Immigrant job satisfaction: the Australian experience
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the level of job satisfaction among Australian immigrants relative to the native-born over time as a measure of their labour market assimilation.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia panel data set, six measures of job satisfaction are tested using the random effects Generalised Least Squares method with a Mundlak correction. Labour market assimilation is defined by “years since arrival” and also via cohort effects.
Findings
The authors find statistical evidence of general job dissatisfaction amongst immigrants in Australia relative to the native-born, driven mainly by non-English Speaking Background (NESB) immigrants, though this dissipates for long-term immigrants, irrespective of English Speaking Background (ESB) or NESB status. Econometric results strengthen these results though improvements over time are only strongly evident for NESB immigrants, whilst results for ESB immigrants remain mixed, and is dependent on the definition of “assimilation”.
Originality/value
This paper extends the immigrant labour market assimilation literature by introducing job satisfaction as a measure of assimilation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute.
Citation
Kifle, T., Kler, P. and Shankar, S. (2016), "Immigrant job satisfaction: the Australian experience", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 99-114. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-02-2014-0053
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited