Improving employment and education outcomes for Somali Australians

Recent decades have seen a substantial increase in the arrival of Australian migrants from Somalia and other countries within the Horn of Africa. Around half of the 16,000 Somali Australians currently live in Victoria, forming a diverse and relatively young community in and beyond Melbourne. Somali Australians have brought with them a belief in the importance of education, and they access both vocational and higher education at higher rates than other Australians. Despite these high levels of tertiary education access and participation, outlooks are sub-optimal, with relatively high levels of unemployment and socio-economic disadvantage. What explains the gap between education access and employment outcomes, and how might we improve the overall employment outcomes of Somali Australians?