The feminisation of migration and the migrants VET policy neglects: the case of skilled women secondary migrants in Australia

Abstract

There is increasingly scholarship on gender and migration, yet the international migration of highly skilled women is still somewhat under-researched. This article focuses on this neglected area in the context of Australia’s discretionary inward migration policies to solve skills shortages. The article draws on empirical research using a qualitative case-study approach with in-depth narrative interviews to explore understandings of the experience of highly skilled female secondary migrants. The findings resonate with a growing body of work in North America, Europe and the UK. Applying a gendered and intersectional analysis to the case of Australia with its complex mix of skilled migrants from predominantly English speaking countries, as well as many countries in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa, reveals a more nuanced understanding of the temporality and gendered and racialised ways in which the processes of career disruption, deskilling, intensification of domestic responsibilities and re-feminisation of health and human service work play out through tensions between migration and education policies.

Keywords:

• VET and deskilling
• skilled female migrants
• narratives
• secondary migrants

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) for funding the empirical research on which this article is based http://www.ncver.edu.au/publications/2653.html. In addition, the author would like to thank her colleagues Dr Denise Beale, Dr Miriam Faine, Dr Reshmi Roy, Dr Anita Devos and Dr Chandra Shah for all their help and advice in conducting the research and developing the ideas presented here.