The purpose of the research was to investigate whether cultural dissonance was experienced by a group of migrant students during educational and cultural transition to new education systems which shared cultural markers of language and ethnicity. Cultural dissonance is defined in this study as:A sense of discord or disharmony, experienced by participants in cultural change where cultural differences are found to occur which are unexpected, unexplained and therefore difficult to negotiate and which inhibit behavioural adaptation.The study utilised case histories of children from forty-seven families. The respondents in the research were the children's parents. The families had emigrated from the United Kingdom to Western Australia during the period 1985-1995.The families reported receiving little information about education systems in Western Australia prior to migration. In the post-migration period, little official information was provided at system or at school level. Because placing the children in schools was a priority for the families, encounters with Western Australian education systems took place within a few weeks of their arrival as migrants.This lack of prior information meant that cultural differences in educational provision were unexpected and unexplained. In particular, families encountered unexpected problems in the appropriate placement of their children in Western Australian schools. Accented English and differences in word usage led to unexpected rejection and teasing. The perceived failure on the part of schools to address these and other differences caused confrontations between parents and many schools and disrupted the children's educational progress. These discordant experiences and difficulties led to what, in this study, is characterised as cultural dissonance.The implications for the study are discussed on two levels. With particular ++ / reference to Western Australian education systems, the lack of induction policies for English-speaking migrant children was apparent. There appeared to be no system or school level guidelines which mandated the use of printed matter, provided at State system level to address these difficulties. The schools were not seen to make good use of the information parents provided about the children's educational stages. The intervention of teachers at classroom level to discourage teasing was seen as ineffective and in two cases teachers contributed to the problems being encountered.On a more general level, the study has implications for attitudinal change within Australian society towards the reception of skilled and financially secure migrant new criteria for entry to Australia have implications for the socio-economic status of potential migrants. The self-identity of these families is influenced by their status in the social hierarchies of their country-of origin. Skilled and professional families are likely to resist policies for their children's induction being seen as a low priority in Western Australian schools simply because of the child's migrant status.The research findings gave rise to recommendations that:Information of education systems in Western Australia should be made available to all intending migrant families with children.Induction policies for all migrant children should be in place and be utilised in Western Australian schools.The formulation of policy takes account of the effects of changes to migrant socio- economic status, brought about by the changes to the criteria for entry to Australia.The study concluded that shared markers of language and ethnicity were not sufficient to ensure that the cultural differences in education systems were not experienced by the families. A lack of prior information on those differences and a lack of induction ++ / policies for the children led to difficulties and to experiences of cultural dissonance for the families.

The purposes of this study were (a) to examine two groups of healthy older Dutch English bilingual migrants in a New Zealand setting to investigate whether they were showing signs of L2 attrition with accompanying L1 reversion post-retirement, and (b) to identify possible factors which might play a role in the incidence of any L2 attrition and concomitant L1 reversion. Previous research has focused on similar groups of migrants in the Australian context, while New Zealand based research has focused on language shift and maintenance amongst three generations of migrants. The research design involved an analysis of sociolinguistic life, using questionnaires. These included self-assessments of L1 and L2 proficiency at three key times: on arrival in New Zealand, at time of ultimate attainment and post-retirement. Further, an analysis of assessments of respondents’ L1 and L2 proficiency pre-and post-retirement completed by interviewees’ adult children moderated respondents’ self-reports. The findings revealed a considerable overlap between participants’ self-reports and assessments by their adult children. The study also revealed a relationship between participants’ level of prior education and their ultimate attainment in the L2, with those who had come to New Zealand having learned English at Secondary School English very likely to have achieved a “good” or “very good” level of L2 proficiency. Conversely, those who had not learned the L2 at secondary school prior to arriving in New Zealand, were less likely to have achieved a “very good” level of ultimate attainment as evident both from self-reports and assessments by adult children. The design also included a linguistic analysis of elicited free speech. Data focused on key indicators of age, gender, social class, prior education, occupation and predominant linguistic environment pre- and post-retirement. Free speech was examined for code-switching, response latency and L1 structure in respondents’ spoken L2. Results indicated that a majority of respondents showed minimal if any signs of L2 attrition with concomitant L1 reversion, both as evidenced by their spoken L2 and as indicated by self-reports and assessments by adult children. Any signs of L2 attrition which were found appeared linked to respondents’ level of prior education and L2 proficiency on arrival in New Zealand. Being exposed to a predominantly L1 social environment post-retirement also appeared to result in a lifting of the threshold for L2 lexical items, resulting in a slightly increased response latency in the spoken L2. Three participants said they experienced some problems expressing their healthcare needs to medical professionals, to the extent that they were searching for words. All stated they “got there in the end” but needed more time to paraphrase their health needs. Two subjects avoided the use of the L2 during the interview, even when prompted in English. Three respondents engaged in significant codeswitching from L2 to L1 and vice versa, with two engaging in what Muysken (2000) terms “congruent lexicalisation”. Adult childrens’ reports indicated that the respondents in question had always spoken in this manner, but to a greater extent now, post-retirement. Overall, a number of the healthy older subjects interviewed for the study were showing some signs of increased response latency and lexical retrieval problems when expressing themselves in the L2, but none to the degree that they were no longer able to communicate in that language.

This paper describes processes and subsequent conclusions after working collaboratively in the broad area of language learning. The inquiry process considered factors in the learning environment which might benefit the learners, with music and drawing in the classroom being trialled and discussed with teachers and adult migrant English learners in different contexts. The responses of some primary aged students with learning problems and their parents and/or teachers were also studied. The inquiry process indicated that the term 'environments' must be understood to include personal environment, involving the Life energy fields, considered here to be the physical field, and the field of thought and memory, as well as the cultural, family, educational and other significant environments, within the context of the evolving Australian society. The term the author has chosen to describe the interaction of these experiential fields with the will of the individual, is an etheric. Membership of, or exclusion from, an etheric, may be subtle but can be discerned when considering a migrant attempting to enter the Australian workforce or, any person trying to enter a new field of endeavour. The author suggests that this concept explores the phenomenon of acceptance of a language or entry into a group / Master of Science (Hons)

The late 1980s saw the onset of a rapid expansion of Chinese immigration into Australia. While this influx of Chinese migrants has produced a proliferation of research on the more affluent migrants from Hong Kong and Taiwan, studies on migrants especially women from the People's Republic of China (PRC) have remained few and far between. Among those few studies on PRC-born migrant women, all of them identified settlement stress and its health implications as a major concern among PRC-born migrant, yet there has been little concerted effort on why this is the case, particularly in the area of health needs and solutions. Considering the increasing presence of PRC-born migrant women in Australia, there is a clear need for a comprehensive in-depth investigation into their settlement stress, to address their social and health needs and to provide solutions. This study aims to examine in-depth the PRC-born migrant women's settlement experience in Brisbane, focusing especially on their stress, social and health needs. This study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. Since this study paid more attention to these migrant women's own life experiences, it is mainly a qualitative one, using informant interview, focus group and in-depth interviews to explore how best their stress could be alleviated. Quantitative method is based on secondary data analysis to provide a community profile of PRC-born migrant women in Brisbane and Queensland. This study firstly draws on literature reviews to explain historical, social, cultural and gender based factors underpinning PRC-born migrant women's settlement stress and health status. Findings reviews that settlement stress comes from social isolation and loneliness; cultural difficulties; lack of support prior to and after childbirth, as well as assistance with childcare; conflicts in both marital and familial relations; academic stress; and finally, problems in utilising public transport. Particularly, this study highlights that downward mobility; barriers to access health services; and language barriers are a major source of stress and the cause of health problems for PRC-born migrant women when settling in Brisbane. As strategies, this study adapts health promotion strategies named as empowerment framework and Ottawa Charter action framework to address the needs highlighted in this study. Settlement stress affects health particularly mental health. Strategies provided in this study can also help migrant women from other non-English speaking countries. More significantly, this study encourages governments and service providers to pay more attention to migrant women's settlement processes in order to help them integrate into Australian society smoothly and quickly.

Doctor of Philosophy / This ethnography is based on fieldwork in two very different cities, Hong Kong and Sydney. It traces the movements of subjects from Hong Kong through the analysis of differing modes of inhabiting urban space. The texture of lived spaces provides an analytic focus for examining a highly mobile migrant group. This ethnography explores the mesh of objective structures and migrant subjectivities in a mobile field of migrant ‘place’. A basic assumption of this study is that people from Hong Kong have acquired a common array of dispositions attuned to living in a specific environment. Hong Kong’s dense and challenging urban space embodies aspects of the singular historical ‘production of space’ underpinning a colonial entrepôt that has expanded into a major global economic node. The conditions of lived space are examined through an historical analysis of urban space in Hong Kong and an ethnographic analysis of spatial practices and dispositions. The sprawling spaces of suburban Sydney clearly differ sharply from that of Hong Kong. Interview accounts of settling in Sydney are used to investigate the ‘gap’ in spatial dispositions. Settling entails both practical accommodations to new and unfamiliar localities and an interweaving of cultural and ideological elements into the expanded everyday of migrant subjectivity. Language and speech are integral to spatial practices and provide means of referencing and evaluating ongoing social relations and trajectories. The ‘discourse space’ of interview accounts of settlement in Sydney and movements back to Hong Kong are closely examined, yielding an array of perceptions and representations of different, and contested styles of urban life. All the senses are brought into play in accounts of densities and absences in people’s everyday worlds. At the same time this thesis provides a perspective from which to interrogate contemporary interpretations of ‘transnational’ migration, suggesting the need for an analysis grounded in a specific economy of capacities and dispositions to appropriate social and symbolic goods.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Abstract This thesis examines the experiences of Korean migrant women (KMW) in the Australian labour market. A review of the extant literature leads to two propositions, both of which assert that KMW are likely to experience labour market disadvantage or barriers to entry. These propositions take into account two significant theories of the labour market: segmentation theory and human capital theory. Segmentation theory argues that unchangeable gender and racial / cultural differences have the greatest impact upon labour market value, human capital theory describes the labour market value of individuals as based upon apparently objective and attainable skills (here English language skills). Using narrative analysis and, more specifically, antenarrative analysis, the study examines the life stories of 33 Australian KMW. In so doing, it identifies hitherto unheard discourses concerning the experiences of KMW in relation to the Australian labour market — discourses that challenge established academic thinking regarding this issue. Identification and analysis of these new discourses generates a number of alternative understandings of the labour market experiences of KMW. These alternative understandings both demonstrate the limitations of, and go beyond, the existing two propositions. In particular, the research shows that the impacts of gender and culture (segmentation theory) vary over time for KMW, do not always prevent labour market participation, and are experienced in terms of identity within a gendered Australian labour market. The research also demonstrates that while many KMW are in fact sufficiently skilled in the English language (human capital theory) to enter the Australian labour market, they nevertheless experience a sense of inferiority about their English language capacity that discourages them from entering, and limits their opportunities to participate in, the labour market. This in turn contributes to their social isolation. The thesis concludes that within the Australian academic literature, KMW have either been given little space and voice or have been misrepresented, reflecting and contributing to an ongoing ignorance of the experiences of Asian women in Australian workplaces. The KMW examined in this study are subject to numerous forms of subordination in Australian workplaces and society that cannot be adequately explained in terms of their human capital or their gender and cultural differences. The covert nature of the politics of difference within the work place makes exclusionary practices more difficult to identify and discuss. The thesis argues that in order to overcome these problems new policies of multiculturalism and productive diversity need to be developed. It asserts that narrative analytic techniques are an important means by which to inform such policy development. Abstract This thesis examines the experiences of Korean migrant women (KMW) in the Australian labour market. A review of the extant literature leads to two propositions, both of which assert that KMW are likely to experience labour market disadvantage or barriers to entry. These propositions take into account two significant theories of the labour market: segmentation theory and human capital theory. Segmentation theory argues that unchangeable gender and racial / cultural differences have the greatest impact upon labour market value, human capital theory describes the labour market value of individuals as based upon apparently objective and attainable skills (here English language skills). Using narrative analysis and, more specifically, antenarrative analysis, the study examines the life stories of 33 Australian KMW. In so doing, it identifies hitherto unheard discourses concerning the experiences of KMW in relation to the Australian labour market — discourses that challenge established academic thinking regarding this issue. Identification and analysis of these new discourses generates a number of alternative understandings of the labour market experiences of KMW. These alternative understandings both demonstrate the limitations of, and go beyond, the existing two propositions. In particular, the research shows that the impacts of gender and culture (segmentation theory) vary over time for KMW, do not always prevent labour market participation, and are experienced in terms of identity within a gendered Australian labour market. The research also demonstrates that while many KMW are in fact sufficiently skilled in the English language (human capital theory) to enter the Australian labour market, they nevertheless experience a sense of inferiority about their English language capacity that discourages them from entering, and limits their opportunities to participate in, the labour market. This in turn contributes to their social isolation. The thesis concludes that within the Australian academic literature, KMW have either been given little space and voice or have been misrepresented, reflecting and contributing to an ongoing ignorance of the experiences of Asian women in Australian workplaces. The KMW examined in this study are subject to numerous forms of subordination in Australian workplaces and society that cannot be adequately explained in terms of their human capital or their gender and cultural differences. The covert nature of the politics of difference within the work place makes exclusionary practices more difficult to identify and discuss. The thesis argues that in order to overcome these problems new policies of multiculturalism and productive diversity need to be developed. It asserts that narrative analytic techniques are an important means by which to inform such policy development.

The Skillmax Program was launched by the New South Wales State Government at the end of 1988 as a result of concern about the underutilisation of the skills of overseas qualified and experienced immigrants in the labour force. The program is administered by the NSW Adult Migrant English Service. The aim of this study is to evaluate how well the Skillmax Program is achieving its aim of assisting non-English speaking background immigrants to maximise the use of their overseas experience and skills within the NSW labour market. The main source of data for the evaluation was a questionnaire distributed to all students who had studied in the program from July, 1993 to June, 1994. Those in the final program intake surveyed had just completed courses, those in the first intake surveyed had completed courses nine months previously. The questionnaire was sent to 458 ex-students in August, 1994 and 217 questionnaires were returned. Additional data was obtained from a literature search, a survey distributed to Skillmax program staff and a focus group meeting of the Skillmax Program's teachers, educational and vocational counsellor and program manager. Key research findings are: 71.9% of all respondents had found employment since enrolling in the Skillmax Program and 67.7% were still employed when the study was conducted; 84.9% of those respondents who had completed or partially completed courses ending from six to nine months before the study was conducted had found employment and 78.5% were still employed when the study was conducted; 66.7% of those respondents in employment had found employment at the same occupational level as in their countries of birth; 52% of all respondents were either unemployed (28.1%) or underemployed (23.9%); 85.9% of those respondents in employment considered that the Skillmax Program had contributed significantly to their success in finding employment. The study compares the findings of the current study to those from a previous Skillmax Program evaluation concluded in 1992 (Mograby & Eddie, The Skillmax Program Evaluation Report, 1992). Employment outcomes of participants in the current study are significantly better than those in the previous study. The study argues that improvements in employment outcomes can primarily be attributed to program improvements made since the 1992 evaluation. The study concludes that the Skillmax Program is achieving its aims. Recommendations for program improvement and future directions for the program are made.

More and more women from poor areas of the world are migrating to rich countries for domestic work. Given the increasing published research on their exploitation and ‘slavery,’ much policy action has been oriented towards their protection as victims. Far from protecting the livelihood needs of these migrant workers, however, this victim-based approach has instead resulted in legitimising the protection of rich countries’ borders. An emerging perspective underscoring migrant women’s agency is producing a counter-approach that fights for migrant workers’ rights: not as victims but as workers. Yet despite this important development in research and policy agendas, increasing inequality in the global economy and stringent immigration policies render a rights-based approach ineffective. From poor countries, and with very limited livelihood options, these migrant women choose overseas domestic work often at the expense of their human rights. As migrants, they are outsiders whose rights are superseded by the rights of the sovereign, receiving-state. How is it possible then, to protect the rights of these workers? This thesis employs Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum’s Capability Approach to evaluate the efficacy of these women’s agency in overcoming victimisation. This evaluation gives equal consideration to the victim and rights-based perspectives. It synthesises the Capability Approach with Anthony Giddens’ Structuration Theory in order to reconcile the polarised theories underlying the victim and rights-based perspectives - feminist structural theory and migration agency theory, respectively. In so doing, the study is able to refine the conceptualisation of agency from the highly ambiguous rights-based approach, to a more theoretically sound and feasible capability approach. The main hypothesis is that agency requires capability to successfully mediate victimisation; agency in itself is insufficient. The study draws on the experiences of Filipina overseas domestic workers in Paris and Hong Kong to test this hypothesis, and demonstrates how it is ‘capability’ that can turn the ‘slave’ into ‘the worker’, and protect ‘the worker’ from turning into a ‘slave.’

A participant-observation study was carried out of a centre providing intensive English instruction for newly arrived, migrant adolescents. This study was conducted during a period of fifteen months from late in 1978 to the end of 1979, by which time the Intensive Language Unit had been operating for three and a half years. Part of the study traced the establishment of the Unit as an independent body within the A.C.T. secondary education system. This involved an examination of the process by which the Unit was set up in 1976, and of the context in preceding years of general developments in migrant education throughout Australia and, in particular, those occurring in the A.C.T. Data collected during 1979 dealt with this background and also with the Unit's operation and role in the A.C.T. in 1979. Some of this data was documentary evidence but a considerable part consisted of interview material obtained from key individuals associated with the Unit. From this material was gained an understanding of their perceptions and actions in the establishment and operation of the new institution. Analysis of the data indicated a distinct pattern of continuity in the first years of the Unit's existence. It became apparent that this continuity had been maintained by several factors. These were the existence, from the start, of a clearly defined rationale and the presence at the Unit of a selected group of dedicated teachers who strongly supported it. The outcome was that in 1979 the rationale had become entrenched to such an extent that Unit teachers were prepared to protect the Unit's threatened integrity with considerable effort. It was possible to relate these features of the Unit to the general context in which it emerged. This study revealed how, in the early 1970's, increasing awareness of the inadequacy of migrant education as well as the significant roles of the Schools Commission and the individual who set up the Unit, produced a situation in which the new centre developed its distinctive features which still existed at the end of 1979. A general overview was developed of how a new institution with a high degree of autonomy was introduced into an existing system, of the advantages and difficulties which resulted, and how it was able to maintain its independence and particular character during the early years of its existence.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of communication-satisfaction within and between institutions that are responsible for the administration of AMEP in the ACT. These institutions are: The TAFE Colleges Office of ACT Further Education and The Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. Data were collected from the educators and administrators. Two questions were addressed and four hypotheses were tested, which addressed themselves to the following aspects of communication: corporate perspective personal feedback organizational integration relation with supervisor communication climate horizontal communication media quality relation with subordinates. The general conclusion drawn from the study was that the institutions that are responsible for the administration of AMEP in the ACT operate at different levels (i.e. policy, implementation and operations) and experience difficulty with communication between institutional boundaries. However, there is little relation between the level of individual perception within and between institutions.