Put My Skills to Use? Understanding the Joint Effect of Job Security and Skill Utilization on Job Satisfaction Between Skilled Migrants and Australian Born Workers in Australia

The topic of skilled migrants has gained importance in the past decade as they are increasingly becoming one of the main drivers for labor supply in developed countries like Australia. Although there is research on skilled migrants, most have been studied from the perspectives of (un)employment, wage and over-education. Some evidence suggests that skilled migrants are often less satisfied with their job compared to their local counterparts, yet little is known about why these differences exist. Using a nationally representative sample of Australian workers, we examine how two important job characteristics, job security and skill utilization, exert their differential interaction effect on job satisfaction for skilled migrants and Australian born workers. We found a differential moderation effect between job security and skill utilization for skilled migrants and Australian born workers. For skilled migrants, high job security did not lead to positive reaction (i.e., job satisfaction), as this effect was dependent on their skill utilization; while such moderation effect was not present for Australian born workers. This study highlights the need to take a more fine-tuned approach by understanding target sample groups (e.g., skilled migrants) when study the relationship between key job characteristics and job satisfaction. Furthermore, it highlights the importance for organizations to revisit their human resource management strategies and policies to recognize the needs for enhancing skill utilization for skilled migrants

Migrants’ Human Capital in the Workplace: Challenges and Opportunities for a people-based Strategic Human Resource Management.

In recent years, most countries have been involved into a process of social and cultural integration because of an increasing global immigration. A context where this process becomes more visible is the workplace where migrant workers might be seen in two different ways. On the one hand, when high-skilled they are considered as precious resources that could contribute to the organizational success. On the other hand, when low-skilled, migrant workers often undergo a process of discrimination that if lucky gives them the opportunity to work as manual labourers. This happens mainly because even if most migrants are educated and skilled workers with many years of experience in a specific professional field, they often cannot formally certify their knowledge, because of the difficult life, political and religious conditions that have led them to leave their country. Consequently, organizations cannot fully exploit their huge potential. Given the evidence that knowledge is a precious intangible asset that can make the difference on the market, organizations need to recognize the added value that migrants might bring in terms of strategic performance. In this vein, a crucial role is played by the Human Resource function since it can contribute to design and promote working contexts and practices addressed to support migrants in transferring their prior expertise and in using this knowledge to develop new core skills in the workplace. This becomes a priority to align the peculiar potentialities of migrants with those of their colleagues in line with the wider organizational demands. At a larger extent this effort is mainly consistent with the people-based approach to Strategic Human Resource Management described in the chapter