Owning Home, Finding Belonging: Relational Meanings of Homeownership for Migrant Healthcare Workers in Australia

ABSTRACT Migrant healthcare workers in Australia find themselves at the centre of three intersecting concerns, often presented as ‘crises’ in contemporary discourse: the ‘care crisis’, the ‘housing crisis’ and the ‘migration crisis.’ Yet their own perspectives on these issues are rarely foregrounded. This paper explores the role of homeownership in the lives of migrant healthcare workers in Australia. Drawing on data from in‐depth interviews with 37 overseas‐trained doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, this paper interrogates homeownership as a turning point in migration trajectories, a milestone in the migrant life‐course, and a facilitator of transnational care. Grounded in a relational mobilities framework, this paper foregrounds the importance of emotions, care and community in understanding home, housing and migration. For these skilled migrants, the meaning of homeownership is shown to be deeply relational, embedded in the process of social and professional recognition and relationships of care. In the context of skilled worker shortages in Australia and the centrality of homeownership to the ‘Australian Dream’ and Australia's asset‐based welfare system, and disquiet about links between migration, housing and social cohesion, this paper argues for a more nuanced appraisal of the role of homeownership in establishing a sense of belonging and inclusion in Australian society.