Residence In Australia Research Articles

Vietnamese Vowels Produced by Australian Vietnamese Speakers

This paper reported a study that acoustically examined the vowel features of Vietnamese language used by the Vietnamese community in Australia. Vowels produced by older (n=10) and younger (n=10) Vietnamese Australians residing in Brisbane, Australia, were acoustically examined and compared with those produced by corresponding older (n=10) and younger (n=10) Vietnamese residing in Ho Chi Minh/Can Tho City, Vietnam. The results showed that (i) almost all vowel tokens produced by the four groups of speakers were acoustically significantly different in vowel space; (ii) the Younger Vietnamese Australian residents’ tokens of vowels which look similar in conventional Vietnamese orthography tended to cluster with each other; (iii) the vowel productions of the Younger Vietnamese residents in Australia tended to occupy higher and/or more front regions than those of the Younger Vietnamese residents in Vietnamese group in terms of the acoustic vowel space; and (iv) the vowel tokens produced by the Older Vietnamese residents in Australia and Older Vietnamese residents in Vietnam groups occupied different regions in the acoustic vowel space.

Choosing to live in a nursing home: a culturally and linguistically diverse perspective.

As part of the findings of a study on culturally and linguistically diverse older people relocating to a nursing home, this paper contributes to our understanding of how older people draw on their cultural history to explain their decisions to relocate. Family reciprocity was identified by most participants as central to their decisions, regardless of their specific cultural origins. Using the grounded theory methodology, data were collected through progressive, semi-structured, repeated, in-person, individual interviews with 20 residents of four nursing homes in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) older people, regardless of specific cultural origin, make relocation decisions based on the importance and meaning of reciprocity within families. Understanding their decisions as reflecting a culturally valued reciprocity offered a sense of cultural continuity to the relocation and was comforting to the older adults involved in the study. This study also suggests that culturally and linguistically diverse older people are much more active participants in the decision to relocate to a nursing home than is commonly recognised. The four nursing homes in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and the 20 participants studied constitute only a small proportion of all culturally and linguistically diverse older nursing home residents in Australia. Therefore, the findings may not be pertinent to other culturally and linguistically diverse elderly. Nonetheless, this study makes an important contribution to future discussions regarding cultural diversity in the nursing home relocation of culturally and linguistically diverse older Australians. The study findings provide some insight into the conditions and contexts that impact nursing home relocation.

The Growth in International Enrolments in Accounting: Implications for an Established Nexus between Education and Migration

International student enrolments globally have grown substantially over the first decade of the twenty-first century. In the context of Australia, the higher education (HE) sector and specifically the accounting discipline grew during this time, together with the growth in the demand for qualified accountants. Australia was attractive to international students not only because of the prospect of obtaining an overseas accounting qualification, but also the opportunities presented for Permanent Residency given the local skill shortage in accounting. However, a set of reforms to the skilled migration policy announced early in 2010 had implications for the established nexus between accounting education and migration. This paper uses comparative hypothetical case studies to illustrate the impact on the opportunities for international students completing accounting degrees to seek Permanent Residency in Australia. The findings contribute to an understanding of the trend in international student enrolments and, more broadly, the implications for universities in terms of revenue generation from international enrolments. The paper informs accounting educators of some of the pedagogical consequences of the recruitment of international students when enrolments are influenced by government policy, especially immigration policy changes.

Time and Temporary Migration: The Case of Temporary Graduate Workers and Working Holiday Makers in Australia

This article provides an analysis of ‘being temporary’ in the context of two forms of migration that are of increasing significance to Australia: temporary graduate workers (TGWs) and working holiday makers (WHMs). Recent policy changes to these visa categories allow for extended periods of work and residence in Australia, primarily among young people who are seeking an overseas work/life experience or a pathway to more permanent migration. The article brings the various temporal dimensions of these migration processes to the fore, asking how time functions as both a disciplinary practice of the state and as part of the life and labour experiences of migrants. In doing so, it problematises the idea of temporariness as both a normative constraint and a qualitative experience in a national context in which paradigms of permanent settlement and full citizenship continue to dominate discursive constructions of migration. It creates a framework for understanding the key temporal aspects of TGW and WHM migration processes: temporal eligibility and migrant subjectivities; temporal constraints and differential inclusion; and the contingent boundaries around temporariness, extended temporariness and permanence. This has salience for continued understandings of emerging forms of temporary migration in wider contexts.

Masturbatory Behavior and Feelings: An Exploratory Study of Indian Immigrant Men in Australia

ABSTRACT Objectives: Sexual problems associated with masturbation (especially intense negative feelings) are commonly reported among Indian subcontinental men. Yet there is a paucity of scientific information about masturbatory behavior and feelings. Much of the available information is either from clinic-based studies or from studies involving young Indians. Methods: The present study, using a community sample of Indian men in Australia, aimed to explore their masturbatory behavior and feelings. Results: Overall, 268 men took part in an online survey, and 221 of these men completed the section on masturbation. Some demographic characteristics of the study sample were comparable to those of the Indian community in Australia. A large proportion (n = 174, 79%) reported that they currently masturbate, while the rest said they never masturbated (n = 9, 4%) or did masturbate in the past but not at present (n = 38, 17%). Among those who currently masturbate, the mean age of onset of masturbation was 14.9 years. Married men tended to masturbate less frequently than unmarried men. The most common mode, source of stimuli, and reason for masturbation were using hands (n = 162, 95%), watching erotic material on the Internet (n = 136, 81%), and to gain pleasure (n = 137, 79%), respectively. A high proportion (n = 114, 66%) of Indian men who currently masturbate said that they experienced positive feelings when masturbating. Conclusions: Masturbatory feelings of Indian men were found to differ by length of residence in Australia but not by degree of acculturation or age. The present exploratory study has provided baseline information about masturbation among Indian men and indicates the need for further research.

Language, employment, and settlement: Temporary meat workers in Australia

AbstractAustralia is one of the world’s largest beef exporters. However, meat processing jobs are widely considered undesirable and are increasingly filled with employer-sponsored migrant workers on temporary long-stay visas. Against this background, our paper explores the role of language in the employment and migration trajectories of a group of meat processing workers from the Philippines in a small town in rural Australia. Methodologically, we employ a case study approach combining macro-data from language and migration policy documents and media reports with micro-data from ethnographic fieldwork. We explore the role of language in recruitment, in the workplace, during leisure time, and in gaining permanent residence in Australia. To begin with, language is not a recruitment criterion as the primary visa holder is hired on the basis of a so-called ‘trade test,’ i.e., observed at butchering work in the Philippines by an Australian recruiter. Spouses of the primary visa holder are also issued a temporary visa and are offered unskilled employment in the same plant. Once in Australia, the participants had few opportunities to practice English at work or in the community. In this way, temporary migrants came to Australia with limited English and had limited opportunities to improve their English in the country. However, visa extensions or the conversion of their temporary visa to a permanent residency visa is contingent upon their English language proficiency and only granted if they achieve a score of Level 5 or above on the IELTS (International English Language Testing System). Because of their limited education and limited practice opportunities, this proficiency level was out of the reach of most of our participants. We conclude by arguing that – in a context where

Head lice: the feelings people have

Head lice are a source of amusement for outsiders and an embarrassing nuisance to those who have to deal with them. Our study collected the emotions experienced by people dealing with head lice. An area with extremely sparse literature, our purpose is to inform the development of more effective programs to control head lice. We asked "what were your feelings upon discovery of head lice?" as part of a study exploring the experience of those treating head lice. A short questionnaire was available via the authors' head lice information internet site. A total of 294 eligible responses were collected over several months and analyzed, supported by QSR N6. The predominantly female (90 · 9%) respondents were residents of Australia (56 · 1%), USA (20 · 4%), Canada (7 · 2%), or UK (4 · 4%), and working full-time (43·0%) or part-time (34 · 2%). Reactions and feelings fell into three categories: strong (n = 320; 79% of all stated emotions), mediocre (n = 56; 20%), and neutral (n = 29; 9 · 8%). There were no positive emotions. The significant negative reaction was expected. The range of feeling expressed demonstrates the stigma held for these ectoparasites within western market economies. This contrasts with conceptions of head lice in traditional societies. The negative social effects of this perception create more problematic issues than the infection itself; these include quarantine, overtreatment, and a potentially negative psychological impact. Head lice control strategies and programs that address these negative emotional reactions may prove more effective than current biomedical focus.

Caring for older people with dementia: An exploratory study of staff knowledge and perception of training in three Australian dementia care facilities

To ascertain care staff's knowledge of dementia relating to aetiology and/or pathology, symptoms and care/treatment; and explore their perceptions of the importance and adequacy of dementia education and training opportunities. Thirty-five care staff working in three secure dementia care facilities were recruited. Dementia knowledge was surveyed using the Staff Knowledge of Dementia Test (SKDT). Perceptions of dementia education and training were examined via semi-structured individual interviews. An average of 21 out of 33 SKDT questions (SD = 4.0) was correctly answered. Knowledge discrepancy was attributed to participants' cultural and ethnic origin and the length of residency in Australia of migrant care staff. Participants acknowledged the importance of dementia education and training but were critical of the content relevancy to direct care practices. There is a need to improve care staff knowledge of dementia, and dementia education and training should include direct practical competencies required for effective care delivery.

Country of birth recording in Australian hospital morbidity data: accuracy and predictors

Objective: Country of birth (COB) is an important determinant of health risks and outcomes. Despite the widespread use of hospital morbidity data for research, little is known about the quality of COB recording in these data. This study validated the recording of 40 COBs in Australian hospital morbidity data and identified factors associated with the recording accuracy. Methods: Questionnaire data from the 45 and Up Study were linked to records from the NSW Admitted Patient Data Collection (APDC), yielding linked records for 39,559 overseas-born people. Measures of agreement between self-reported COB from the 45 and Up Study (‘gold standard’) and COB as recorded in the APDC were calculated and logistic regression analysis was used to explore predictors of correct recording of COB. Results: On average, 81% of APDC records for overseas-born people had the correct COB recorded. Sensitivities varied between 61% (Germany) and 99% (Spain). Specificities exceeded 99.5%. Positive predictive values were greater than 90%, except for Hong Kong (72%), Ireland (85%), and Czechoslovakia (89%). Negative predictive values exceedved 98%, except for the United Kingdom (87%). Kappa values indicated good or excellent concordance between self-reported COB and APDC data (kappa 0.73 or greater). Where inaccurate, COB was mainly recorded as ‘Australia’ or ‘Inadequately described’. COB was recorded with greater accuracy in principal referral hospitals, public hospitals and hospitals in metropolitan areas. Accuracy decreased with duration of residence in Australia, increased with age at immigration, and varied according to COB. Conclusion: COB recording accuracy was generally high but varied according to hospital characteristics, country, and measures of acculturation.

INDONESIANS CHALLENGING WHITE AUSTRALIA

Between the 1870s and the 1950s the north Australian pearl-shell industry relied on the labour of thousands of Indonesians who were employed as divers and crew on pearling luggers. While these men were referred to as Malays or Koepangers they were drawn from many different locations in eastern Indonesia, including Nusa Tenggara Timur, Maluku and southern Sulawesi. As indentured labourers, they were supposed to be temporary residents in Australia. Their migration was permitted as a rare exemption from the White Australia policy, based on the presumption that as maritime workers they would spend most of their time in the waters that connected Australia and the Dutch East Indies. During the limited time they spent in Australian ports they were to be strictly monitored. Despite these intended restrictions, a number of Indonesians were able to build lives in Australia by renewing their contracts for a period of 20 years or more. By the late 1950s those that remained successfully lobbied to be granted Australian citizenship. The pearl-shell industry, though notorious for its exploitation of labour, was responsible for developing and maintaining a long-term connection between eastern Indonesia and Australia and challenging the isolationism of White Australia.

Development of interactional competence

This study explores the development of the interactional competence of an 8-year-old, Japanese learner of English over three cooking sessions with native speakers of English at her home during her period of residence in Australia. The study draws upon Vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development in order to elucidate the L2 child’s process of acquiring interactional competence in this unfamiliar social practice (i.e., cooking-relevant talk). The analysis reveals marked changes in the child’s participation pattern over time, moving from making relevant minimal responses to more initiated, and autonomous participation. The child recycled some of the interlocutors’ utterances from the previous sessions, showing that the earlier cooking sessions provided her with a linguistic challenge and became a resource of language learning for her. She also made use of a textual resource (i.e., the recipe) as a scaffold to move toward more autonomous participation. In addition, the role of the recipe became less central as her participation became increasingly more independent.

Where are you from? Identity construction and experiences of ‘othering’ in the narratives of Sudanese refugee-background Australians

This article discusses collective identification among Sudanese refugee-background residents in Australia. The discursive data is drawn from semi-structured interviews through which identity self-categorizations and self-labelling were explored. In addition, mini-narratives about their experiences of intergroup communication with mainstream Australians were analysed in depth. In these narratives, the main topic was the story of being confronted with the question ‘Where are you from?’. This article applies positioning theory to the narrative accounts and discusses how participants position themselves in the story world as well as in the interactional world. The findings demonstrate that Sudanese Australians have a strong ethnic self-concept and a strong desire to obtain an Australian identity. However, their stories reveal that they are positioned as outsiders by mainstream Australians.

‘Estimating tomorrow’s tourist arrivals’: forecasting the demand for China’s tourism using the general-to-specific approach

Accurate forecast of inbound tourism demand is vital for the tourism industry as well as government economic policy and decision making. This article sought to identify the factors which influence the demand for China’s tourism with the aid of econometric models and to generate forecasts of international tourist arrivals to China from five major long-haul source markets. Using the general-to-specific modelling approach, the demand for tourism in China by the residents of Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America is modelled and forecasted. The empirical results indicate that the ‘word of mouth effect’, income levels in the origin country, the costs of tourism in both China and competing destinations are the crucial factors that determine the demand for China’s tourism by residents of the five origin countries. The forecasts show sluggish growth in tourist arrivals for most of the Western source markets. Findings hold implications for policy formulations.

P1-S5.12 Population attributable risk for chlamydia infection in a cohort of young international travellers (backpackers) and residents in Australia

AimTo estimate the population attributable risk (PAR) for Chlamydia trachomatis infection in young men and women in Sydney, Australia.MethodMultivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association between demographic, sexual...

Comprehensive medical assessments for monitoring and improving the health of residents in aged care facilities: Existing comprehensive medical assessments coverage and trial of a new service model

To measure comprehensive medical assessment (CMA) completions among aged care residents in Australia; and to report the outcomes of a CMA service trial. A population-based descriptive study of CMA completions using Medicare data; and a qualitative study of an intervention trial carried out at a 115-bed residential aged care facility in Sydney, Australia. Fifty residents participated in the trial; 15 interviews were conducted. In 2008, less than 50% of Australian aged care residents had a CMA completed. The CMA service trial improved CMA data quality and accessibility. A substantial proportion of residents were found to have previously unidentified health problems that impacted on their health and quality of life. CMA rates are low. New approaches to achieving higher CMA rates, utilising information technology, hold promise. Strategies for ongoing monitoring of care to follow-up problems identified are required to achieve measurable improvements in residents' care and quality of life.

Barriers to Accessing Health Care Services for West African Refugee Women Living in Western Australia

Help-seeking pathways and barriers to accessing health care services were surveyed in 51 West African refugee women who had settled recently in Perth, Western Australia, and in 100 Australian women. Shame or fear of what family and friends might think, fear of being judged by the treatment provider, fear of hospitalization, and logistical difficulties were significant impediments to accessing health care services for the refugee women. Surprisingly, barriers often were greater for the more-educated refugee women and strengthened with years of residence in Australia. Strategies to help at-risk women overcome these barriers need to be implemented to ensure appropriate access to health care services.

Migration and multiple sclerosis in immigrants to Australia from United Kingdom and Ireland: a reassessment. I. Risk of MS by age at immigration

A previous study of the prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1981 among immigrants from the United Kingdom and Ireland to Australia found that the prevalence for those with age at immigration (AAI) under 15 years of age did not differ from the older immigrants. We have reanalysed the original materials as well as census data for 1901–1981 for UKI and other high MS risk country immigrants. There was a highly significant trend in the prevalence rates of all Australians from New South Wales (NSW) to South Australia (SA) to Western Australia (WA) to Queensland (QLD). Rates by state among the Australian-born were almost identical to these, but there was no prevalence gradient for the UKI-born. The denominator population at risk of MS by AAI was calculated from special census tables of length of residence in Australia by age 0–79 in 1981 for UKI immigrants 1947–1981. The numerator was limited to the subset of 258 MS (Group II) also immigrating in 1947 and later, and age 0–79 in 1981. The absolute risk of MS for these migrants to the four states entering at age 0–14 was 22/100,000, significantly less than for all older age groups; age 15–39 immigrants had a risk of 54/100,000. Similar risk ratios for 0–14 versus 15–39 by state were 31 versus 61 (NSW), 29 versus 44 (QLD), 11 versus 50 (SA), 15 versus 51 (WA).

Seeking Residency from the Courts: The Chinese Experience in the Post-White Australia Era

Abstract In 1974 Australia officially abandoned its “White Australia” policy. Since then hundreds of thousands of Chinese have migrated to the country, first from Southeast Asian countries, then from Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan before direct immigration from China resumed in the mid-1980s. Lately, Australia has placed more emphasis on admitting skilled and business migrants, but has still maintained an annual intake of tens of thousands of Chinese, making China the third largest source of overseas-born Australians. Many believe that the Chinese have come to Australia under its normal migration program, such as the skilled, business or family programs thus overlooking the fact that a high proportion of them have obtained their residency in Australia either directly or indirectly only after having gone through Court battles. This paper seeks to examine how many of the Chinese have fought for residency in the courts, and to outline the characteristics of their experience in the post-White Australia era. It aims to provide an analysis of the complex dimensions of global migration and transnational politics where certain aspects of socio-political life and politics of the immigrants’ home country have conflicted with the immigration policies and procedures of their receiving country and gradually become part of the politics of the host country.

Population attributable risk for chlamydia infection in a cohort of young international travellers (backpackers) and residents in Australia

AimTo estimate the population attributable risk (PAR) for Chlamydia trachomatis infection in young men and women in Sydney, Australia.MethodMultivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association between demographic, sexual...

Understanding the nutrition information needs of migrant communities: the needs of African and Pacific Islander communities of Logan, Queensland.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the nutrition information needs of the Pacific Islander and African migrant communities of Logan. The present study was structured as a needs assessment and used qualitative research methods. An integrative review was used to gather and analyse data relating to comparative and normative needs, while semi-structured interviews were undertaken for the felt and expressed needs. Logan City, Queensland, Australia. African and Pacific Islander migrants and health and social service providers within the Logan region. The study identified the need for more accessible means of information delivery such as visual and face-to-face methods or hands-on demonstrations. The study found that information should be delivered in a staged approach on topics including food safety, Australian foods, healthy eating and diet-disease relationships, according to a migrant's length of residence in Australia. The present study contributes to our understanding of the nutrition information needs of African and Pacific Islander migrant communities of Logan. These findings will enable the development of more appropriate nutrition information and health services for these Logan communities and other similar communities across Australia.