ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are deeply grateful to every person who had worked in Australia on a temporary visa who was willing to share their experience and generously gave their time to complete the survey, and for some, also participate in a follow up interview.
We are greatly indebted to the stellar research team at MJI, without whom this work would not be possible. Thank you especially to Tessa Sims, MJI Legal Fellow, for her excellent analytical work and management of the data, meticulous eye for detail and deep grasp of the connections between the numbers and government policies. Equal thanks to Rishabh Vats, MJI Research Associate, for his excellent data analysis, command of our digital resources and talented oversight of design and data visualisation.
This study and report were made possible by the generous financial support of:
The Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department's National Action Plan to Combat Modern Slavery 2020-2025 which received grant funding from the Australian Government;
Minderoo which supported this report and further work on analysis and publication of the survey findings through its international human rights program, Walk Free, and provided valuable feedback on an early draft
The Migrant Workers Centre Vic which provided financial and substantial in-kind support for development and delivery of the survey – with particular thanks to Matt Kunkel, Batool Moussa, Sherry Huang and Omar Ghazala for advice and feedback on the survey instrument and dissemination strategy and their assistance to promote the survey to migrant workers.
We thank our colleagues within University of Technology Sydney and UNSW Sydney, and are especially grateful to the UTS Faculty of Law and the UNSW Faculty of Law & Justice and their respective Deans for continuing to support the work of the Migrant Justice Institute.
We are indebted to the many dedicated advocates, experts and organisations across the country who generously gave their time to assist with this project. This report has benefited immeasurably from the wisdom and experience of numerous experts who reviewed earlier drafts and provided valuable feedback. In particular we thank Sharmilla Bargon and Emily Gray (Working Women’s Centre NSW), Jack Boutros (TWU), James Cockayne (NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner), Elizabeth Collett (Chair, Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration Expert Sub-Committee), Jonathan Cook (AWU), Seri Feldman-Gubbay (Redfern Legal Centre), Chris Friend (HSU), Giles Fryer, Natalie James, Jennifer Jones and Rachel Athaide (WestJustice), Matt Journeaux (AMIEU QLD), Matt Kunkel (Migrant Workers Centre), Gabrielle Marchetti (JobWatch), Laura McManus (Office of the Australian Anti-Slavery Commissioner), Miriam Thompson (Cleaning Accountability Framework), Henry Sherrell (Scanlon Foundation) and Moe Turaga, Jenny Stanger and Alison Rahill (Australian Catholic Anti-Slavery Network).
The survey instrument was developed in consultation with a wide range of individuals and organisations that work with migrant workers in Australia, and we are deeply grateful for their input on the survey instrument and dissemination strategy, and for their assistance to reach thousands of migrant workers. In addition to those mentioned above, we thank ACRATH, Austrade, the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, Attorney-General's Department, Australian Council of Trade Unions, Australian Human Rights Commission, Australian Red Cross, Commonwealth Department of Education, Commonwealth Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Consulate General of Canada, Consulate General of France in Sydney, Employment Rights Legal Service, FAIR Hiring Initiative, Fair Work Ombudsman, Fairfutures, Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia, Grattan Institute, Human Rights Law Centre, Immigration Advice and Rights Centre, KO-WHY, KPMG Modern Slavery Team, Migration Institute of Australia, Migration Queensland, Nayonika Bhattarcharya, NSW Office of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Ruth Lopez, Scarlet Alliance, SETSCoP, Settlement Council of Australia, South-East Monash Legal Service, St Vincent's Hospital, Study Queensland, Sydney Community Forum, Tamil Council, Unions NSW, United Workers Union, Uniting Church in Australia - Synod of Victoria and Tasmania and Associate Professor Amelia Thorpe, Professor Justine Nolan and Dr Yao-Tai Li (UNSW Sydney). The survey also benefited from the input of migrant participants in numerous focus groups during its development.
In the international education sector, we are very grateful to Charlotte Long, for her invaluable expertise and assistance in gaining the support of key stakeholders and reaching thousands of international students. We benefited enormously from Charlotte’s passion, strategy and networks that engaged the international education sector in this project. We are also thankful to international students Raghav Motani, Adi Husaini Azahari and William Nguyen and the members of our Student Ambassador Program for their dedication to disseminating the survey to their peers and broader migrant communities.
We thank Universities Australia and numerous other education sector peak bodies that committed resources to supporting their members to promote the survey to international students: International Education Association of Australia, Austrade, English Australia, ISANA, International Student Education Agents Association, Australasian Universities Procurement Network, StudyNSW and StudyMelbourne. Our special thanks to Holly Kissner for seeking endorsement of the survey from the Australasian Universities Procurement Network, and to Tom O’Brien and Maddie Keogh at Austrade for bringing the state Study Hubs on the journey.
We also thank the education providers – universities, TAFEs, university pathway colleges and private colleges – who formally supported this survey: Alliance College, Australian Catholic University, Australian National University, Bond University, Central Queensland University, Charles Darwin University, Curtin University, Edith Cowan College, Edith Cowan University, Flinders University, Greenwich English College, Griffith University, ILSC Sydney, James Cook University, La Trobe College, La Trobe University, Mars Institute, Melbourne Polytechnic, Murdoch College, Murdoch University, Navitas English, Orange College, Polytechnic Institute Australia, Queensland University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, TAFE NSW, TAFE South Australia, Torrens University, University of Adelaide, University of Canberra, University of Melbourne, University of New England, University of Southern Queensland, University of Sydney, University of Tasmania, University of the Sunshine Coast, Western Sydney University, University of Wollongong, University of New South Wales Sydney, UNSW College, University of Technology Sydney, UTS College, Victoria Institute of Technology, Victoria University, and Western Sydney University.
The authors appreciate the work of our translators and survey testers for their essential role in expanding the survey’s reach and cross-cultural accessibility. We extend thanks to Grace Tabar, Thangadurai Kalaimani, Leong Ko, Jorge Turini, Sudhir Shakya, Nischal Niroula, Abhayaraj Puri, Michael (Zhiqi) Tang, Ziyan Lu, Maria Noriega Gomez, Divya Sharma, and Zuzanna Kaczynska.
We are grateful to the contributions of MJI's talented staff members, both past and present, who have greatly contributed to this work. Thank you to Caroline Hill, MJI Operations Manager, for her deft management of all aspects of our work and ever unflappable disposition. Thank you Dr Yulisha Byrow whose statistical expertise guided this project from the initial survey design and set up of the instrument on the Qualtrics platform through to the initial data analysis. We were also fortunate to have Tyler Reysenbach’s foundational contribution to our data cleaning and coding methodology, and her insightful and pragmatic statistical analysis of the data and benchmarking against economic indicators. Her considered review of our draft report was also greatly appreciated.
We are deeply appreciative of the important contributions of other MJI staff, interns and associates throughout the life of this project: Fiona Yeh, Rebecca Payne, Anant Mathur, Riya Roy, Arya Nagar, Shadah Orfinejad, Jacob Norbury, Tiffany Wang, Reem El-Ayoubi, Melissa Mahi and Venn Pienaar.
Special thanks to our communications partner, Watershed Change, whose creativity, expertise and strategic guidance have enabled us to bring this report to life and maximise its impact.
“I hope this survey can help generate change and that in some way it will make it easier for us to continue dreaming of building a better future for both ourselves and Australia.”
— International student from Argentina, 20We hope that by amplifying the voices of migrant workers across Australian workplaces, this report will catalyse the change needed to ensure everyone enjoys safe and fair working conditions in Australia regardless of their visa status.