RESEARCH REPORT Migrant and refugee women: A national study of experiences of, understandings of and responses to sexual harassment in the workplace
Disempowerment and power imbalances, such as those related to race, gender, disability or sexuality, can amplify the impacts of workplace sexual harassment. Despite this, little evidence exists to guide government and employers in preventing and addressing the specific harms of workplace sexual harassment for migrant and refugee women.
This project, conducted by a team at the University of Melbourne led by Professor Marie Segrave, unique both nationally and internationally, explores the experiences of workplace sexual harassment for migrant and refugee women.
The research employed a mixed methods approach. The first report from this project, released in 2023, surveyed 701 women who identified as migrant or refugee and found that 46 per cent of respondents had experienced workplace sexual harassment.
This final report from the project brings together the survey data with the qualitative phase of the study, and involved:
- focus group discussions with 155 migrant and refugee women across Australia
- 25 stakeholder interviews.
Through the stories of a diverse group of migrant and refugee women, this report highlights the complexity of what it means to be “safe” at work. It illustrates the ways in which workplace sexual harassment intersects with other forms of workplace harms, such as racial discrimination and exploitative work conditions.
It shows how these harms can have specific and compounded impacts for migrant and refugee women, especially when, for these women, having and maintaining employment is their top priority.
The report underscores the importance of approaches that recognise the intersections of such workplace harms.
Key practice and policy recommendations
Key practice and policy recommendationsThe report reveals key actions that can be taken to recognise and reduce the impact of intersecting workplace harms experienced by migrant and refugee women. These key actions include the following:
- Reduce siloing of different policy areas that seek to address various forms of workplace harm for migrant and refugee women (for example, migration law and policy, employment law and regulation, discrimination law, criminal justice).
- Evaluate, redevelop and better align the existing reporting mechanisms that respond to aspects of unsafe or exploitative work practices (including labour exploitation, wage theft, discrimination and workplace sexual harassment).
- Invest in safe work services external to employers that can ensure culturally responsive approaches for working women in every state and territory. To respond to intersecting harms, these need to be broad in their remit and could, for example, provide information about women’s rights at work and provide referral pathways for support. They should be available to all regardless of visa status.
- Emphasise proactive and transparent action in response to workplace sexual harassment that ensures women can remain employed and their career progression unimpacted – including anonymity in reporting and reviewing of the use of non-disclosure agreements.
- Extend exit interviews and complaints timelines to capture longer periods following cessation of employment so that women have the opportunity to report once they feel safe in another job or have citizenship or permanent residency.
For more details, see the policy recommendations summarised in the In Brief document for this report.
Read summary & recommendations
Publication details
This work is part of the ANROWS research reports series. ANROWS research reports are in-depth reports on empirical research produced under ANROWS’s research program.
Authors
PROFESSOR MARIE SEGRAVE
Professor and ARC Future Fellow, The University of Melbourne
DR SHIH JOO (SIRU) TAN
Lecturer, The University of Melbourne
PROFESSOR REBECCA WICKES
Professor, Griffith University
DR CHLOE KEEL
Lecturer, Griffith University
NURIA ALARCÓN LOPEZ
Senior Manager – Gender, Harmony Alliance: Migrant and Refugee Women for Change
ISBN: 978-1-922645-92-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-922645-93-7 (PDF)
Suggested citation
Segrave, M., Tan, S. J., Wickes, R., Keel, C., & Alarcón Lopez, N. (2024). Migrant and refugee women: A national study of experiences of, understandings of and responses to sexual harassment in the workplace (Research report, 07/2024). ANROWS.