'Surrounded with so much uncertainty': asylum seekers and manufactured precarity in Australia. Issue 5 (4th April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: van Kooy, John; Bowman, Dina
• Is Part Of: Journal of ethnic and migration studies. Volume 45:Issue 5(2019)
• Page Start: 693
• Page End: 710
• Publication Date: 2019-04-04
• Subjects: Asylum seekers -- economic security -- employment -- migration -- precarity; Ethnic relations -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Emigration and immigration -- Periodicals; Assimilation (Sociology) -- Periodicals; 305.8005
• DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1427563
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-183X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In Australia, nearly 30, 000 asylum seekers have the legal right to work, but their temporary and conditional migration status exposes them to work-related precarity. This article draws on a small qualitative study that examined asylum seekers' experiences of seeking work and achieving economic security. Over an 18-month period, 29 semi-structured interviews with asylum seekers who had work rights in Australia were conducted. It provides insights into how restrictive immigration policies manufacture precarity through short-term, conditional visas, resulting in employer risk aversion, segmentation into insecure work, and in-work instability and mistreatment. Asylum seekers manage their experiences and feelings of pervasive insecurity through individual coping and survival strategies.