaire-based face-to-face interviews conducted by bilingual interviewers) of refugees who settled in Western Australia over the past decade. Results indicate different outcomes for respondents from the three backgrounds despite similar levels of human capital and similar length of residence. Our evidence supports a “political economy of labour migration” interpretation for the differential outcomes, based on both structural and interpersonal racism, rather than a neo-classical explanation which holds that the job market is “blind to ethnicity”. Despite high unemployment and loss of occupational status, predominantly highly educated refugees were relatively satisfied with their lives in Australia. 60 Colic-Peisker and Tilbury © 2007 The Authors Journal Compilation © 2007 IOM I can’t escape the view that my relatively easy ride is not the result of the dream-England’s famous sense of tolerance and fair play, but of my social class, my freak fair skin and my “English” English accent. Take away any of these, and the story would have been very different (Salman Rushdie, 1991, Imaginary Homelands , Essays and Criticism 1981-1991, Granta Books and Viking, London).