Whither the migrant workforce in community (in-home) aged care in Australia?

In responding to the ‘care crisis’, aged care in Australia is undergoing a shift in direction. Historically split between informal care provided by families and institutional care provided by the market and not-for-profit sector; over the past decade community (formal, in-home) aged care provided by government and not-for-profits has grown. Community aged care is now the preferred policy direction. This shift will have a significant impact on the aged care workforce – in particular, the question of who will do this work.

In contrast to the community aged care workforce in other countries, migrants are not a core component of this workforce in Australia. Specifically, migrants whose first language is not English are less likely to be employed in community care than residential aged care. While Australia’s migration system provides a partial explanation for migrant pathways into aged care work, it does not account for differences in the distribution of migrants across residential and community sectors. This paper uses the National Aged Care Workforce Census and Survey to examine these differences. The analysis focuses on migrants from Asia Pacific countries – the largest source countries for Australian migration. These migrants view working in community aged care to be less satisfying than residential aged care; and it does not seem to offer the hours, consistency or capacity for developing work portfolios, or the professional development, required by these workers. Overall, they do not appear to want to work in the community sector, either now or in the future. The Australian example provides an interesting contrast to how in-home care is conceptualised elsewhere. This is not a problem of the potential exploitation of low-wage immigrant communities: it is a problem of how to construct the work so that it attracts migrant workers in order to meet forecast growth in the sector.