Beyond job placement: careers for refugees

Abstract

In this article, we highlight the Australian country context to advocate for career support that extends beyond initial job placement in a segmented labor market to strengthen refugees’ skills and knowledge and future career development. We address systemic barriers while advocating for access to skilled career development practitioners, whose important expertise as members of multidisciplinary teams could enhance resettlement assistance. Strengthening the preparation of career development practitioners is essential for providing career support to refugees and for building capacity in the provision of resettlement services. We encourage debate within and between country contexts about ways to enhance refugees’ career development.

Navigating Adult Life from Emerging to Middle Adulthood: Patterns of Systemic Influences and Time Perspective in Migrants

“…Recent STF-based research on immigrants and refugees, which was conducted using narrative instruments, identified perceived influences in terms of barriers and opportunities through a meaning-making process that emerged during interviews. Besides systemic barriers, such as language, limited access to local social capital, discrimination, stigma, and lack of recognition of prior qualifications and experiences [27][28][29], recent research underlines the role of other restrictive voices. Through the analysis of narratives of adult immigrants, these were traced as coming from the internal or the proximal context (i.e., family) [19].…”

“…This is the reason career support interventions are extremely important in constructing the active participation of immigrants in the host community. As underlined by the OECD [67], there is a need to support immigrants and refugees with quality career guidance and employment support [27]. This will provide them with support to move towards self-sufficiency, better well-being, transitional readjustment, and access to new opportunities.…”

“…This will provide them with support to move towards self-sufficiency, better well-being, transitional readjustment, and access to new opportunities. It will also play a role in facilitating the successful transitions of people with immigration backgrounds to meaningful work in their country of resettlement [17,19,27,30].…”