Perspectives on Migrants

Achieving a level of financial independence commensurate with skills is a key indicator of a successful settlement outcome for migrants. Closely related to achieving this outcome is educational attainment. Relevant educational qualifications can help provide a migrant with the necessary skills and qualifications to gain employment in their chosen field of work. This article focuses on the relevance of migrants' qualifications to their employment. Two data sources have been used to explore the relationship between migrants' education and their employment. For consistency between data sources the populations of interest are those aged 15 years and over, who are employed and who have attained a non-school qualification. Using country of birth and, where possible, by visa stream, information is provided relating to:

• relevance of recent non-school qualification to current job
• main reason field of qualification is not relevant to current job
• level of highest non-school qualification completed after arrival compared with before arrival
• field of highest attained qualification and the type of non-school qualification completed.

The data sources used in this article are Qualifications and Work 2018-19 (QaW 2018-19) and the Australian Census and Migrant Integrated Dataset 2016 (ACMID 2016).

The scope of QaW 2018-19 differs from ACMID 2016. QaW 2018-19 does not collect visa information but indicates whether a person has been born overseas.  The QaW is a four-yearly survey which captures information on people aged 15 years and over, regarding educational qualifications and the relevance of completed qualifications to their current jobs. Further information regarding scope, coverage and survey concepts can be found at the Qualifications and Work methodology page. For definitions of terms used throughout the article, refer to the Qualifications and Work glossary section.

ACMID 2016 is an integrated dataset which combines Department of Home Affairs permanent migrant settlement records for arrivals between 1 January 2000 and 9 August 2016, with the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. Further information regarding scope, coverage and concepts can be found at the Australian Census and Migrant Integrated Dataset 2016 methodology page. For definitions of terms refer to the Australian Census and Migrant Integrated Dataset 2016 glossary section.

Data presented in this section relates to people who are employed and have obtained a non-school qualification. QaW 2018-19 has been used to provide data on:

• the relevance of recent qualification to current job
• the reason why it is not relevant
• whether a person born overseas completed a qualification before or after arriving in Australia.

Overall, in 2018-19, around 8.8 million people aged 15 years and over were employed and had obtained a non-school qualification. Of these, over two thirds (69% or 6.0 million) were working in the same field as their non-school qualification. This proportion was lower for those born overseas (65% or 2.0 million) than for those born in Australia (70% or 4.1 million).

When a person reported their main field of study and most recent qualification was not relevant to their current job, they were asked to provide the reason why.  It should be noted that the most recent qualification reported may not necessarily be a person's highest non-school qualification.

• Australian born were more likely to report that they were no longer interested in their field of qualification or wanting a career change (32% or 266,800 people)
• For overseas born, a lack of available positions (25% or 137,100 people) was the most reported reason.

Approximately 3.0 million overseas born people aged 15 years and over were employed and had attained a non-school qualification. Of these, 14% (434,000) attained an additional non-school qualification after arrival, with:

• Nearly half (46% or 201,300) gaining a higher level qualification after arrival
• Over a third (34% or 146,600) obtaining a lower level qualification after arrival
• 14% (58,500) attaining an additional qualification at the same level as before arrival.

Data presented in this section is sourced from the integrated dataset, ACMID 2016.  Analysis relates to permanent migrants with a date of arrival between 1 January 2000 and 9 August 2016, aged 15 years and over and employed at the time of the 2016 Census. While ACMID does not capture the same level of detail about qualifications and relevance to current job as QaW 2018-19, it is a robust dataset that allows analysis by permanent visa stream. Visa stream is of interest given they vary in eligibility requirements and there are significant differences in educational attainment between the streams. For example, applicants in the skill stream are specifically selected because they have skills and qualifications to fill gaps in the labour market. This means they are more likely to hold a non-school qualification and have higher levels of educational attainment.

ACMID 2016:

• allows for analysis by permanent visa streams (family, skilled and humanitarian) and occupation at the time of the 2016 Census
• provides information on the field of education studied and level of non-school qualification a permanent migrant held at the time of the 2016 Census.

In 2016 there were 1.3 million employed permanent migrants aged 15 years and over who arrived between 2000 and 2016. 

• Consistent with their visa eligibility criteria, employed skilled migrants aged 15 years and over were most commonly working in professional occupations (35%). Similar proportions of skilled migrants were employed in managerial roles and as technicians and trades workers (each 13%).
• Employed family migrants were most commonly working in professional occupations (19%). A further 16% of family migrants were working as community and personal service workers.
• Humanitarian migrants were most commonly employed as labourers (23%) and community and personal service workers (19%).

For further information about employed migrants and occupations, please refer to Understanding migrant outcomes - Insights from the Australian Census and Migrants Integrated Dataset, Australia. 

In 2016, of the 1.3 million employed permanent migrants aged 15 years and over, three out of four people (78% or 1,005,348) held a non-school qualification. 

Skilled migrants were the most likely to hold a non-school qualification (84%). Family migrants were less likely to hold a non-school qualification (69%) than skilled migrants and humanitarian migrants were even less likely to hold a non-school qualification (52%), which is consistent with the eligibility criteria for this group (i.e. entry to Australia is granted on humanitarian grounds).

The most commonly held non-school qualifications by employed permanent migrants aged 15 years and over at the time of the 2016 Census were:

• Bachelor degrees (40% or 405,100 people)
• Postgraduate degrees (24% or 236,100 people)
• Certificates (16% or 161,300 people).

This release previously used catalogue number 3416.0

10/02/2022 - following the release on 31/01/2022, a correction was made to Table 1.1 regarding proportion born in Australia not working in same field as qualification and relevance is unknown. Links were corrected in relevance of education to employment data download with no change to data. 

21/02/2022 - no additional information will be added to this publication.