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European immigrants and the Australian labour market: A case study of women from the former Yugoslavia

This research note focuses on an ethnic minority of humanitarian immigrants from the former Yugoslavia in Australia to explore employment-related issues, which Majka and Mullan (1992) and Weiner (1996) suggest are the main indicators of immigrants’ adjustment to a host society. We analyse immigrant women’s labour force participation, their job-search strategies, and the extent to which ethnic informal networks facilitated or impeded their access to commensurate employment. On the one hand, these networks are proven to alleviate poverty, reduce ® nancial and socio-psychological costs of immigration, and lessen the immediate stresses of immigration and marginal social position (Angel and Tienda 1982; Chavira-Prado 1992; Davis and George 1990; Menjivar 1997). On the other hand, well-established ethnic networks may aggravate immigrants’ long-term adjustment if they restrict immigrants in terms of entering mainstream society (cf. Hugo 1994; Pohjola 1991). In Australia, communities from the former Yugoslavia are characterised by strength of family and kin chains (Tisay 1985), providing one reason to explore the extent to which women received ethnic community support in the area of employment and their more general settlement.