An increasing number of educated mainland Chinese have been migrating to Australia. In the past decade alone, the 606,450 mainland Chinese-born population living in Australia have doubled; and, by the end of June 2017, they were the second largest cohort (8.5 percent) amongst the overseas-born population.  This was largely due to the liberalization of Australia’s immigration policy to address labour market shortages in key sectors and occupational categories , and aggressive strategies by Australian higher educational institutions to attract higher-fee paying international students.

The mainland Chinese who arrived via the skilled migration stream generally seek high status and high paying professional occupations. Since 2015, the top occupational categories for this cohort consistently have been accountants, computer professions, civil engineering, auditors, and registered nurses.  

Yet, skilled mainland Chinese migrants face numerous documented barriers in Australia’s labour market. While the precise size of their economic barriers, relative to the general population, is a subject of intense debate, what is generally agreed is that they achieve lower returns to education (i.e. converting their educational outcomes to comparable wages) than the non-visible minority population.  Some studies have suggested this penalty can be as a high as for every 1 dollar earned by a member of Australia’s non-visible minority population in a comparable occupational position, a mainland Chinese migrant will earn 70-75 cents.  Moreover, mainland Chinese migrants are heavily underrepresented at the upper echelons of large organizations in Australia.  

This suggests, in sum, Australia has untapped human capital that is not being fully utilized. Left unattended, this will impact this cohort’s long-term social and economic integration, and reduce the overall capacity for Australia to reach its full economic potential in the long-run. This is notably alarming given the median age of this cohort is 33.6 years, suggesting they have the capacity to actively contribute to Australia’s labour market for several decades.