Employer evaluations of immigrant IT and accounting professionals in the pre-entry phase
RIS ID
99060
Link to publisher version (URL)
Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand Conference
Abstract
Existing literature suggests that the skills of accredited, permanent immigrants in Australia remain underutilised in the labour market. This is attributed to three key reasons: employer discrimination against overseas based qualifications, employer reluctance to hire immigrants who do not yet have host country work experience and the lower levels of immigrant English language skills. However, most of this research has been survey based and conducted from either an immigrant or policymaker perspective. Consequently, little is known of employer‟s evaluations of immigrant skills. In light of this gap in the scholarship, this paper aims to make a contribution through a regionally specific case study of employers, to examine how occupational based factors influence their evaluation of immigrant accounting and IT professionals during the organisational pre-entry phase. The paper finds some, but not complete, resonance with existing literature and but also finds that employers are more inclined to more favourably evaluate immigrant IT professionals than accountant professionals.
Publication Details
Almeida, S. (2010). Employer evaluations of immigrant IT and accounting professionals in the pre-entry phase. 24th Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ) conference (pp. 1-11). Sydney, Australia: University of Western Sydney.