Minimising skills wastage: Maximising the health of skilled migrant groups

Skilled migration is a key element in Australia’s strategy to address major human capital issues and imperatives, however underutilisation and atrophy of professional migrant skills remains a critical problem. The proposed project aimed to identify barriers and innovative strategies for ensuring utilisation of professional migrants’ skills and to investigate the links between workforce participation and health. The research used a sequential exploratory mixed methods design comprising both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods across three research phases.

Phase 1: Examined literature on skilled migration in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. An analysis of Census data and data from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection was also undertaken.

Phase 2: Thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders working in government, policy, industry representation and community based services. The findings from phase 2 of the study informed the development of the quantitative online survey.

Phase 3:508 skilled migrants responded to an online survey and 14 were then interviewed.