Immigrants In Australia Research Articles

“The beat will make you be courage”: The role of a secondary school music program in supporting young refugees and newly arrived immigrants in Australia

This article documents one case in a multi-case study of the role of music in refugee and newly arrived immigrant children’s and young people’s lives within a number of school, home, and community contexts in Sydney, Australia. It explores the ways in which a range of music activities operating within a specialist secondary school catering for newly arrived immigrants and refugees contribute to students’ processes of acculturation and integration within the host culture. A number of school-based musical experiences that provide opportunities for cultural maintenance, cross-cultural transmission, and verbal and non-verbal communication are described. The development of interpersonal connections, social cohesion, and student empowerment through varied learning, teaching, and performance opportunities is examined. A major outcome for students is a feeling of belonging, both to communities of practice within the school and to the wider Australian community, as well as to a global music community disseminated through various technological media.

The Development of Young Children of Immigrants in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States

In spite of important differences in some of the resources immigrant parents have to invest in their children, and in immigrant selection rules and settlement policies, there are significant similarities in the relative positions of 4- and 5-year-old children of immigrants in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Children of immigrants underperform their counterparts with native-born parents in vocabulary tests, particularly if a language other than the official language is spoken at home, but are not generally disadvantaged in nonverbal cognitive domains, nor are there notable behavioral differences. These findings suggest that the cross-country differences in cognitive outcomes during the teen years documented in the existing literature are much less evident during the early years.

Difference makes the heart grow fonder: Perceiving intergroup difference enhances minority groups’ willingness to integrate

Three studies examined how minority group members’ acculturation strategies are shaped by the extent to which they perceive differences between their cultural values and the values of majority society. In line with the creative distinctiveness hypothesis (Spears, Jetten, Scheepers, and Cihangir, 2009), perceived difference among country migrant workers in China was positively associated with endorsement of an integration strategy (Study 1). Among Chinese immigrants in Australia (Study 2), a positive association was found between perceived difference and willingness to integrate only among those who were less identified with the superordinate category. Study 3 manipulated Asian international students’ perceived cultural value difference between their group and the Australian majority, and replicated Study 2 findings. Especially among those who are less committed to the superordinate group, then, knowing how the minority group is different can facilitate willingness to integrate into the majority culture.

Suicide of first-generation immigrants in Australia, 1974–2006

This study analysed suicide rates among first-generation immigrants in Australia from 1974 to 2006, and compared their suicide risks against the Australian-born population. It also examined the associations between the suicide rates of immigrants from 23 selected countries of birth during 2001-2006, and in their home countries. Age-standardised suicide rates (15+ years) and rate ratios, with a 95 % confidence interval, during 1974-2006 were calculated for country of birth (COB) groups. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was calculated between COB-specific immigrant suicide rates during 2001-2006 in Australia and in their homelands. Suicide rates showed a decreasing time-trend among all COB groups for both genders in Australia. The lowest suicide rates were found during 2004-2006, compared to other year groups. Throughout the study period, males born in Eastern, Northern and Western Europe and New Zealand had the highest suicide rates in Australia. For females, the highest rates were among those born in Western Europe and the UK (including Ireland). Male and female migrants born in North Africa and the Middle East, Southern and Central Asia and South East Asia showed the lowest suicide rates. There was a significant correlation between male immigrant suicide rates by COB and the rates of their home countries. The patterns of suicide rates in immigrants were influenced by the social and cultural norms of their COB. The overall decrease in suicide risk among immigrants was particularly evident in males.

Immigration and School Choice in Australia

This article examines the relationship between the share of immigrants in a locality and private versus public school choices of natives and immigrants in Australia. Using the 2001 Australian Census data, it finds that private school attendance among native-born Australians is higher in localities with a higher share of immigrant populations. Immigrants’ private school attendance is lower where the share of their like-type immigrants is higher. These effects vary with the presence of a common language and ethnic background between the natives and the immigrants. Overall, the results suggest the possibility of a ‘flight’ from unfamiliar cultures in the Australian school system.

Democratic Participation in a Globalised World: Immigrants in Australia in the Early 21st Century

This study considers patterns of political participation in Australia in the early 21st century, using recent data from the Australian Election Study. The paper reassesses how Australia fits within broader patterns of political participation and investigates major predictors of participation in Australia to see how these have or have not changed in a globalised era that has brought new challenges. Factors considered include socio-demographic variables, such as education, age, gender, birthplace and place of residence and also attitudinal orientations towards politics, such as political interest, efficacy and trust. The paper pays particular attention to those who have moved to Australia from other countries. One of the most important findings is that immigrants show little or no sign of any participatory disadvantage and indeed tend to participate more than the Australian-born in some modes of participation, such as campaign activities. The analysis also identifies a clear participatory divide within a number of socio-demographic groups in use of the internet for gaining election information.

The Wage Premium of Foreign Education: New Evidence from Australia

We study whether Australian employers recognise immigrants' education acquired abroad, and if so how. Using data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Immigrants in Australia, we apply interval regression to model migrant hourly earnings. We find substantially higher returns from human capital obtained in Australia and other OECD countries compared with non-OECD countries. These results suggest that the transfer of human capital acquired abroad is mediated by the country in which it was acquired, as found for Israel (Friedberg (2000) and the US (Bratsberg and Ragan (2002)). The results also suggest that immigrants from non-OECD countries are the ones who can gain the most from obtaining further education in Australia, and that targeted rather than generic policies in this area could reduce the extent of the education-occupation mismatch amongst immigrants.

English Proficiency and Labour Supply of Immigrants in Australia

This paper explores the impact of English proficiency on the labour supply of recent immigrants in Australia. While previous research finds that English proficiency is crucial for participation and employment of immigrants, almost no research, and none in Australia, has been done with respect to hours worked by immigrants. The number of hours worked by immigrants is a strong indicator of economic wellbeing. This study uses the second cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia data to estimate a Chamberlain style Tobit random effects estimator. The results suggest a positive relationship between English proficiency and hours worked by immigrants.

A Case Study on the Perception of Aging and Participation in Physical Activities of Older Chinese Immigrants in Australia

This qualitative study explores how older Hong Kong ChineseAustralians perceive aging and to what extent this perception affects their participation in physical activities. The main methods used were in-depth interviews with 22 participants ranging in age from 60 to 91 years. Interviews were translated from Chinese (Cantonese) and transcribed into English. Content analysis was used to find recurring themes from the interview data. The main findings indicate that the perception of aging is to some extent influenced by culture. Some participants defined aging as being measured in years, and others defined it by the state of one's physical health, appearance, and capacity to continue fulfilling one's social roles. These perceptions strongly influenced their preferences for and participation in physical activities. Acknowledging the fact that Chinese-speaking people are not culturally homogeneous, this article makes some recommendations to health service providers with regard to the development of appropriate physical activity programs.

Welfare Policy and Labour Supply of Immigrants in Australia

This paper investigates the impact of social security payments on the labour supply of recent immigrants to Australia after the policy change. This research uses the first wave of two sets of Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA) data as treatment group and Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) as control group to analyse the short-term immigrant labour market outcomes before and after the policy change. Employing difference-in-differences estimators and propensity score matching procedures, this study suggests that welfare reform caused a substantial increase in the employment of immigrants. This might imply that restricted access to welfare produced a higher proportion of new immigrants who more actively looked for jobs.

Acculturation and Language Orientations of Turkish Immigrants in Australia, France, Germany, and the Netherlands

The authors examined acculturation and language orientations among Turkish immigrants in Australia ( n = 283), France ( n = 266), Germany ( n = 265), and the Netherlands ( n = 271). They expected that the countries with the least pluralistic climate (France and Germany) would show the lowest level of sociocultural adjustment and the highest level of ethnic orientation and language use; the opposite was expected in Australia, as the country with the most pluralistic climate; and the Netherlands would have an intermediate position. The predictions were largely borne out. The language orientation measures yielded a (symbolic) language value factor and a (behavioral) language preference factor. In all countries Turkish identity was a positive predictor and mainstream identity a negative predictor of both the language value and preference factor. Mainstream and Turkish identity showed stronger negative correlations in the less pluralistic countries. It is concluded that immigrants showed the least maintenance and the most adjustment in Australia, which is the country with the least pressure to assimilate.

Subjective Social Support in Older Male Italian-Born Immigrants in Australia

This paper describes differences in subjective social support between older male Italian-born immigrants in Australia and their Australian-born counterparts. Data came from 335 Italian-born and 849 Australian-born men aged 70 years and over who participated in the baseline phase of the Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project (CHAMP) in inner suburban Sydney, Australia. Social support was measured using the shortened (11 item) version of the Duke Social Support Index (DSSI). This index measures both social interactions and expressive social support. Logistic regression was used to examine differences in subjective social support between the two groups of men after controlling for other related factors. Italian-born men were about twice as likely to report low subjective social support compared to Australian-born men (unadjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.8, p = 0.0002). This difference remained after adjustment for sociodemographic, socioeconomic, social network and health factors (adjusted OR = 2.1, p = 0.0007). Italian-born men were more likely to report that they had no non-family members in the local area to rely on. However, lack of non-family supports did not remain significantly associated with perceived social support after adjustment for social interactions and depressive symptoms. Italian-born men were more likely to report low subjective support despite the presence of several protective factors such as a greater number of local family supports and a high rate of home ownership.

Does Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory account for the actual vitality of ethnic groups? A critical evaluation.

Ethnolinguistic vitality theory asserts that Status, Demographic, Institutional Support and Control factors make up the vitality of ethnolinguistic groups. An assessment of a group's strengths and weaknesses in each of these dimensions provides a rough classification of ethnolinguistic groups into those having low, medium, or high vitality. Low vitality groups are most likely to go through linguistic assimilation and may not be considered a distinctive collective group. On the other hand, high vitality groups are likely to maintain their language and distinctive cultural traits in multilingual settings. Compared to other models, Ethnoliguistic Vitality Theory (EVT) and its accompanying instruments provide a broader and more inclusive framework for the investigation of language maintenance and shift. However, the empirical evidence obtained in a number of contexts point to an underestimation of the actual vitality of some minority groups. In this paper, based on the findings on ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions of Turkish immigrants in Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands, a critical evaluation of EVT will be presented.

The roots of contemporary attitudes toward immigration in Australia: contextual and individual-level influencesÞ

This paper examines the roots of attitudes toward immigration among Australians of English-speaking background using the 1998, 2001, 2004, and 2007 Australian Election Studies. The paper demonstrates that attitudes toward immigration in Australia have their roots in multiple sources, some of them relating to the local context in which individuals reside, others in the socio-economic and financial situation experienced by individuals. Attitudes toward immigration in Australia are also related to attitudinal factors and historical legacies that manifest themselves in mistrust and suspicion toward Asian neighbours. Finally, the paper demonstrates that the presence of immigrants and ethnic minorities influences Australians' attitudes toward immigration but that this effect must be understood in conjunction with the educational context of the areas of residence. While in high education areas Australians tend to react positively to the presence of immigrants, in low education areas they tend to react negatively to the presence of immigrants.

Building Social and Community Cohesion: The Role of Social Enterprises in Facilitating Settlement Experiences for Immigrants from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds

Australia is a nation of immigrants. Immigration brings much needed skills and labour to Australia. It helps creating a strong economy, drives prosperity and builds Australia’s future. Diverse cultural expression enriches all Australians and makes the multicultural nation more vibrant and creative. Immigrants, including refugees, from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB) are vulnerable as they often have higher unemployment rates or are at an earnings disadvantage that may lead to disaffection and community unrest in the long run. Government agencies are facing complicated issues surrounding the design and implementation of strategies that facilitate the settlement of new arrivals in Australia. This paper critically reviews the literature and argues that social enterprises and social entrepreneurship can help to facilitate life satisfaction and self-reliance for NESB immigrants in Australia. In addition, the paper provides a better understanding of what research method may best suit to examine the role of social enterprises in NESB immigrant settlement experiences and how social enterprises may help to integrate the immigrants into culturally diverse socially cohesive nation. Discussion of benefits of the proposed research method will also be provided.

Perceptions of Immigrants in Australia after 9/11*

I use the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia to examine whether the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11) led to changes in perceptions of discrimination among Muslim immigrants and immigrants who fit the Muslim‐Arab stereotype. I adopt a difference in differences approach and exploit the timing of interviews to identify the causal effect of 9/11 on perceptions. I find that consequent to 9/11, Muslim men and those who look like Muslims increasingly reported religious and racial intolerance and discrimination relative to other immigrants.

Effective communication is crucial to self-management: the experiences of immigrants to Australia living with diabetes

Ageing immigrant populations now pose problems for the management of chronic illness in Australia. This article asks questions about the experiences of immigrants in Australia with type II diabetes mellitus (DM). What impact, if any, have health policies had on the lives of immigrants? How do their experiences of living with DM compare with those of people with DM who were born in Australia? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 participants who had DM (n = 25) or cared for someone with DM (n = 7). Fifteen participants had migrated to Australia and English was not their first language. Participants were asked to describe their experience of managing diabetes. Immigrants to Australia confront linguistic and cultural barriers that create an extra layer of problems not experienced by Australian-born people. Older people who were born overseas face obstacles to effective engagement with the health system that weaken their ability to take an active part in the management of their conditions. Chronic disease policy is failing immigrants to Australia. Health professionals and services must recognize the central role that cultural diversity plays in self-management and the impact that this can have on health outcomes for immigrants with chronic illness.

Automatically Extracting Typical Syntactic Differences from Corpora

We develop an aggregate measure of syntactic difference for automatically find- ing common syntactic differences between collections of text. With the use of this measure, it is possible to mine for differences between, for example, the English of learners and natives, or between related dialects. If formulated in advance, hypotheses can also be tested for statistical significance. It enables us to find not only absence or presence, but also under- and overuse of specific constructs. We have applied our measure to the English of Finnish immigrants in Australia to look for traces of Finnish grammar in their English. The outcomes of this de- tection process were analysed and found to be insightful. A report is included in this article. Besides explaining our method, we also go into the theory behind it, including permutation statistics, and the custom normalizations required for applying these tests to syntactical data. We also explain how to use the software we developed to apply this method to new corpora, and give some suggestions for further research.

Back pain in older male Italian-born immigrants in Australia: The importance of socioeconomic factors

Back pain is common in older people and is associated with functional disability and poor self-rated health. Older persons are under-represented in back pain research, and research on back pain in older persons from ethnic minorities is particularly sparse. We investigated differences in back pain characteristics, effects and medication use in a population-based sample of 335 Italian-born immigrants and 849 Australian-born men aged 70 years and over. There were 189 (62%) Italian-born men and 507 (63%) Australian-born men who reported experiencing back pain in the past 12 months. Despite no difference in the reported prevalence of back pain between the two groups of men, Italian-born men were more likely to report that their pain was frequent, severe and chronic. Italian-born men were also more likely to report having other sites of pain and that they had limited their activities in the past 12 months due to back pain. Despite these differences, the use of analgesic medication was the same in both groups. Multivariate analyses showed that differences in pain characteristics and effects between the two groups of men were explained by socioeconomic factors such as years of education and occupation history.

Cultural Variations on Gender: Latin American Marianismo/Machismo in Australia

This paper concerns cultural and social ideas and practices on gender differences among Latin American immigrants in Australia. It explores the ways in which immigrants' notions of gender relations expressed as marianismo/machismo generated in their societies of origin, influence the social gender relationships among the settlers in Australia. The argument is that marianismo/machismo are ideological constructs which reinforce woman's oppression and at the same time help to perpetuate social relations of inequality between men and women.