Making Sense of Career After Resettlement: Tensions Between Meaning Systems and Career Support for People with Refugee Backgrounds in Australia

Refugees’ longer-term settlement is closely tied to education, employment, and access to decent and meaningful work, yet little is known about how they conceptualise ‘jobs’, ‘career’ and ‘career development’ after resettlement. This qualitative study explored these conceptions among seven people with refugee backgrounds in Australia and consulted them about career supports gaps and recommendations. Distinguishing jobs from careers, participants framed jobs as survival-oriented and contingent, and careers as longer-term, self-aligned pathways offering direction and stability. Their conceptions of career development expanded when prompted to consider contextual pressures, relational obligations, and life responsibilities as part of, rather than separate from, the process. Career support was often experienced as job-facing, invisible, and culturally unfamiliar. The need for culturally responsive, developmentally timed career support involving families, communities, dialogue, and exposure to host-country labour-market expectations is highlighted as part of a sustainable career development agenda. Implications for career theory, practice and research are outlined.