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Facilitating the professional transition of migrants in Australia: does gender matter?
Author(s) -
O'Dwyer Monica,
ColicPeisker Val
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.2016.tb00364.x
Subject(s) - project commissioning , context (archaeology) , publishing , perspective (graphical) , qualitative property , telephone survey , sociology , transition (genetics) , professional development , public relations , political science , business , marketing , pedagogy , geography , law , artificial intelligence , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , machine learning , computer science , gene
This article explores the provision and effects of a program devised to facilitate the professional transition of skilled migrants from non‐English‐speaking backgrounds (NESB) arriving in Australia on permanent visas. The program (‘Skilled Professional Migrants Program’—SPMP) was delivered by AMES Australia and internally evaluated through a telephone survey of 337 past participants. A report of survey results, primarily gauging short‐term post‐program employment outcomes, presented a very positive picture. In this paper we take a fresh look at the quantitative and qualitative survey data in order to analyse the success of the program from the perspective of gender. The paper focuses on gender differences in professional employment transition post‐program in the context of the structural impact of the gendered labour market. We found a significant difference between NESB men and women in their post‐program labour market incorporation into professional jobs that matched their skills. The gendered structures also influenced the ‘networking effect’ of the professional transition program.