Spoken English does matter: Findings from an exploratory study to identify predictors of employment among African refugees in Brisbane (original) (raw)

This article presents findings from an exploratory survey aimed to identify predictors of employment for Sudanese, Somali, and Congolese former refugees living in the greater Brisbane area in 2009-2010. Quantitative data was collected from 56 participants (25 employed and 31 unemployed men and women). We found that only spoken English language proficiency increased the odds of being employed. Interestingly, we found no statistical significance between employment and demographics (i.e., age, gender, or marital status), length of residence in Australia, time spent in refugee camps, English proficiency (reading, writing or numeracy), or level of education. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest improvements to policies along with ways to assist refugee employment.