Life satisfaction across cultures: a case of recent

refugee arrivals in Australia

Val Colic-PeiskerSenior Research Fellow

AHURI, School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

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3-year ARC Discovery project

Refugee and employment: the effect of visibility on

discrimination (2004-2006)

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):

'visibly different' from the

white-Anglo majority of Australians

Three refugee groups:

Ex-Yugoslavs (Bosnians) black Africans

Middle-East (Iraqis):

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Data collection

• Survey of 150 refugees: 50 questionnaire-based face-to-face interviews with respondents from each of the three groups

• 4 focus groups with key informants

• 9 follow-up in-depth interviews with key informants

• Interviews with 40 Australian employers

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Refugee participants:

• WITH SKILLS

• WITH FUNCTIONAL ENGLISH

• IN AUSTRALIA FOR AT LEAST 2 YEARS (median length of residence 8/7/5 years respectively)

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Data analysis• Combining QUALITATIVE (content

analysis, discourse analysis) and QUANTITATIVE techniques (descriptive and inferential statistics, correlations, regression analysis)

• Do poor employment outcomes translate into low life satisfaction?

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EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS OF OUR SAMPLE (%, N=50x3)

Ex-Yugoslav

AfricanMiddleEast

Total

High School: 12 years

28.0 10.0 2.0 13.3

TAFE* diploma 38.0 22.0 32.0 30.7

University degree 26.0 42.0 46.0 38.0

Post-graduate qualification

6.0 26.0 20.0 17.3

No answer 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.7

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Employment niches for refugees: ‘secondary labour market’ (80% works below qualifications)

• Cleaning

• Security

• Aged care

• Meat and food processing

• Farm work

• Taxi driving

• [Settlement assistance / interpreting]

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Domains of settlement success / life satisfaction Range

1-4

Ex-Yugoslav Africans Middle East Total

Mean (SD) Mean (SD)

Mean (SD) Mean (SD)

Health 3.36 (.72) 3.80 (.41) 3.59 (.64) 3.58 (.63)

Employment status 3.18 (1.15) 2.66 (1.29) 2.59 (1.37) 2.81 (1.27)

Job satisfaction2.79 (1.07) 2.55 (.94) 2.79 (1.02)

2.72 (1.02)

Financial satisf.2.36 (1.02) 2.06 (.99) 1.88 (1.01)

2.10 (1.02)

Social support 3.02 (.94) 3.14 (.61) 2.90 (.68) 3.02 (.76)

Australian networks

2.52 (.95) 2.67 (.72) 3.00 (.61) 2.73 (.79)

Acculturation 2.98 (1.11) 3.44 (79) 3.27 (.93) 3.23 (.97)

Adaptation 3.18 (1.10) 3.35 (86) 3.59 (.61) 3.37 (.89)

Discriminat. (lack of) 3.02 (1.00) 2.55 (84) 2.63 (.91) 2.74 (.94)

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Predictors of life satisfaction • Ex-Yugoslavs: job satisfaction &

acculturation

• Africans: social support & financial

satisfaction

• Middle Easterners: financial satisfaction & adaptation

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A comparison with the life satisfaction of the general population

• Life satisfaction of Australians (and population of other Western countries) has been measured to be about 75% SM (scale maximum) over the past decade (Cummins 1996, 2000)

• Our refugee sample had life satisfaction of 64.6% SM. Broken down by group, Bosnians are the most satisfied with the score of 69.6% SM, while Africans and Iraqis have 62 SM and 62.3% SM respectively(Bosnians: an older and predominantly female sample)

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POINTS OF INTERPRETATION• In spite of difficulties, loss of occupational status

and on average low socio-economic status, most people express relative satisfaction with their life in Australia

• The experience of ‘street discrimination’ is not related to general satisfaction

• Those discriminated against still felt Australia is a fair country

• Employment status did not significantly impact on life satisfaction

• The perception of discrimination in the job market did impact on life satisfaction

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Points of interpretations drawn from the follow-up interviews

• For many people, peace and safety is the main concern

• During early resettlement, welfare dependency or underemployment may not (yet) be hard to bear

• A comparison with the pre-resettlement situation and with members of one’s community (and those in the home country) yields relatively high overall satisfaction

• Satisfaction in being able to help relatives overseas• They feel like guests – no sense of social entitlement

in Australia• They are afraid / uncomfortable to state

dissatisfaction • A strong pragmatic focus and resilience

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Concluding methodological points of caution

• Our sample is not representative of refugee communities (only skilled people)

• Life satisfaction, with its ‘components’ and measurement, is a western concept – it may not work that well cross-culturally

• This is a picture of recent refugee arrivals – things may change later