Asian Migrant Workers Often Victim of Racism in Finance, IT Jobs

A survey made by Balance Recruitment in December showed that 30 per cent of workers in Australia's IT and finance sectors experienced racism. The discrimination was particularly felt by migrant workers from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and China.

However, the feeling of racial discrimination was noticed also across several ethnic backgrounds such as Anglo-Saxons, African, subcontinental and southeast Asian migrant workers.

Paul Foster, joint managing director of Balance Recruitment, said that while the problem of racism in hiring practices is significant, majority of their clients do not discriminate on racial grounds. However, he admitted that there are many examples of which he has direct knowledge or through anecdotes. Mr Foster said that some of the stories made his skin crawl.

The findings, ironically come at a time that Australia is suffering from a shortage of workers, particularly in its resources sector, that the country has to hire foreign workers to fill in the gap.

Despite the skills shortage, a 2008 report by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission and the Victorian Multicultural Commission found that one of the difficulties experienced by foreign migrant workers is that their overseas work experience is often not recognised in Australia.

The report, titled Harnessing Diversity, acknowledged that blatant racism and name-calling have been replaced by more subtle, entrenched and difficult to identify and deal with discriminatory practices.

One example is having an Arab-sounding name. Some recruitment agencies even recommend migrants who have such problems to change their names to get a job interview.

Among the recommendations of the report are for the federal government to reduce discrimination in its recruitment and promotion practices within public service and active support for migrant job seekers. The latter could be through professional bridging programmes, workplace mentoring and helping with cost of upgrading qualifications and relocation expenses.

Deloitte Access Economics stressed that the time of competing for jobs and jealously guarding Australia's labour market is over, but should be replaced with an outlook that skilled workers are difficult to find.

Deloitte pointed out that Australia's natural population growth rate and current immigration policies could not sustain the level of workforce growth needed by the country and future projects, particularly in the resources sector, could be at risk if companies are hampered by outdated and irrelevant immigration policies.

"The land of the fair go is an illusion for many migrants," warned Dr Helen Szoke, chief executive officer of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, in an article at The Age.

"It can only become a reality with practical initiatives that breaks through the systemic and often internalised racism that still exists. We know from more than 30 years of equal opportunity laws that treating everyone the same doe not deliver real equality," she added.