Displaced human capital : untapped talent of Greater Western Sydney

Abstract

This study analyses the impact of neoliberal ideology, theory and policies on the employment outcomes and employment experiences of a group of skilled and semi-skilled African refugees who have settled in Western Sydney since the 1990s. The rise of neoliberal policies in the last three decades has seen a 'restructuring' of the labour market and the cutting back and outsourcing of government services, which has made both refugees and also many migrants from developing countries an extremely exposed and vulnerable group in the Australian employment market. This study has firstly aimed to analyse the effect neoliberal ideology, economic and social policies have had on these groups employment experiences and thereby also their understanding of their own labour market situation. They have settled in a labour market where success and failure has become purely correlated to one's personal acquisitions of skills and qualifications. A world where overt forms of racial discrimination within employment settings rightfully has declined (Better, 2008), but where new and subtle varieties of racial discrimination instead have taken form (Giroux, 2008; Davis, 2007; Goldberg, 2009; Roberts and Mahtani, 2008, 2010). Secondly, it has aimed to analyse if neoliberal policies themselves have been a factor leading to structural discrimination and thereby segmentation in the labour market. While individual and structural forms of racial discrimination have been found at a range of levels in the Australian labour market, no other Australian study has explored the link between refugees, neoliberalism, employment and structural discrimination. A cross-disciplinary framework was therefore developed to come to terms with these aims. This framework included reference to labour market, race and governance theories. Despite these theories belonging to different disciplines, they were found to be an important vehicle to gain a full picture of what is going on within the Australian labour market. The data for this study comprises interviews with skilled African refugees who have settled in the Western Sydney region within the research period. It also includes interviews with government officials and service providers working with refugees and migrants in the employment sector in the same region.

Date of Award	2010
Original language	English