Racism and white privilege: Highly skilled immigrant women workers in Australia

Skilled immigrant women represent a source of skills for the Australian economy. However, political and historical choices have formed and reinforced new emergent diasporic spaces in a country which remains marked by the British Empire’s heritage. Drawing on 31 qualitative interviews, this article focuses on the career journeys of skilled immigrant women from the UK, India, China and the Philippines in a White Anglo-dominant society. By marking and de-neutralizing the racialized nature of Australian working spaces, the study examines how racism operates within Australian working spaces. It also addresses how White privilege dominates the Australian job market. By providing empirical data about highly skilled immigrant women’s careers, this article sheds light on how racism and White privilege affected all the skilled immigrant women’s career experiences, as there was prejudice and racism in hiring non-White women. The article, therefore, contributes to extending the literature on skilled immigrant women and racism in Australia.