Wage Inequality between NES Immigrants and NB Australians: A Social Work Perspective

This research investigates the wage inequality between NES immigrants and NB Australians from a social work perspective. It addresses the gap between the two groups in terms of wage and the social impacts of the wage differentials. The study deploys a systematic approach to analyze the multiple social factors that contribute to the wage gap and recommends appropriate social work approaches that would alleviate the inequality. The research is based on the structural social work theory and radical social work theory.

1. Introduction
 Proofread
 More linking to social work profession
In the past decades, Australia has witnessed proliferation in its population that can be
attributed to the large-scale in-migration (Kosny, Santos & Reid 2017). The Australian
population is composed of 25% overseas born residents of Australia. In 2010, it recorded
the highest per cent age of foreign-born residents and bagged the third position among the
countries with the highest immigrant population (ABS, 2011). Despite the high, number
of foreign population only 16 per cent of the population cannot speak in English. The
number of residents was only 118,000 ten years ago and has added 7,000 per year since
(Salt, 2017).
The assimilation of immigrants into employment market has turned out to be critical in
providing employment to the immigrants along with being profitable for the host country.
However, the immigrants secure lower wage compared to the native employees (Breunig,
Deutscher& To 2017). To alleviate this problem, Australia has devised a range of policies
issued with the aim of bridging the wage gap between these two groups. Popular host
countries like Australia, New Zealand and USA emphasize on skilled immigration that
would help in promoting the assimilation of immigrants into local labour market. The
second objective in this line is to reduce the wage gap between immigrants and native-
born (NB) people (Islam and Parasnis, 2014). However, for the immigrant employees the
limitation in assimilating in the local labour market pertains to the language difficulty and
concomitant communication issues. According to Bernard Salt (2017) recent statistics
demonstrated that the large cluster of the immigrant population residing in the urban
conglomeration in Australia large clusters of newest immigrants to Australia have limited
English proficiency.
There has been extensive research on the issue of wage inequality between the
immigrants and the native-born employees. On the aspect of language proficiency, there
have been studies about the inequality between immigrants migrated from the English
speaking countries and those who have migrated from the non-English speaking countries
(Breunig, Hasan & Salehin, 2013). Lavalette and Penketh’s (2014) study reveals that
language proficiency plays a significant role in wage gain among immigrants. However,

there have been relatively few studies focusing on wage difference between non-English
speaking (NES) immigrants and NB employees. This research, therefore, investigates the
wage inequality between NES immigrants and NB Australians the discourse of social
work. It addresses the gap between the two groups in terms of wage and the social
impacts of the wage differentials. A systematic approach would be deployed to analyse
the multiple social factors will be analysed to ascertain the effects of wage differentials
faced by the NES immigrants and the NB immigrants. Finally, the study would
recommend appropriate social work approaches that would alleviate the inequality.
2. Literature Review
 Need to be more nuanced in analysis here. Is it discrimination or
language proficiency that is the issue here?
 The social work angle needs to be stronger. Position SW more
carefully. eg How does SW practice describe itself when working
with migrant populations? To what extent does the practice
demonstrate appreciation for wage inequality?
 What the gap in knowledge is that you have observed from a SW
perspective? Need a GAP and potential research questions.
 Need more literature from Social Work field
Social injustice has always been an issue in history of mankind. It refers to the
situation in which the dominant population perceives the inequity that leads for
others because of their position in social power dynamics (Hudson, 2017). It also
reflects the way that unjust actions occur in the society, where “equals are treated
unequally” and vice versa (Matthew, 2017). Discrimination connotes to an act of
unfair treatment meted out to a single person or a group based because of their
characteristics. Discrimination is pervasive in the domain of employment,
education and welfare (Moreau, 2010).
In his study, O’Neil (2009) found a strong relation between discrimination and
income inequality. He confirms that a person’s income has implications on their
level of discrimination in the society. To corroborate his argument he provides the

illustration of the income scenario of the blacks for the past few decades that has
plummeted due to the discrimination faced by the Blacks in the society. He
emphasizes the link between discrimination and income inequality and in addition
highlights the impact of various scales. Discrimination faced by an individual can
be understood through the framework of the multicultural approach in social work.
According to the multicultural approach, there are a number of factors that shape
the lives of an individual. The multicultural approach in the social work is
underpinned by the two elements- one is concerned with the self-awareness and
the other is concerned with the skills development (Abrams & Moio, 2009). The
self-awareness perspective emphasizes that individuals need to integrate their
perspectives into the social work practise. A social work practitioner can
encourage the student to be conscious of their worldview during the interaction
with the clients (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). Social work practise inspired from the
multicultural approach emphasizes on developing knowledge about different
cultures and incorporating diversity in the pedagogy to teach social work students
to become aware about their personal orientations. Social workers have been
interested in the examination of the experiences of the people with the objective of
attaining a better insight that is beyond the political motive. This is a useful frame
of reference for the themes emerging from the literature reviewed in this study and
for the longitudinal patterns of those themes over time. Social workers are
interested to study the inequality of wage among the immigrant population in
Australia as it is important to understand the complexities, discrimination and
strains that emerge in the light of wage inequality and the dimensions in which
further exacerbate the ordeals of the migrant population. The lens of this
theoretical approach has been focused on the interplay between the agency of
individuals and structures, particularly the broad structural barriers which
influence and limit the material circumstances of service users. One is that this
theoretical perspective sets up a binary between human beings and structure,
viewing “structure” in a reified manner, as something outside the individual. But
through a recursive process, the social actor creates societal structures and is
produced by these same structures. structural social work theory is limited in its

exploration of an individual’s role as an agent of change on the micro level.
Mullaly (2007, xv), in writing a third edition of a book on structural social work,
acknowledged that in his earlier versions “there was …criticism made that the
chapters on practice were not sufficiently nuanced to address the complexities of
real-world experience.” In fact, the model has been critiqued as contributing to
maintenance of a dualistic approach to micro and macro practice (Fook, 2002).
While there is exploration of micro practice, the emphasis in structural social work
has been on macro practice. It has been attacked for exacerbating a gendered
approach both because of the status differential between primarily male sociology
theorists and female practitioners, and the devaluing of micro practice, which has,
by and large, been women’s domain (Fook, 2002)
In Australia, discrimination, especially racial discrimination, has always been a
social issue. A survey in 2014 has shown that approximately 20% of Australians
has discrimination experience due to their ethnic background, religion, and color.
Commonly, racial discrimination is treated towards Indigenous people by non-
Indigenous people in Australia (Healey, 2014). Apart from this common group,
other groups which experience discrimination include immigrants, religious group
and non-English speakers migrating to Australia (Kosny, Santos & Reid 2017).
Theoretically, social cohesion is significantly affected by racial discrimination
(Bhugra, 2016). This happens quite often towards immigrants in Australia. There
has been hostile attitude towards multi-ethnic immigration and multiculturalism.
Most of non-English speakers migrating to Australia didn’t feel confident in the
government and their loss of faith comes from the inability of government to cope
with discrimination towards this group (Kosny, Santos & Reid, 2017).
In Australia, wage inequality also results from discrimination. The wage gap
between native and immigrant workers have been significantly studied based on
the data collected by Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia

(HILDA) (Chiswick and Miller, 1985; McDonald and Worswick, 1999). The
common findings among these studies show three facts. First, there is the obvious
existence of wage disparity between the NB group and immigrants. Second, the
earnings disadvantage that immigrants faced in Australia is significant. Third,
although the labour market assimilation among immigrants, their wage catch-up is
quite slow.
Socially, some effects of wage inequality include lower opportunity for education,
poor healthcare, and psychological problems. The study from Bergh et al. (2016)
reveals that there is a strong link between income inequality and health and social
problems. Australia is among countries with high income inequality while the
impacts of wage inequality are significant, there has been barely any research
specially on wage inequality between NES immigrants and NB Australians,
especially under the view of sociology (Western et al. 2007). In a similar topic, a
study by Miller and Neo (2003) shows that immigrants’ earning is 15% lower than
that by NB Australians. In another research from Breunig, Hasan and Salehin
(2013), it is found that immigrants coming from English speaking backgrounds
have wage advantage than those coming from NES backgrounds. Therefore,
language proficiency plays an important role in deciding the wage differentials
between NES immigrants and NB Australians. The importance of language
proficiency in wage advantage in Australia was proved in Chiswick and Miller
(1995)’s study where they observed the challenges of immigrants with low
language capacity in taking work instructions, especially in high skilled
employment. Based on the critical review of literature, it has been found that there
is a gap regarding the dynamic of wage inequality between the NB Australians and
the NES Australians. This leads to the research question
 What are the factors that contribute to the wage gap between the NES Australians and
NB Australians?
 Whether there has been appropriate measures sought by the Australian government to
deal with the issue?

3. Methodology
3.1 Structural Social Work Theory
 Explain how this theory supports research on the topic.
According to Chamberlain et al. (2016), theories of social work, profession leads to and
devise such practices that would empower an individual to engage in acts that could
benefit the society. However, Stebbing and Spies-Butcher (2016) criticize that in the way
of accomplishment of social activities, there is a major hindrance facing social workers;
for example, the different culture people, and their associated practices. In treating people
from different cultures, it might raise question on the dignity, and performance of the
social workers, as they must either treat all individuals equally, or treat them on the
cultural basis. It must not create bias in the way of treating people from different cultures,
ethnicities, or religions. Structural social work can be considered as “a social change or
conflict theory” that perceives oppression which help to highlight structuralism’s
significant role in affecting a theoretical discussion in social work practice
(Mullaly&Mullaly, 2007). The thrust of the structural social work theory lies in its
understanding of the relationship between the agency of the individual and the structures
that pose hindrance in the lives of the individuals in realizing their life opportunities. This
theory views the society as composed of group of individuals with conflicting interests
(May & Sleeter, 2010). These groups are engaged in competition for securing the
resources. In the context of the study, this theoretical framework provides an
understanding about the economic structure that limits the opportunities of the NES
Australians in making their mark in the employment market (Valtonen, 2016).

Wood et al. (2013) proposed the structural social work theory which particularly
emphasizes on the moral problems of general public. The theory helps to resolve social
injustice, or the moral problems of the people. Thus, in the area, social workers help those
individuals, that once faced any trauma in their life that makes them become aggressive.
In severe circumstances, it means restricting the individuals, mainly to commit crimes, as
one of the main reasons to indulge in the criminal activities is the inability to get the basic
necessities of life such as education, income or employment.
Willis, Reynolds, and Keleher (2016) discussed another aspect of the theory in which
social work strives to reduce the unnecessary authorization, and implementation of
power, in a society. It mainly includes the political power of the country, as well as,
control over the resources. Thus, due to the deficiency of support of the government, and
the other political parties, it could not be possible to improve the lives of the people. It
needs the government to put those policies into practice, such as providing free education
to the vulnerable communities, or offering employment opportunities to the most talented
sector of the economy.
3.2. Radical Social Work
 Explain why this theory is the best for answering the question.
Chamberlain et al. (2016) proposed the radical social work theory is the aim to improve
the existing living standard for people. They might be locals or migrants from other
countries who seek for shelter, security, and the other basic necessities of life such as
education and employment. Hence, in order to provide their required facilities, it must not
be biased, and must focus on improving the living standards of people of a specific
community. Otherwise, it could not be possible to achieve the ultimate aim of the theory:
transformation of the social or the cultural landscape. Since the concern of radical social
work is improving the lives of people, this is quite appropriate with the given study as the
present study is concerned with ameliorating the condition of the NES migrants in
Australia to entrench in the employment market and overcome their difficulty in
communicating in English. Despite the possible benefits of radical social work theory,
there are range of limitations. The first weakness is the radical approach move away from
move away from materially-based problems and focus upon those such as
bereavement and mental handicap which can arguably be considered universal or

random or potentially so. In such ways (radical) social work may seem less
ambitious, but more honest and less controlling over clients, in contrast to the
possible manipulation or coercion of other social workers. This does not of course
preclude radical social or political action upon material questions by radical social
workers outside their job. The other weakness is the radical social worker may be
able to work within traditional job definitions by maintaining that the job is not his
or her area of real or prime interest, and that this actually lies in some other form
of ‘social work’ done in spare time.
Stebbing and Spies-Butcher (2016) discussed that the ultimate aim of the theory is to bring in
a radical change in society and in everyone’s life. Society is a combination of people who
have various respective cultural values, beliefs and practices. Thus, when social worker wants
to bring change in the society and advocate for social justice, he/she has to aware of culture
differences and develop an understanding in culture sensitivity so as to help establish a
respectful living environment for all.
On the other hand, Fisher et al. (2016) demonstrate the purpose of the theory is to reinforce
the social workers to treat the individuals, irrespective of the class approach. It must not
classify individuals based on material, class or status in the society. Therefore, the theory
focuses on developing living standard for people by improving employment situation or the
proper distribution of income. As a result, it will help to reduce poverty and inequality in
society, which is the root cause of various problems such as poverty, crime and vigilance.
This theory is powerful in challenging the structures of the society that restricts the social
mobility of the individuals rather than locating defect with the individuals in realizing their
social mobility (Brettell & Hollifield, 2014). Since this theory rose from the socialist
ideology, it recognizes the class struggle where different groups are engaged in competition
to accumulate resources for their survival.
Reason for selection of Positivism
The main reason for the selection of Positivism is that it is based on well-defined structures
and well-established rules that result in minimal space for error. Its main limitation is the
inflexibility of design and its main strength is the generalization of findings. Positivism will
be suitable to explore the recent progress of Australia with regards to equity in welfare in
addition to the challenges related to the equity in social welfare in Australia.

4. Research Method
 Needs linking to the methodology.
Among the different approaches to answer the identified research questions, systematic
review is unique in nature as it is an examination of studies about interventions. The rationale
behind the deployment of systematic review is to provide a one-stop shop summary about the
evidences pertaining to the research issue (Karlsson, 2016). This is an effective and efficient
method that can allow the researcher to integrate different and pertinent studies linked with
the topic and review it. Studies will be conducted based on the systematic review as it
involves searching and selecting relevant literature that can be systematically incorporated
into the research. A specific criterion is set to include or exclude a study (Sekaran, &Bougie,
2016). However, the research needs to ensure that the criteria is set and is selection process is
spelled out. Similar methods shall be used for this research study. The research aims to set a
standard for the inclusion of studies so that only relevant and precise studies investigating the
research objectives could be included within the study. To answer the constructed research
questions, systematic review remains one of the best ways to find the source of answers, as
this technique shall allow the researcher to investigate into different studies and conduct
analytical discussion focusing over extracting precise and accurate answers for the study
(Silverman, 2016).

References
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disciplines. Routledge.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction. NYU Press.
May, S., & Sleeter, C. E. (Eds.). (2010). Critical multiculturalism: Theory and praxis.
Routledge.
Petticrew, M., & Roberts, H. (2008). Systematic reviews in the social sciences: A practical
guide. John Wiley & Sons.
Valtonen, K. (2016). Social work and migration: Immigrant and refugee settlement and
integration. Routledge.