Chinese International Graduates in the Australian Labor Market

Abstract

Wellbeing has been argued as an important aspect of employability; however, little has been known about the wellbeing of international graduates in the host labor market. This study aimed to explore the association between employability capitals and wellbeing of Chinese international graduates when they develop their careers in the Australian labor market. A capitals-based approach to employability and the PERMA model of wellbeing were applied as the conceptual framework. This chapter deployed a qualitative approach to explore how different capitals (e.g., human, social, cultural, psychological, identity, and agentic capitals) influenced the graduates' wellbeing in the Australian labor market. Fourteen Chinese international graduates participated in in-depth interviews. The findings revealed that the six capitals influenced the participants' wellbeing differently in terms of PERMA; the contributions of several capitals to the participants' wellbeing depended on the fields, and both subjective wellbeing and accomplishment were highly individualized.