Key Points
- Migrant Workers Centre CEO Matt Kunkel said discrimination against those workers on temporary visas was widespread.
- Findings in a report found many were being precluded from applying for some jobs because of their visa status.
- The report also found migrant workers often faced discrimination and exploitation in the workplace.
It's often one of the first questions posed when filling out a job application and one which Radha Neupane believes automatically discounted her for many jobs she applied for.
‘Are you a permanent resident of Australia or are you in the country on a visa? If on a visa, what type of visa?’
Ms Neupane came to Australia from Nepal in 2017 with her husband Pratik Sigdel.
She’d completed her Bachelor degree in Business Administration and spent six months in the industry in her home country before migrating to Australia to study accounting and hoped to work in the banking industry in a customer service role.
“Every time I put my visa status in, I got rejected at that time,” Ms Neupane said.
Radha Neupane and her husband Pratik Sigdel say trying to finding work in the fields in which they have qualifications is challenging as migrants. Source: Supplied
She worked with the elderly for four years until securing a role in her preferred sector last year.
Migrant Workers Centre CEO Matt Kunkel said discrimination against those workers on temporary visas was widespread.
He said a report released by the centre on Monday found many were being precluded from even applying for certain types of jobs because of their visa status.
“We're calling on the government to change the discrimination laws so that discriminating against someone on the basis of their visa would become illegal in the same way that discriminating against someone for their race, class, gender, religion, etc, would be against the law,” Mr Kunkel said.
The report, titled, , was based on survey responses of more than 1,000 migrant workers.
It stated that while permanent residency was not a legal requirement for employment in Australia, “businesses tend to equate it to work rights and won't entertain applications from migrant workers on temporary visas.”
"It might be a view that their temporary visa makes them a less attractive option for a longer term hire or that the prospects of keeping them in employment are reduced, but what we have found again in this report is that people on temporary visas are more likely to stay engaged with their employer than a native-born worker," Mr Kunkel said.
As well as suggesting making it unlawful to bar migrant workers from applying for jobs or discriminating against them at work based on migration status, the report made a number of other policy recommendations.
Among them was to better recognise migrant workers’ skills and contributions.
Mr Kunkel said, "We're seeing a really big discrepancy between the skills that migrant workers have in Australia and the industries in which they end up working in."
Ms Neupane said she felt as a migrant, she had to work harder for the same outcome as permanent residents.
She said while she (and other migrants she knows in entry level roles like her current mortgage servicing position) has a Masters, Australian permanent residents often secured similar roles to hers with just a diploma or a certificate, sometimes even in a completely different field.
Her husband, who has a degree in international relations and journalism, was unable to secure work in media, an industry he'd worked for almost six years in Nepal. He is working as a disability support worker in Australia.
Mr Sigdal spent three years working in aged care, where he said he experienced racism on a constant basis.
Like many other migrants, Radha and her husband have both worked in aged care, as that is where they have been able to obtain work. Source: Getty / Maskot
Mr Sigdel said racism from clients was usually quite overt.
“They sometimes become very verbally abusive of the staff who are brown colour, their remarks would be — go back to your country, you’re not Australian, find me someone who speaks English better than you,” he said.
He said some of his co-workers treated him and other migrants as ‘less than them’ by not providing assistance with tasks when asked or being cold and unfriendly. This was different to how they treated other colleagues.
Despite his qualifications, experience and passion for journalism, Pratik Sigdel is working as a disability support worker. Source: Supplied
It described how many migrants were caught in a "circular logic" between jobs and visas.
"You need a permanent visa to get a decent job, and you need a decent job from which to earn migration points to get a permanent visa," the report stated.
Mr Kunkel said many of the conditions on visas were very limiting and should be removed.
"People who are on international student visas, generally speaking, although the rules have changed during the COVID period, can only work 40 hours a fortnight and people who are on working holiday visas are only allowed to work for one employer for six months at a time," he said.
"We don't tell Australian born students that they can only work 20 hours a week while they're studying, so why should it be different for people who are here on international student visas?"
On top of restricted work hours, many migrant workers said they are having to deal with wage theft.
"The report found that about 58 per cent of migrant workers were reporting that they were experiencing wage theft," Mr Kunkel said.
The report also called for better dissemination of workplace rights to "close the knowledge gap in migrant communities" and improvement in job security and access to justice, compensation and treatment.
