Life satisfaction across cultures: a case of recent refugee arrivals in Australia Val Colic-Peisker Senior Research Fellow AHURI, School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology

RMIT UniversitySlide 2 3-year ARC Discovery project Refugee and employment: the effect of visibility on discrimination ( )

RMIT UniversitySlide 3 ): 'visibly different' from the white-Anglo majority of Australians Three refugee groups: Ex-Yugoslavs (Bosnians) black Africans Middle-East (Iraqis):

RMIT UniversitySlide 4 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

RMIT UniversitySlide 5 Refugee participants: WITH SKILLS WITH FUNCTIONAL ENGLISH IN AUSTRALIA FOR AT LEAST 2 YEARS (median length of residence 8/7/5 years respectively)

RMIT UniversitySlide 6 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?

RMIT UniversitySlide 7 EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS OF OUR SAMPLE (%, N=50x3) Ex- Yugoslav African Middle East Total High School: 12 years TAFE* diploma University degree Post-graduate qualification No answer

RMIT UniversitySlide 8 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]

RMIT UniversitySlide 9 Domains of settlement success / life satisfaction Range 1-4 Ex-YugoslavAfricansMiddle EastTotal 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 satisfaction 2.79 (1.07)2.55 (.94)2.79 (1.02) 2.72 (1.02) Financial satisf (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)

RMIT UniversitySlide 10 Predictors of life satisfaction Ex-Yugoslavs: job satisfaction & acculturation Africans: social support & financial satisfaction Middle Easterners: financial satisfaction & adaptation

RMIT UniversitySlide 11 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)

RMIT UniversitySlide 12 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

RMIT UniversitySlide 13 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

RMIT UniversitySlide 14 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