13/04/2021
How the pandemic has hit Australia’s fastest-growing migrant group – Monash Lens
Since then, research indicates that the pandemic has deepened inequality for
temporary and undocumented migrant workers, who are disproportionately employed
in precarious and insecure work.
In early 2021, media appetite for COVID-related stories of economic hardship has
seemingly given way to news of vaccines, economic recovery, and Australia’s (to date)
comparatively effective containment. Yet we must continue to ask questions about the
ongoing impacts of the pandemic, and to address inequality and insecure employment
if promises of “national economic recovery” are to be sustained.
Nepal-born workers were employed in one of the highest-risk settings – aged
care – as predominantly casual employees, or were working in insecure
hospitality and cleaning roles well below the minimum wage.
The outbreaks in the aged care and cleaning sectors in NSW and Victoria during 2020
highlight the transmission of the virus in workplaces by precarious workers – who often
must work across multiple jobs and locations to make ends meet.
In Australia, as in much of the world, women migrants and migrants of colours are
more likely to be in low-paid, feminised and precarious work. Those working in
essential industries such as healthcare, aged care, childcare, cleaning, horticulture,
agriculture and food production are at higher risk of exposure to COVID-19, as they’re
unable to work from home due to the hands-on nature of their job.
They’re also less likely to miss work because they cannot afford the lost wages, or to
have a nancial safety net allowing them to isolate and practise safe social distancing.
Similarly, those in the precarious service sector, particularly the shut-down hospitality
and retail industries, were the rst to lose their jobs.
International students in these industries experience endemic levels of wage theft by
employers, leaving them with little savings due to stolen wages and super.
https://lens.monash.edu/@politics-society/2021/04/12/1383007/tracing-the-impacts-of-the-covid-pandemic-on-australias-fastest-growing-migrant-…
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