Occupational attainment patterns and within-group diversity of the ten largest Asian birthplace groups in Australia: a thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Research (MRes) in the Department of Marketing and Management at Macquarie University

Asia-born migrants, who predominantly enter Australia as skilled migrants, contributed half of all permanent settler movements to the country in 2014–15 (Australian Bureauof Statistics 2015). Australia’s immigration policies are targeted at addressing skills shortages in the labour market; thus, understanding the occupational outcomes of migrants is a key component in assessing the success of Australia’s migration policies.However, existing literature on the occupational outcomes of migrants in Australia has tended to overlook the diversity exhibited between and within individual migrant groups, often concentrating on homogenous groupings. This thesis uses data from the 2011 Australian Census, focusing on the 51 sub-major level (2-digit code) occupations under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations. The index of dissimilarity and the Australian Socioeconomic Index (2006) are applied to analyse the occupational attainment patterns of the ten largest Asian birthplace groups in Australia, as well as the diversity within thebirthplace groups by ancestry and gender. The results reveal heterogeneous occupational patterns, with concentrations of persons in high-skilled occupations in most birthplace groups, including Singapore and Malaysia; concentrations of persons in low-skilled occupations in other birthplace groups, such as Vietnam and the Philippines; and bimodal occupational concentrations in birthplace groups such as China and South Korea. However, after standardising for age, English proficiency and education, the results reveal lower proportions of persons in managerial and professional positions across most Asian birthplace groups.Compared to other ancestry groups within birthplace groups, those of European and Australian ancestries have higher propensities to be in managerial positions, while the Chinese and Indian ancestry groups attain the highest weighted occupational status levels.