The employability of skilled female migrants in the Australian construction industry

What is it about?

Skilled female migrants represent an important and untapped source of potential labour for the international construction industry. However, there has been little research into the experiences of skilled female migrants who wish to work in the construction industry. Drawing on employability theory and semi-structured interviews with sixteen skilled female migrants seeking work in the Australian construction industry, findings provide new conceptual insights into the multiple barriers which female skilled migrants have to overcome in improving their employability in the industry. It is also found that these experiences of seeking employment in construction align with the theoretical concept of ‘contextualized employability’ and have potentially profound negative impacts on skilled female migrants’ confidence, hope, health, well-being and family and community relationships. This is despite the Australian construction industry facing a serious labour and skills shortage and being the most gender segregated industry in Australia. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for construction firms and government policymakers to enhance the employability of skilled female migrants in the Australian construction industry. These have relevance to firms and governments in other countries who seek to harness the untapped potential of this under-researched cohort.

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