This 27-year-old Vietnamese woman has lost count of the number of applications she has submitted. His two years of experience within the audit firm EY Vietnam, as well as a master’s degree in a globally respected field (information systems) obtained at a prestigious university do not seem to have contributed much to his job search in Australia. .
Most often, unlike the rejection letters she receives, she gets no response.
“I have never experienced such panic,” Phuong said VnExpress International. “There were times when I doubted whether I would ever find a job here.”
Since graduating in June 2023, it has been 9 months of hard work. Phuong was eventually offered a position as a strategic analyst with a land consultancy company associated with the Western Australian state government in Perth, a small city 3,419 km from Melbourne.
Phuong’s experience highlights the wider challenges faced by holders of temporary tertiary visas in Australia when seeking employment in the country after their studies.
The 2022 Graduate Outcomes Survey, conducted by the Australian Government’s Learning and Teaching Quality Indicators Suite, found that 28.5% of international students with an undergraduate degree in Australia had remained unemployed for at least six months after graduation. For those with international postgraduate research qualifications, the percentage was 14.4%.
In other words, around two in seven international undergraduate students and one in seven international postgraduate research graduates in Australia found themselves unemployed six months after graduating.
Moin Rahman, a 28-year-old Bangladeshi graduate of the University of Queensland, found himself in exactly this situation. Although he submitted applications for more than 80 job offers, he had difficulty securing a full-time position in civil engineering, his field of study at university.
“It has a psychological impact,” said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) he was quoted as saying.
Despite being on a temporary graduate visa, Rahman said he encountered “friction” that prevented him from progressing beyond casual and part-time employment.
“If by some miracle I managed to get an interview, I would be asked about my visa status,” he said.
“When I said I’m an international student but have full-time working rights, I shrugged my shoulders and all the previous qualities that really made the employer interested in me fell away. been overwhelmed by this fact alone.”
The struggle persisted for some international graduates even after securing employment, as they often settled for positions with lower salaries than their local counterparts.
A Grattan Institute report titled “Graduates in limbo: International student visa journey after graduation,” unveiled in October 2023, highlighted that “only half [of international graduates in Australia] are in full-time employment, most are in low-skilled jobs, and half earn less than A$53,300 (US$34,964) a year.
For a family of four, monthly costs are estimated at $4,037 without rent. Estimated monthly costs for a single person are $1,144.2 without rent, according to Serbia-based statistics site Numbeo.
Meanwhile, the median rent for all homes across the country is $601 per week, which equates to $31,252 per year, according to the most recent data from CoreLogic.
This income is significantly lower than that of domestic graduates and essentially aligns more closely with the income of working holidaymakers, most of whom come to Australia to travel.
The report also found that almost 75% of temporary graduate visa holders had incomes below the median for Australian workers in 2021.
Specifically, international graduates with a postgraduate degree in business management earned approximately A$58,000 less per year than their domestic counterparts with the same qualifications.
Similarly, postgraduate computer science and engineering graduates faced an annual income gap of around A$40,000 compared to domestic graduates.
International students who completed an undergraduate degree in engineering or computer science earned A$12,000 less per year than their Australian peers, the report found. The gap for business students was around A$10,000 per year.
In discussions with his colleagues from India, Thailand and the Philippines, Phuong learned that it was “difficult and rare” for them to get a salary comparable to that of Australians.
In addition to being underpaid, international graduates in Australia often find themselves taking jobs that do not require higher education and do not match their areas of academic expertise.
A joint study by the Australian Financial Review (AFR), Deakin University and the University of Adelaide showed that only 36% of 1,156 international graduates surveyed from 35 universities secured full-time employment in their field of studies at the end of their studies.
In Australia, around 40% of international graduates ended up in positions considered low-skilled, including in sectors such as retail, hospitality, or in roles such as housekeeping or driving.
Ruva Muranda, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences in 2018, said she was expected to work in a warehouse until the first months of 2020.
“I was really depressed,” she said. “It made me feel like I wasn’t good enough. It made me feel very ‘other’.”
As she observed her colleagues progress in their careers, obtain jobs, move up the career ladder, acquire vehicles, buy homes, and realize their professional aspirations, her sense of stagnation intensified.
“It feels like we’re being held back at the starting line.”
With her options limited, Swastika Samanta, who has a master’s degree in environmental management, said she worked in casual and part-time jobs during the duration of her temporary graduate visa.
“Beggars can’t be choosers. You take the best job offered to you,” she said.
Fear of rapid replacement
Lack of English proficiency is a barrier for many international graduates seeking employment in Australia.
The situation is evident even in Victoria, the state with the largest proportion of workers from non-English speaking countries, where these people still make up only 28.8% of the total workforce, according to the labor market report Australian for migrants. published by the Australian Government in October 2023.
Visa uncertainties also make employers hesitant to hire foreign graduates.
Almost all employers surveyed expressed a preference for hiring graduates with permanent residence visas.
Monash University researcher Dr Thanh Pham said ABC: “They (employers) assume that international students cannot stay in Australia for long and are unaware of other visa routes like bridging and residency visas… When I interviewed them, they explained that if they hire an international student, they will. I have to hire someone new to replace them in a few years.”
This policy was precisely the obstacle Phuong encountered during his job search, a realization that only came to him after accumulating a lot of time and experience.
Phuong looked for job opportunities in the oil and gas industry as it is an area she is passionate about and has experience in. “However, employers tend to favor local candidates for positions in this sector in Australia, attributing their preference to the role’s involvement with highly qualified profiles. confidential information regarding mineral and gas resources – products for which Australia is renowned and considered highly sensitive,” she said.
In some cases, Pham said she found employers discriminated against international students based on what she called a culture of inclusion.
The Deakin University and UTS report also shows employers are reluctant to hire international graduates due to higher costs, requiring additional on-the-job training to acclimate them to the Australian working environment.
Therefore, in the absence of an immediate skills shortage, employers show a preference for local graduates, in an attempt to avoid the sponsorship process seen as lengthy, costly and often exasperating.
People arriving from countries with low representation in Australia face additional challenges, particularly in establishing connections within their ethnic communities.
According to the Australian Department of Education, as of last October, the country was home to approximately 768,000 international students, with the largest groups coming from China, India and Nepal.
A more difficult future
Taking into account the changing economic environment and additional considerations, Australia will, from mid-2024, adjust its post-study employment rights policy for international students, reducing the length of time for which international graduates can stay in the country for professional purposes.
Previously, the Australian government had extended the duration of post-study work visas for undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in certain programs, allowing them to stay for up to 4-6 years depending on their level of studies.
These durations will now return to the original 2-3 years, according to the announcement made by the Australian Department of Education.
Furthermore, the age limit for applicants has been lowered from 50 to 35 years and there will no longer be any possibility of extension of work rights after studies, except for those who have completed their studies in a regional area . Around 350,000 people now hold graduate visas in Australia.
In the context where many employers are hesitant to employ foreign graduates for fear of uncertainties related to their visa status, this policy could reduce employment opportunities for international graduates in the country.
However, according to some, it also has positive aspects, which ensure more sustainable development for students and for Australia itself.
Political analyst Andrew Norton of the Australian National University expressed general support for the reforms of the Times Higher Education: “It’s a better, fairer system for the students themselves and it delivers better outcomes for Australia as a whole.”
He added: “If you are relatively young and have a good start to your career, the prospects will be reasonably good.”
This positive outlook resonated with Phuong, even amid the challenges she faced. She remains optimistic about the job search process in Australia for international students.
“I consider myself luckier than many others I’ve met,” she said. “And while the future remains uncertain, I am determined to do whatever it takes to overcome any further obstacles that come my way.”
