Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Partnering for Refugee Research: Evidence From Two Australian Studies

In this article we reflect on methodological and ethical challenges encountered while conducting two large, nationally funded studies on refugee resettlement in Australia. We focus on collaborative research partnerships, specifically with “industry partners,” wherein the partners may have different understandings of the research process and different agendas, and with bilingual research assistants. We analyze methodological challenges primarily pertaining to collecting good-quality data in cross-cultural contexts and ethical challenges concerned with ensuring confidentiality in recently arrived, tightly knit communities where community insiders assisted in accessing respondents and collecting data.     

Employment Niches for Recent Refugees: Segmented Labour Market in Twenty-first Century Australia

A survey of three refugee groups (ex-Yugoslavs, black Africansand people from the Middle East) in Western Australia indicatesthat the recent humanitarian arrivals are concentrated in labourmarket niches such as cleaning services, care of the aged, meatprocessing, taxi driving, security and building. Apart fromthe building industry, these employment niches are situatedin the ‘secondary labour market’ comprising low-statusand low-paid jobs that locals avoid. This article identifiesseveral interrelated mechanisms through which the recent Australianrefugee intake has been relegated to undesirable jobs: non-recognitionof qualifications as a systemic barrier, discrimination on thebasis of race and cultural difference by employers, ‘ethnic-pathintegration’ and the lack of mainstream social networksthat could assist in the job search, and the recent ‘regionalsponsored migration scheme’ through which the governmenttries to address the shortage of low-skilled labour in depopulatingcountry areas. The data show massive loss of occupational statusamong our respondents and confirm the existence of the segmentedlabour market, where racially and culturally visible migrantsare allocated the bottom jobs regardless of their ‘humancapital’. Changes in the nature of the segmented labourmarket in the increasingly mobile global workforce are analysed.Some of these insights are drawn from two other research projectson Bosnian and Afghan refugees in Australia undertaken by theauthors.