When what you have is not enough—Acquiring Australian qualifications to overcome non‐recognition of overseas skills
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| Author | George Tan,Andreas Cebulla |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13030 |
International Migration. 2023;61:175–195.
|
175
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION
Skilled migrat ion has been an importa nt component of international m igration in response to skil ls shortfalls and
demographic c hanges in advanced economies. Skilled migrat ion occurs in a highly regulated spa ce where those
Received: 24 Octo ber 2021
|
Revised: 28 March 20 22
|
Accepted: 19 May 2022
DOI: 10 .1111/imig .13030
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
When what you have is not enough— Acquiring
Australian qualifications to overcome
non- recognition of overseas skills
George Tan1,2 | Andreas Cebulla3
1College of Indige nous Futures, Educ ation
and the Art s, Northern In stitute, Charle s
Darwin Univ ersity, Darwin, N orthern
Territory, Austr alia
2Hugo Centre for P opulation and Migr ation
Studies, The U niversity of Adel aide,
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
3Australia n Industrial Transfo rmation
Institute, C ollege of Business , Governance
and Law, Flinde rs University, Bedf ord Park,
Australia
Correspondence
George Tan, Colle ge of Indigenous Future s,
Education an d the Arts, Nor thern Institu te,
Charles Dar win University, Dar win,
Norther n Territory, Australia .
Email: george.tan@cdu.edu.au
Funding information
Department of State Development,
Government of S outh Australia;
Interdiscip linary Research G rant - The
University of Adelaide
Abstract
Skilled migration is a n important strateg y in developed econo-
mies seeking to addre ss skills shortages an d population ageing.
Research on the labour market outcomes of skilled migrants
tends to focus on employer s' devaluation of skills without con-
sidering the role of imm igration policy in the migr ation process.
Moreover, there is little understanding of whether effor ts to
meet employer demands for local qualifications improve la-
bour market outcomes . Drawing on a study on skilled m igrants
sponsored under the State- Specific and Regiona l Migratio n
Scheme in the regional st ate of S outh Australia , we ex plore
the shaping of skills and s kills recognition in the migratio n jour-
ney, particularly migr ants' strategy of reskilling in response to
employer demands for l ocal qualifications. Our logi stic regres-
sions on the association between the acquisition of Australian
qualifications and labour market outcomes reveal only mar-
ginal returns to these effort s. We argue that Aus tralia should
consider developing a mo re coherent skilled migration pro cess
to better harness t he human capital of skilled migr ants.
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which
permits us e and distributio n in any medium, provid ed the original wor k is properly cited , the use is non-comme rcial and no
modifications or adaptations are made.
© 2022 The Authors . International Migrationpublishe d by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Internati onal Organizatio n for Migration.
176
|
TANandCEBULLA
seeking to migr ate encounter a set of rules, r egulations and obligati ons used to filter out indi viduals that meet the
selection criteria set by the host government (Skeldon, 2018). Despite migr ation policies selec ting skilled migran ts
through measu rements of credentials and ski lls pegged to education levels an d occupations, non- recognition of
overseas qua lifications and ex perience occurs (C ameron et al., 2019). The lite rature tends to focus on the deva l-
uation of skills by em ployers (e.g. Guo, 2009) without co nsidering the role of immigrat ion policy in the migratio n
process. Furt her, while there is a growing literature o n migrant agency and strateg ies to overcome bureaucratic
hurdles or employment barriers (Roberts, 2021; Tran et al., 2020), there is little un derstanding on whe ther efforts
to meet employer demands for qualifications lead to an improvement in labour market outcomes. This paper
addresses t his gap by exploring the interaction sk illed migrants have with immigration po licy and the disson ance
with labour mar ket realities following th eir migration to Australi a.
We begin w ith an overvie w of Australia's skilled immigr ation programme and review th e literature of labour
market expe riences and barr iers of skilled migrant workers to Australia before drawing on a st udy on skilled mi-
grants in the st ate of South Australia. We contextualise our study by examining the interpret ation and s haping
of skills by different actors to elucidate the breakdown between immigration policy and employer practices. In
particular, we focu s on skilled migrant s seeking to acquire th e host country's qu alifications whe n facing challenges
in gaining employment commensurate with their existing skills— a response to a common employer demand (e.g.,
Sardana et al., 2016). There is little understanding of the process and outcomes of such strategies, as most re-
search (but see , Banerjee & Lee, 2012) focus es on strategies that des cribe the different way s to increase employ-
ability. Thus, inve stigating the association b etween employment outcom es and the strategies of skill ed migrants
that mainly include acquiring the host countr y's qualifications is a novel contribution to the literature. We then
discuss the impl ications of our finding s for the labour market and s killed migration poli cy and programme del ivery
in assisting skilled migrants in finding work.
AUSTRALIA'S SKILLED MIGRATION PROGRAMME
Australia's skille d migration policy is heavily regulated, with migrant s required to navigate a complex array of regu-
lations and actors . Australia's skilled migration syst em has evolved considerably but has primarily revo lved around
three compone nts when assessing and a dmitting skilled migr ants. They include a sk ills shortage list , a points test,
and a points thr eshold where individu als are ranked and sorted ( Boucher & Davidson, 2019).
Several reforms t o Australi a's skilled migration programme have led to rev isions to its s killed shor tage list
(Skilled O ccupations List— SOL). Cha nges to the S OL resulted in fewer eligible occupations an d modifications to
the points test that increased work experience and English language proficiency demands. Framed within a neo-
corporatist model whereby industries provide input when determining skills shortages (Koslowski, 2014), the
liberalisation of skilled migration policies saw temporary work visas introduced to meet business demands for
workers on flexible arrangements. Another migration poli cy included State- S pecific Region al Migration (SSRM)
schemes desig ned to direct skilled migr ants to less populated pa rts of Australia (Hugo , 2008).
Regional migration programmes and employment outcomes
The Aust ralian Governme nt introduced selective migr ation programme s in 1996 to i nfluence the destination of
migrants to ach ieve a more even population dis tribution and arre st decline in regional ar eas. These areas typ ically
have fewer th an 200,000 residents but also include low population growt h metropolitan c ities such as Ad elaide
(South Aus tralia) and Hoba rt (Tasmania) (DIMA , 2007:46), which are als o affected by labour shor tages, depopu-
lation and ageing . The suite of immigration policies specific to these areas includes the SSRM, which realised
a ‘degre e of s uccess in that it has dive rted a small bu t significan t part of the Australian immigration intake to
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting