The hospitality sector as an employer of skill discounted migrants. Evidence from Australia

ABSTRACT

Although granted entry into a country based on their skills, often migrants find employers and recruiters do not fully recognise these skills, with many struggling to find employment that matches their pre-migration capabilities. Economic necessity often drives the skill discounted migrant to take the best job they can get, to opt out of the labour market, or to return to their home country. Researchers have suggested that the hospitality sector provides ‘refuge’ employment for these vulnerable job-seekers. For these employees, the hospitality sector provides a wide range of jobs requiring different skill levels and language proficiency, some with low barriers to entry, such as housekeeping or in the kitchen. However, little is known about how skill discounted migrants find these jobs, or their subsequent experience once employed. Using data from the Continuous Survey of Australia’s Migrants, we investigate the employment of migrants in the hospitality sector, how they find their jobs, and their subsequent experience in those roles.

KEYWORDS:

• Migrants
• hospitality
• job search
• skill discounting
• refuge employment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.