Abstract
One of the features of contemporary society is the increasing global mobility of professionals. While the education industry is a key site of the demand for contemporary global professional migration, little attention has been given to the global circulation of education professionals. Over past decades, immigrant teachers have been an important component of skilled and professional immigration into Australia, there is no comprehensive contemporary national study of the experiences of immigrant teachers in Australia. This article aims to fill this gap and to answer questions about their decision to move to Australia, their experience with Australian Education Departments in getting appointed to a school, their experiences as teachers in the classroom and in their new Australian community. It draws on primary data sources - in the form of a survey of 269 immigrant teachers in schools in NSW, SA and WA conducted in 2008-9 - and secondary sources - in the form of the 2006 national census and Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants in Australia – to provide insights into immigrant teachers in Australian schools, adding also to our understanding of Australia’s contemporary immigration experience.
Highlights
One of the features of contemporary global society is the increasing brain circulation of professionals (Castles and Miller 2009; Goldin et al 2011)
In 2003 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported that western nations like Australia face a serious shortage of experienced teachers within the few years, with teacher shortages most likely in male-dominated secondary specialisations such as physics, chemistry, mathematics and technology studies, and languages other than English (OECD 2003)
A survey of immigrant teachers in Australia we report the results of fieldwork conducted with immigrant teachers from three states
Summary
One of the features of contemporary global society is the increasing brain circulation of professionals (Castles and Miller 2009; Goldin et al 2011). It looks at their immigration experience and their experiences teaching and living in Australia. In the period July 2001-July 2005 Australia lost 5,819 trained teachers to the United Kingdom alone (Miller, Ochs, & Mulvaney 2008) This loss of Australian-trained teachers to other countries adds to demographic factors to create gaps in the teaching labour market. This article aims to fill this gap This issue of cultural difference is central to Australian classrooms because of the cosmopolitan character of the Australian population, a consequence of Australia’s large and diverse immigration program.
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