When Sam Matti came to Australia, he had a bachelor degree in automation engineering and five years of experience working as an engineer at an electric power plant in Baghdad. After fleeing religious persecution in Iraq, where Islamic State was targeting minority Christians, Matti arrived in Australia in 2015. Here, Matti, who speaks five languages, applied for every suitable engineering job – but couldn’t even land an interview.
“I applied for every possible and available position on Seek,” says Matti, now 37.
“The usual response was, ‘Sorry, we found a more experienced person with the right skills’ or no response at all.”
So Matti worked a variety of jobs – cleaning, catering and working in aged care – whatever he could get to help pay the bills.
His experience is not unique. Many refugees who have worked as managers and professionals before arriving in Australia struggle to have their skills and qualifications recognised, and are still experiencing an “occupational downgrade” 10 years after arrival, according to a new report by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS).
About 2,400 humanitarian migrants were surveyed over a 10-year period. The report found 30% of employed women and 19% of employed men had been working in managerial or professional roles before arriving in Australia. That dropped to 17% and 10% respectively after 10 years of residency.
Half of men who had worked in fields such as business, human resources, marketing and ICT in their home country were working as technicians, tradespersons or machinery operators after a decade living in Australia.
For female refugees, the occupational downgrade was even more pronounced. Among those who had been managers or professionals in their home countries, more than two-thirds (67%) were not in paid work after 10 years in Australia. The remainder were mostly working as carers, cleaners, education aides or sales assistants.
The likelihood of women who were in families with children under five being employed was 84% lower than men in the same situation.
Dr John van Kooy, the report’s lead author, said 60% of women and about 37% of men in the study were not employed in the 10th year of the research and were not actively looking for work.
“So not in the labor force at all, which is large,” he says. “But what’s interesting about that group is that many of them indicated that they do, in fact, want a job.
“We know from our analysis that they’re likely facing these sort of multiple challenges related to having their skills and qualifications recognised, building up their English language capability, or dealing with some of the effects of forced migration.”
A 2024 report by national not-for-profit service provider Settlement Services International (SSI) found there was a potential for a “billion-dollar benefit” in the employment of refugees and other migrants thought to have “chronically under utilised skills”.
SSI’s head of strategic relations, Dane Moores, says almost half of permanent migrants in Australia work below their skill level, with humanitarian entrants even more likely to have their skills underutilised.
“Many refugees arrive in Australia with years of professional experience and valuable skills, but they face a system that devalues their expertise and puts up unnecessary roadblocks to formally recognising their qualifications,” Moores says.
“The process to have overseas qualifications recognised is complex, costly and inconsistent, and many refugees find it difficult to meet the rigid documentation requirements.”
After two years Matti landed an internship at a leading construction company – and now works as an operations manager at Australia Post.
“Giving an opportunity to a person can be a life-changing event,” he says.
“I was given an opportunity, and I was able to squeeze every single thing out of it to be able to achieve, you know, better results for myself and my family and society in general.”
