Welcome to the Winter edition of the Migrant Worker Research Quarterly!
This edition highlights a range of topics and events including:
- an upcoming seminar with international guest, Panos Theodoropoulos
- upcoming events surrounding forced displacement in the LGBTQIA+ community
- opportunities to engage with workers in the gig economy and more!
Catch up on the latest research, register for events, and find out how to get involved.
News and events
Seminar – The Precarious Migrant Worker with Panos Theodoropoulos
15 July 2025 | Solidarity Hall, Carlton | 6-8 PM
The Migrant Workers Centre, New International Bookshop (NIB) and the Search Foundation warmly invite you to a public seminar exploring Panos Theodoropoulos’ new book, The Precarious Migrant Worker.
2025 Queer Displacements Conference
4-5 Sep 2025 | Victoria University | City Tower Naarm (Melbourne) Australia
Hosted by the Forcibly Displaced People Network (FDPN), this biennial event is the only one of its kind in the Asia-Pacific focused on LGBTIQA+ forced displacement. The 2025 conference will address regional challenges where queer identities are criminalised and protection is limited, advancing advocacy, leadership, and collaboration for change.
Food Heritage Focus group
Do you like to cook Chinese food and is your cooking inspired by older relatives and friends? If yes, a research team from RMIT and the University of Melbourne would love to hear from you! Join them by participating in a focus group where we will be talking all things Chinese food related!
If your cooking is inspired by Chinese food from your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends, we want to hear form you!
- Chinese -Australian (citizens and permanent residents) who are between 18 and 30 years of age are invited to participate in a research project.
- The project involves taking part in a focus group interview with 3 or 4 other people and bringing along 3-5 photos and/or 10 seconds video from your smartphone of food heritage (e.g., dishes, cookware, places where you cook, etc.) inspired by your older relatives and/or friends.
- Enquiries: Prof Catherine Gomes ([email protected]), Dr Jing Qi ([email protected]) or Dr Wilfred Wang ([email protected]).
- This research has been approved by the RMIT University Human Research Ethics Committee (Ref: CHEAN 2025-28590-27200).
Survey for Platform Workers
The University of Adelaide is undertaking a nation-wide study of the working conditions and health of people who obtain work from digital platforms. Participants will go into the draw for a chance to win a $100 gift card.
To take or share the short survey, click here
Are you an international student working in the gig economy?
Whether you drive for Uber, deliver for DoorDash, or take jobs on Airtasker — your experience matters.
Thilini Bandara, a PhD Candidate at the UWA Business School (University of Western Australia), is exploring how international students in Australia engage with gig work, and how it connects to their broader work-life balance and study goals.
For more information, please register your interest here or contact Thilini at t[email protected]
Australian Human Rights Commission (2025), Speaking from Experience: What needs to change to address workplace sexual harassment, Sydney: Australian Human Rights Commission.
The Australian Human Rights Commission’s Speaking from Experience report highlights the systemic barriers faced by people who experience workplace sexual harassment and calls for urgent reforms. Based on testimonies from over 300 people, the report outlines 11 key recommendations, including limiting the use of non-disclosure agreements, increasing funding for specialist services, and introducing penalties for employers who breach their positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth). It marks the final recommendation from the 2020 Respect@Work report.
Barratt, T., Veen, A. and Goods, C., (2025) (Institutionally) working Australia's gig economy into employment: Analysing Menulog's modern award application. Journal of Industrial Relations, p.00221856251343386.
This paper analyses Menulog’s 2021 application to create a new modern award for its food-delivery workers, aiming to classify them as employees rather than contractors. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the case tested a rarely used provision of the Fair Work Act and challenged norms in the gig economy. Using a qualitative socio-legal approach and the lens of institutional work, the paper explores how industrial relations actors and institutions—particularly the Fair Work Commission—shaped the process. The case highlights the difficulties of integrating gig work into Australia’s industrial relations system and the broader challenges of addressing neoliberal labour practices.
Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney 2025, Countering misinformation about refugees and migrants: An evidencebased framework, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney.
This report explains how misinformation harms social cohesion and democracy, especially by targeting refugees and migrants in Australia. False claims, often spread by bad-faith actors, create fear, reinforce discrimination, and weaken public trust and democratic debate. As misinformation grows online, its consequences extend beyond affected groups and damage society as a whole.
To help counter this, the report presents a simple, evidence-based framework based on behavioural science. It explains how people are influenced by misinformation, especially when they are emotional, trust the source, or see repeated false claims. It also offers seven engagement tips, such as using trusted messengers, appealing to values, acting quickly, and using humour. Overall, the report is a guide to help people respond effectively to misinformation and build more accurate, inclusive public conversations.
Cockett, J. and Willmott, B. (2023) The gig economy: What does it really look like? London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
This report finds that the UK’s gig economy is smaller than often assumed, with about 1.4% of the workforce involved, and most participants using it to supplement income rather than relying on it as their main livelihood. However, gig work is more likely to be a primary income source for people from ethnic minority and disabled backgrounds, likely due to barriers in traditional employment.
The report calls for policy reform to improve employment protections. Key recommendations include: abolishing the confusing ‘worker’ status to simplify employment classification; creating a well-funded single enforcement body to better regulate labour standards; and promoting inclusive, flexible, and good-quality jobs across the broader economy to ensure gig work is a choice, not a necessity.
Boufkhed, S., Thorogood, N., Ariti, C., and Durand, M.A. (2024). ‘They treat us like machines’: migrant workers’ conceptual framework of labour exploitation for health research and policy. BMJ Global health, 5;9(2):e013521.
This article presents findings from a qualitative study that explored how Latin American migrant workers in low-paid, manual jobs in London understand and experience labour exploitation. Through interviews and group mapping exercises, the study developed a conceptual framework that reflects how workers themselves define exploitation. It identified three core areas: poor employment conditions and lack of protection; health and safety and psychosocial risks; and a third, often overlooked dimension in current health assessment tools: disposability and abuse of power, or what workers described as being treated as ‘less than human’. Participants shared experiences of being coerced, denied basic rights, and exposed to mistreatment, including sexual harassment. The study shows how systemic and everyday abuses intersect in the lives of migrant workers, and why their perspectives must shape the way we define, measure, and respond to exploitation in health policy and research.
Callout for research materials
Are you interested in having your research featured in our Quarterly?
Or perhaps you'd like to collaborate or volunteer with us?
Get in touch with Sherry Huang at [email protected]
