Australian Multicultural Women's Alliance - AMWA

29/10/2026

26/10/2026

Repost: ABC Sydney

Research shows that migrant women in Australia are 20 per cent more likely than their male counterparts to be over-qualified in their jobs.

The research also shows about 340,000 migrant women workers were employed below their skill level.

There are calls for the appointment of a national commissioner to oversee the skills recognition system for migrants and refugees.

🎤 Nandini Dhir via ABC News NSW

26/10/2026

Migrants contribute to Australia every single day. But too much of that potential is still left on the table.

It was great to speak with SBS News about migrant skills recognition and what our Activate Her Skills work tells us at the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia - FECCA conference: 340,000 migrant and refugee women are working below their skill level in Australia.

The contribution of migrants was a consistent thread through many conversations at the FECCA 2026 - from the Prime Minister’s address in the Great Hall of Parliament House, to Christine Holgate's inspiring address, to the concurrent sessions throughout the conference. The contribution is clear. The recognition hasn’t caught up.

When we recognise migrant women’s skills, the whole country benefits.

SSI - Settlement Services International

26/10/2026

Migrant women are being forced to navigate a fragmented system on their own. And the longer they're away from their profession, the harder it is to get back.

📺 The Australian Multicultural Women's Alliance - AMWA - an initiative of the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia - FECCA, spoke to ABC News about why this has to change.

Farukh was an accountant in Afghanistan. Consuelo had seven years of teaching experience and two education degrees from Chile. In Australia, both had to start again in jobs below their skill level.

They are not alone:
🔹 More than 340,000 migrant women in Australia are working below their skill level�🔹 Migrant women are 20% more likely than migrant men to be overqualified for their jobs�🔹 Recognising an overseas GP qualification can cost around $50,000 and take two years

Australia recruited these women for the skills we need, in health, teaching and beyond.

That's why AMWA and SSI - Settlement Services International are calling for a national Skills Recognition Commissioner to work towards creating a clear, fair pathway.

Thank you, Farukh and Consuelo, for sharing your stories so generously. 💜

AMWA looks forward to working alongside SSI and continuing advocacy for this issue.

📖 Read the ABC News article https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-25/more-migrant-women-in-australia-in-jobs-overqualified-for/107303740

📖 Read the Activate Her Skills report https://amwa.net.au/articles/activate-her-skills/ and join the campaign: activateaustralia.org.au

Women who have migrated to Australia are more likely to be under-utilised in the workforce compared to migrant men, research shows.

24/10/2026

“Australia must build a respectful and responsive system that says, ‘we need your skills and we will find a way to do that’.” - Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, Governor-General of Australia

On Thursday, AMWA (led by FECCA) and our partner SSI joined Her Excellency at Admiralty House for a conversation on Activate Her Skills.

Leaders from government, business, unions and the community came together with women with lived experience to ask one question: how do we make sure migrant and refugee women can work in the professions they trained for.

The case for change
➡️ More than 340,000 migrant and refugee women in Australia are working below their skill and qualification level.
➡️ Migrant women are 20% more likely than migrant men to have their skills underused.
➡️ About two in five professional occupations are in shortage, including health and teaching, the fields many of these women are qualified in.
➡️ Women make up 62% of secondary applicants on skilled visas, but only 35% of primary applicants. Their skills are often not assessed in their own right.
➡️ Nationally, migrant women earn 31% less than Australian-born women with similar qualifications.
➡️ The women we surveyed named the barriers: long delays (59%), high costs (56%), rigid, paperwork-heavy processes (37%) and confusing pathways (27%).

Her Excellency moderated a panel with S*x Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody and 3 women who have lived these barriers: psychologist Rabia Aftab, law graduate Zahra Rezai and teacher Devika Mudaliar. Their stories showed what the data can’t: the years lost, the confidence eroded, and the determination to contribute anyway.

Our recommendations
1️⃣ One national system for overseas skills recognition, overseen by an independent Commissioner
2️⃣ Link migration skills assessments with licensing and employment, for secondary applicants as well as primary
3️⃣ Financial support and a single online skills recognition portal
4️⃣ Skills navigators and employment hubs to guide women into work

This is not a skills gap, it is a recognition gap.

📖 Read the report and join the campaign: activateaustralia.org.au

22/10/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined our perimenopause and menopause webinar and contributed to such a thoughtful discussion.

A special thank you to our expert panellists for helping make this important conversation possible, and to the Australian Government for supporting the event.

📝 Please complete the survey: www.surveymonkey.com/r/SQRJ5DP
🔗 Learn more: Perimenopause information - www.health.gov.au/perimenopause
🔗 Access free translated resources - www.health.gov.au/menopause/translated

We will be sharing the recording of the webinar shortly

Together, we can build understanding and reduce stigma around perimenopause and menopause.

21/10/2026

One of the highlights of for Australian Multicultural Women's Alliance (AMWA)'s was the fireside conversation between Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia - FECCA CEO Prerana Mehta and Padma Raman PSM, who leads the Office for Women in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Padma’s message was clear: progress on gender equality doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from being deliberate. Australia has climbed into the global top 10 because gender sits at the centre of how government spends money and makes decisions, not off to the side as a social policy issue.

She was just as clear that gender alone isn’t enough. Without an intersectional lens, migrant and refugee women stay invisible in data, in leadership and in policy design. If we get it right for migrant, refugee and First Nations women, we’re likely to get it right for everyone.

It was encouraging to hear the National Women’s Alliance model, and Australian Multicultural Women's Alliance (AMWA)’s work within it, recognised as a way to bring women’s lived experience into the rooms where decisions are made. Padma also spoke about skills recognition, visa-related abuse and prevention as areas where that lived experience is shifting policy.

Thank you, Prerana and Padma, for a conversation full of both honesty and hope. The challenge now is to bring the same intentionality to race and culture that has driven progress on gender.

21/10/2026

Last Thursday morning at FECCA 2026 Conference Plenary at the Great Hall in Australian Parliament House, the Prime Minister read out the start of his caucus roll call: Abdo, Albanese, Aly, Ambihaipahar, Ananda-Rajah

Then he said: “There is a link between representation and outcomes.”

A few hours later, in Question Time, we saw that link in action. Ashvini Ambihaipahar MP, Member for Barton, asked a question that led the Prime Minister to speak about migration powering Australia’s growth, adding to our prosperity and building our strength. He spoke about the entrepreneurial spirit migrants bring, their desire to be part of the Australian story, and how our diversity enriches us. And he was clear that the migration debate should never be used to divide.

That is what representation does. The women who know what it is to be talked about in a migration debate are now the ones speaking on the floor of the House.

At Australian Multicultural Women's Alliance (AMWA), we see the same truth every day at community level. When migrant and refugee women lead, the questions change. The priorities change. And the women we work with start to see their own lives reflected in the national conversation.

It matters because the gap is still real. As the PM noted in his FECCA address, drawing on the evidence from our Activate Her Skills work, nearly 350,000 migrant and refugee women work below their skill level, and only 41% are in roles that match their qualifications.

Talent isn’t the missing ingredient. Pathways, recognition and seats at the table are.

The PM also reminded us it took 83 years for New South Wales to elect a woman to the House of Representatives. Our job is to make sure the next generation of multicultural women leaders doesn’t wait anywhere near that long, in Parliament, on boards, in workplaces and in community.

Many stories. One future. Let’s keep making room at the table.

20/10/2026

When the Prime Minister names your organisation in the Great Hall of Parliament House, it’s a moment worth pausing on.

At the FECCA 2026 National Conference, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said:

“I commend the work that you’ve done through the Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance, focusing on ending gender-based violence as well as improving access to healthcare, valuing care work and advancing economic equality and leadership.”

He then went straight to the evidence from our Activate Her Skills report:

“Nearly 350,000 migrant and refugee women work below the skill level that they have… Only 41 per cent work in roles matching their qualifications, and they earn 31 per cent less than Australian born women with equivalent qualifications. So, that is a significant potential for our nation to tap into.”

This is what evidence-based advocacy looks like when it lands. These numbers are not abstract. They are engineers driving rideshare, doctors working as carers, accountants stacking shelves, women whose skills Australia already has but isn’t yet using.

The Government’s $85 million investment in migration skills recognition reform is a meaningful step. Our job now is to make sure it reaches women, because skills recognition systems that aren’t designed with women in mind won’t deliver for them. That means accounting for care responsibilities, cost barriers, language and the confidence gap that years of underemployment creates.

Thank you to the Prime Minister for recognising this work, to Dr. Anne Aly for her leadership as Minister for Multicultural Affairs, and to FECCA (Federation of Ethnic Communities'​ Councils of Australia), Prerana Mehta for your leadership, and for providing a stage that allowed the centring of migrant and refugee women’s voices.

Most of all, thank you to the women who shared their stories with us for Activate Her Skills. You are the reason this data exists, and the reason it is being heard.

Many stories. One future. Let’s make sure every woman gets to write hers.