Around 90% of refugee kids live in poverty in their first year in Australia: report
- Written by: Weekend Times
Almost a third of people living in Australia were born overseas, and almost half have at least one overseas-born parent. Migrant and refugee communities have been central to the nation’s
economic, social and cultural life for generations.
But there has been remarkably little quantitative evidence on the living standards of different groups of migrants once they settle in Australia.
A new report has found an alarming number of refugees spend their first decade in Australia in poverty.
The report, produced by our team and published in partnership with Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), analyses two Australian Bureau of Statistics datasets that link settlement records to the 2021 census. The two datasets covered permanent migrants and temporary residents who arrived in the last ten years.
Together, this allowed comparison of the outcomes of people across visa pathways against the general Australian population for the first time.
Three in five refugees arrive into poverty
Between 2011 and 2021, around 1.3 million people arrived as permanent migrants into Australia.
The report shows just over half came on skilled visas, 35% on family visas and about 11% – roughly 140,000 people – on humanitarian visas.
People who arrive on a humanitarian visa have usually fled conflict or persecution. Many have been displaced for years.
So it’s not surprising the early years in Australia are difficult. What startled us, however, was the extent of hardship.
In the first year after arrival, the research shows that for humanitarian entrants:
- on average, around three in five (59%) live in households with A$400 or less a week
- 73% live in households with $500 or less a week
- 75% of men and 80% of women were not in the labour force (meaning they’re not employed and not looking for work)
- around nine in ten (almost 90%) refugee children under 15 live in households with $500 or less a week in their first year of arrival.
This is concerning. Research shows sustained poverty in early childhood impacts health, education and later life chances.
Hardship eases with time – but slowly
Living standards improve as families establish themselves by finding work, securing housing, enrolling children in school, and building communities. But the change is slow and marked by gender.
For men aged 25–44 years, entry into workforce participation is relatively quick. By the third year, the rate of those not in the labour force fell to 32%, and full-time/part-time work increased to 58%. By the tenth year, full-time employment alone had steadily increased to 50%.
Women tend to enter the workforce more slowly, largely due to caring responsibilities; the report found 40% were in full-time and part-time work by the tenth year.
Among humanitarian entrants aged 25 to 44, 13% of men and 17% of women provided unpaid care. This compared with 8% and 12%, respectively, across Australia.
Larger family sizes, language barriers, employment skills, location and limited access to informal labour markets are also likely contributors.
Overall, 33% of humanitarian entrants remain in poverty, living with incomes below $500 a week at the ten-year mark. This affects half of all children from refugee backgrounds.
These findings show people often make substantial progress over time but also highlight the need for employment and settlement support, particularly for women.
Other migrants fare better, but hardship persists
Australia’s skilled migration program is designed to attract people with the qualifications and experience needed in the Australian labour market. On the whole, it succeeds.
Around 59% of the skilled migrants who arrived in the decade to 2021 are in full-time work and about 20% are in part-time work.
Gender still shapes the pattern: 51% of women aged 25-44 work full-time compared with 82% of men (though both rates are above the Australian averages for their gender).
Family migrants, on the other hand, face more hardship.
On average, between 2011 and 2021, 17% were in poverty, living on less than $500 income per week. About 6% were unemployed, and 27% of family-migrant women aged 25–44 were not in the labour force.
Crucially, the report highlights the many skilled and family migrants aged 25–44 years (more than 85,000 people between 2011 and 2021) who were unemployed and affected during this time by the Newly Arrived Resident Waiting Period policy.
Under this policy, which is still in place, people are only granted access to the social security system four years after they have been granted permanent residency, even if they have already lived, worked and paid taxes in Australia.
Outcomes for temporary visa holders are linked to and limited by whether or not they have the right to work.
This includes people on bridging visas who may be seeking asylum and may have to wait years for their claims to be heard.
Until then, they have limited work rights and no access to mainstream income support, and must rely on low payments via the Status Resolution Support Service.
What would help?
The new report recommends Australia:
- reduce number of years in the Newly Arrived Resident Waiting Period
- increase funding to the Status Resolution Support Services program
- invest further in settlement support, especially in areas such as employment, health, education, housing and social connection.
This builds on similar recommendations from the Workforce Australia inquiry, the Accelerating Settlement Outcomes report by the Settlement Council of Australia and reports by Settlement Services International.
The new report shows that with adequate amounts of support, migrants are, by and large, able to successfully improve their employment outcomes, establish their families and provide opportunities for their children in decades to come.
Melissa Wong received funding for this report from the ACOSS/UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership, which is co-funded by UNSW and ACOSS members.
Yuvisthi Naidoo received funding for this report from the ACOSS/UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership, which is co-funded by UNSW and ACOSS members.
