Business and Social Sciences
Business and social sciences | Online ISSN 3067-8919
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Volume 4 Number 1 2026
REVIEWS (Open Access)
Migration, Housing Insecurity and Social Inclusion in Australia: The Intersections of Visa Status, Employment and Access to Social Services among Temporary Migrants
Md Sharif Hossain 1*
Business and Social Sciences 4 (1) 1-13 https://doi.org/10.25163/business.4110995
Submitted: 08 September 2026 Revised: 23 October 2026 Accepted: 29 October 2026 Published: 01 November 2026
Abstract
Australia relies heavily on temporary migration, yet evidence on how temporary visas shape housing security and social inclusion is widely scattered across housing, labour and welfare scholarship. This narrative review draws on a structured search of five academic databases and three Australian institutional sources, run in October and November 2025, and synthesises 58 peer-reviewed and institutional sources published between 2000 and 2025. Using social inclusion and structural vulnerability perspectives, the review examines four linked domains: visa conditions, employment, housing and access to social services. Across the sources, visa status governs access to income support and public services, while visa-linked or insecure work leaves little buffer against high rents. Private rental, shared accommodation and overcrowding recur as responses, and informal networks and community organisations partly fill service gaps. However, only 12 of the 58 sources concern temporary visa holders directly, and just one centres on their housing. Much of the remaining evidence comes from refugee research, general Australian housing studies or international work. Because the corpus is mixed in design and scope, the review therefore cannot quantify how housing insecurity varies between visa categories, and it treats its findings as well-supported pathways rather than measured effects, with the strength of each claim graded by how directly the sources address temporary visa holders. It proposes three research priorities, namely linked administrative data, longitudinal designs by visa category, and studies of landlord and employer behaviour, and it also outlines policy implications for tenancy protection, service-eligibility information and visa transition points for temporary migrants.
Keywords: temporary migrants; housing insecurity; social inclusion; visa status; precarious work; social services; Australia
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