Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of tables and figures
- List of abbreviations
- Notes on contributors
- One Transnational social work: opportunities and challenges of a global profession
- Part One Setting the transnational context
- Part Two Practitioner perspectives
- Part Three Employer/stakeholder views
- Part Four Policy challenges, professional responses
- Index
Nine - Transnational social workers and the Australian labour market
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of tables and figures
- List of abbreviations
- Notes on contributors
- One Transnational social work: opportunities and challenges of a global profession
- Part One Setting the transnational context
- Part Two Practitioner perspectives
- Part Three Employer/stakeholder views
- Part Four Policy challenges, professional responses
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Skilled migrants are actively recruited to fill perceived skills shortages in Australia and migrants now constitute the primary source of the country's net labour force growth (Birrell and Healy, 2014). Many overseas-trained social workers come to Australia with the expectation that they will be able to readily gain positions that match their qualifications and experience, although it is difficult to gain an accurate picture of their presence in the human services workforce (Papadopoulos, 2016). Some arrive under the skilled migration programme while others come to Australia via working holiday visas or family reunion programmes. An unknown number arrive as refugees. A concomitant trend is the growing number of international students who complete social work programmes in Australia, with the hope of gaining employment in Australia after finishing their studies (Harrison and Felton, 2013).
In 2013/14, the Australian government granted 136 permanent, independent migrant visas to overseas-trained social workers while a further 81 came to Australia on temporary employer-sponsored visas (Department of Education and Training, 2015). While not a large number, it is noteworthy that the number of social workers coming to Australia on permanent, independent migrant visas more than doubled from the previous year (57), while there was a reduction in employer-sponsored social workers (110). However, little is known about how these overseas-trained social workers are faring in the labour market.
Temporary workers currently comprise the majority of skilled migrants in Australia (Hawthorne, 2015). Due to their temporary status, Hawthorne (2015) contends that a large number of these workers are choosing to forgo full qualification recognition in Australia and instead seek employment within a restricted scope of practice. This suggests that official figures on the number of visas issued to overseas-qualified social workers might not reflect their real numbers in Australia. Social work is not a registered profession in Australia and a growing number of social workers are employed in the non-government community services sector, where job titles are commonly not profession-specific (Harrison and Healy, 2016). Accurately predicting the number of overseas-trained social workers in Australia is made more difficult by a lack of published data on their migration routes (Papadopoulos, 2016).
- Type
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- Information
- Transnational Social WorkOpportunities and Challenges of a Global Profession, pp. 139 - 154Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2018