The interacting effects of religion and birthplace on the labour market outcomes of Asian immigrants in Australia

Immigration from a diverse range of source countries has been instrumental in increasing the diversity of religions among Australia’s population. Immigrants’ religious adherences may affect their labour market outcomes and integration into the host society more broadly by influencing their accumulation of human capital, work and family-related attitudes and values, social networks, and experiences of discrimination. Such effects of religion may differ between immigrants from different countries of origin. This paper examines the effects of religion and birthplace on unemployment, labour force participation and occupational status using 2016 Australian Census data, paying particular attention to the largest Asian immigrant groups. The results show that religion has stronger effects on labour force participation for females than for males. Christians tend to have higher employment and occupational status than Muslims and Buddhists. The results show the variations in labour force participation and occupational status between people with different religions are generally wider within immigrant groups than among the Australia-born, and the pattern of variation differs between Asian country of birth groups. The study demonstrates the importance of religion to the delineation of the heterogenous paths of economic integration of immigrant populations.