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Migrant aged-care workers in Australia: do they have poorer-quality jobs than their locally born counterparts?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2020

Sara Charlesworth Open the ORCID record for Sara Charlesworth [Opens in a new window]  and
Linda Isherwood
Sara Charlesworth*
Affiliation:
Centre for People, Organisation & Work, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Linda Isherwood
Affiliation:
Future of Employment and Skills Research Centre (FES), The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: sara.charlesworth@rmit.edu.au
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Abstract

Migrants make up a significant and growing proportion of the aged-care workforce in Australia. Using data from the 2016 National Aged Care Workforce Census and Survey, we investigate employment conditions for Australian-born and overseas-born frontline workers working in residential and home-based aged care, focusing on two key poor job quality indicators. We find that migrant home care workers from non-English-speaking background (NESB) countries are the most likely to be employed on a casual basis and to report hours-related underemployment. Migrant residential care workers from English-speaking background (ESB) countries are more likely to be casual while NESB migrants are more likely to be underemployed. Controlling for a range of employment and socio-demographic characteristics, we find that being an NESB migrant is significantly associated with both casual status and underemployment. Generally, while this association lessens with years spent in Australia, exposure to casual employment is amplified over time for NESB migrants in the residential sector. Holding a temporary visa increased the likelihood of casual employment for residential care workers and underemployment for home care workers. Working for a for-profit employer was also associated with poorer job quality. Further policy shifts in Australia towards temporary migration and increased marketisation of aged care may impact on the working conditions of migrant aged-care workers.

Keywords

aged-care workersAustraliamigrant statusnon-English-speaking backgroundjob qualitycontract statusunderemployment
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 41 , Issue 12 , December 2021 , pp. 2702 - 2722
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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