Breaking Barriers: Overcoming Challenges in Refugee Employment in Australia

 Regaining meaningful employment is a major milestone, for refugees in Australia, who have usually entered the country and the labour market at the bottom rung. Yet the employment journey is full of adventure for refugees: luggage mountains, loads that are regularly unpacked and repacked but end up in luggage racks anyway. Lots of jobs played unevenly, complex pathways different jobs take different refugees, pushing them into one-sided dead-ends, clogging up arteries of careers. Nevertheless, many of the travellers reach their destinations, and even start their new jobs. Let’s part with the luggage, or at least pick up the luggage of others who try to haul theirs up the hills.

Language Barriers and Communication Challenges

A lack of language is one of the greatest barriers to meaningful employment that refugees face when beginning life in Australia. Many arrive in Australia with very little to no spoken English and so can struggle to fill out job applications, attend interviews and work effectively alongside their colleagues. If they do not have the language skills needed to build up their career in Australia in the same way they might have in their country of origin, they can fail to represent their experience and skills in the Australian labour market. This can result in refugees being underemployed or unemployed from their field.

Lastly, even after securing employment, linguistic difficulties can hinder refugees from fully integrating into the workplace. In order to function effectively at work, employees need to be able to understand the terminology, safety procedures and technical jargon, which are crucial to certain areas of work and industry. Additionally, employees need to communicate with one another and with managers as well as staff around the company. Being able to form a lasting, productive and constructive relationship at work depends to a large extent on fluency with language, which in turn is difficult to develop without strong language skills. That’s why these language training courses are important. They give refugees the English language skills that they need to be successful on the job. Many of the organisations that assist refugees provide training in English language skills.

Likewise, employers can minimise linguistic frictions: for example, by offering language training for work purposes, or by placing refugees with a mentor or co-worker who will coach them to communicate more fluently. Creating a welcoming culture based on good-quality language learning can help to relieve these pressures.

Recognition of Foreign Qualifications

Far more difficult for them is to have foreign-qualifications and professional experience recognised. Many refugees, in particular those who have come to Australia under government-sponsored humanitarian visas, arrive with tertiary and vocational qualifications – sometimes at high academic cost – and considerable professional experience. They and their employers frequently discover that these qualifications are not directly transferable to the Australian context, and that professional bodies require such people to undertake assessment and testing to gain accreditation locally. It’s a situation where employers often assign such professionals brand-new duties with little or no connection to their previous experience and, as a consequence, refugees often find themselves in jobs that are well below their level.

Recognition of foreign qualifications often necessitates several years of further training or stages of assessment, which can be demeaning especially to those who have already spent years in exile, not to mention rebuilding their lives. Making the recognition process simpler, with access to transparent routes to have qualifications assessed, will significantly increase the capacities of refugees to use the skills they possess.

Meanwhile, employers could best help by providing refugees with a niche in local jobs and a step up into more complex work; internships, mentoring and apprenticeship programmes might help refugees gain the Australian workplace experience needed to advance into roles of rising seniority.

Overcoming Cultural Differences

Other cultural differences might stand in the way of successful integration into the workplace. At work, the rules and norms about how decisions should be made, who should be involved in meetings, what is considered acceptable humour, how to form a good relationship with your boss and so on can feel inaccessible and confusing when you’re in a new place. Cultural orientation programmes for refugees might highlight and mentors in the workplace could look for strategies to make their organisations feel more comfortable and accommodating to overseas workers.

Mentorship program is helpful initiative for refugees workplace cultural context by Australia since the knowledge from mentors included the specific time and place to speak up, which is useful for the reffuges to develop professionally.

Conclusion

And, while significant, such barriers are not insurmountable. They can be mitigated through strategies that provide language support, help refugees to quickly have their overseas qualifications recognised, while also overcoming unconscious bias to foster more inclusive workplace cultures. This allows refugees to utilise their pre-flighting skills and find fulfilling work in Australia’s labour market.

These include employers, as well as government and non-government organisations and programmes. We can carry on overcoming the obstacles for refugees and gain their full and fair positive participation in the workforce and the restoration of their lives in principle for the benefit of Australia as a whole.