Extract C: Unlocking the potential of skilled migrants
Many overseas-born professionals in Australia, particularly those from non-English speaking backgrounds, face significant barriers to entering the careers they trained for. Despite holding advanced degrees in engineering, IT, or medicine from their home countries, a high proportion are underemployed in low-skilled 'survival' sectors such as ride-share driving, hospitality, and retail.
This outcome is largely driven by local employers' reluctance or inability to recognise foreign educational credentials and professional experience, often viewing them as higher-risk or inferior. By establishing smoother recognition pathways for overseas professional credentials, the government could help migrants transition out of low-skilled survival jobs and into high-skilled roles, closing the persistent wage gap between native-born and foreign-born workers.
Source: Employment Policy Institute, 2022
Question
Extract C states: 'by establishing smoother recognition pathways for overseas professional credentials, the government could help migrants transition out of low-skilled survival jobs and into high-skilled roles, closing the wage gap.'
With the help of a labor market diagram, explain how firms not recognising foreign qualifications may lead to some migrant ethnic groups receiving lower pay.
64 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Economics 1.6 The labour market (A-level only), covering 1.6.1 The demand for labour, marginal productivity theory, 1.6.2 Influences upon the supply of labour to different markets, 1.6.3 The determination of relative wage rates and levels of employment in perfectly competitive labour markets, 1.6.4 The determination of relative wage rates and levels of employment in imperfectly competitive labour markets, 1.6.5 The Influence of trade unions in determining wages and levels of employment, 1.6.6 The National Minimum Wage, and 1.6.7 Discrimination in the labour market. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.