 |
Changing linguistic landscape in Australian cities
May 12, 2008
|
|
| Click to listen to interview |
|
|
Australia is fast becoming a linguistically diverse society. In the past, we often heard English in various accents, but very little of any Asian language in public places. Migrants used to speak their native language only at home. But no longer is it taboo for migrants and temporary visitors to speak with their friends in their own native language in public places.
In shopping malls and in buses, in trams and trains in the major cities of Australia, one often hears young people and family from India talking with their friends in Hindi, Punjabi or one of dozens of other Indian languages. Another language group that one very often comes in contact with these days is Chinese – on campus, in the corridors of public offices and on the shopping malls.
In the past, one would hear some Greek and Italian in public places. But these languages have overwhelmingly disappeared from public space in Australia as almost all second and third-generation Greeks and Italians speak Aussie English.
What has caused this new linguistic landscape in Australia to emerge ?
Student arrivals from China and India for education from undergraduate, vocational to postgraduate and research programs have increased substantially in the last five years or so. In 2007, there were some 107,000 students from mainland China. In the same year there were some 63,000 Indian students in Australia. Together these two groups account for about 40 percent of the total overseas student population in Australia.
The numbers from China and India are projected to go up even further. More universities, vocational and professional educational providers are marketing their products in the world’s two most populous countries whose economies are growing faster than developed economies and where hunger for education is unending.
Increasingly students from China and India choose courses that give them the maximum migration points making them eligible to stay in Australia. My interviews with some Indian students clearly indicate that their main motivation to choose Australia for education was determined by the greater chance they have to receive migration than in other Western countries. For example, Australian authorities give university level, accounting and IT graduates extra points on their migration application as these are currently desirable skills in Australia. Therefore, some universities have mounted two-year master level courses specifically designed for Chinese and Indian students.
Today education is Australia’s third largest export item overall. In 2007, Australia earned $12.5 billion in education exports.
While these students bring money to Australia, students complain that they are not very well looked after. Finding housing and part-time jobs is not easy. Many face difficult times due to financial burdens over a period of 2-3 years. But most persevere in the hope that one day they will settle permanently in this lucky country and have a decent life style, much better than what their native country would offer.
Indian students in particular borrow money from banks and try and repay as much as possible so that their parents’ financial burdens could be lightened. To that end, they work as taxi drivers, in supermarkets stacking shelves in night shifts, in aged care homes and so on where they earn more money on an hourly basis than working as a kitchen hand in a restaurant.
But very few Chinese students are engaged in these kinds of employment. Many don’t do any part-time work at all. Perhaps being the only child of their parents, Chinese students don’t need to struggle financially as much as do their Indian counterparts. But together they have changed the linguistic landscape of Australia and more and more linguistic mixture is likely to appear as the country seeks even more migrants -doctors, engineers, accountants and tradespeople.
For Radio Singapore International, this is Professor Purnendra Jain – Head of the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
|
|
edit2.gif)
