Just published

The following manuscript has just been published with volume and page numbers (after being published online in February 2017). It forms part of Helen Blake's PhD.
Blake, H. L., Bennetts Kneebone, L., & McLeod, S. (2019). The impact of oral English proficiency on humanitarian migrants’ experiences of settling in Australia. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(6), 689-705. doi:10.1080/13670050.2017.1294557

Free download (50 copies):
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13670050.2017.1294557#.XT_QoEnsPlA.twitter

Here is my short summary for Twitter:

Oral English proficiency was the largest predictor of self-sufficiency (get a job, get help in emergency) (explaining 21% of variance) followed by age, gender, education, and time since arrival.

Here is the abstract

Key drivers for migrants’ social integration are education, employment, and skills in the dominant language of the settlement country. Data from Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants were used to examine migrants’ English proficiency and how oral English proficiency facilitated or hindered participation in activities that may help them become self-sufficient and settle. Participants were 2399 humanitarian migrants interviewed in the first wave of data collection (during 2013/14). Before arrival in Australia, 80.1% reported they spoke English not well or not at all. After arrival, oral English proficiency was a statistically significant predictor of self-sufficiency (knowing how to look for a job, get help in an emergency, etc.) explaining 21% of the variance while controlling for confounding variables such as age and education. After English proficiency, age (neither too young nor too old), gender (male), education (more than 12 years), and time since arrival (more than one year) were significant predictors of self-sufficiency. Identification of factors that predict self-sufficiency informs the understanding of people who provide support for humanitarian migrants. These findings indicate poor oral English skills may profoundly hinder humanitarian migrants’ ability to settle and highlight the importance of supporting migrants’ English learning.

The typical Australian in 2016: First data from the latest Australian census

In my work on multilingual Australia I often quote the census data. The first data from the 2016 Australian census has been released and has been presented by the ABC here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-11/typical-australian-revealed-in-2016-census-data-release/8434178
According to the article:

The typical Australian "is a 38-year-old woman who was born in Australia, has English ancestry, is married with two kids, lives in a home she owns and has finished Year 12"

"The profile of the typical Indigenous Australian is younger again — just 23 years of age"

"According to the ABS, the typical Australian migrant was born in England and is 44 years old — but that varies when examined on a state-by-state basis.

The typical migrant in Victoria is from India, while in Queensland they are from New Zealand and in New South Wales he or she is from China.

While the typical Australian has two parents born in Australia, in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia at least one parent was born overseas."

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics "Most data from the 2016 Census will be available in QuickStats on 27 June 2017"

The effect of oral English proficiency on humanitarian migrants’ experiences of settling in Australia

The following manuscript has been accepted for publication.
Blake, H. L., Bennetts Kneebone, L. & McLeod, S. (2017, in press). The effect of oral English proficiency on humanitarian migrants’ experiences of settling in Australia. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. doi: 10.1080/13670050.2017.1294557

It can be downloaded for free from here: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SCMzCTEsAucbwEzRtjDi/full

Here is the abstract:

Key drivers for migrants’ social integration are education, employment, and skills in the dominant language of the settlement country. Data from Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants were used to examine migrants’ English proficiency and how oral English proficiency facilitated or hindered participation in activities that may help them become self-sufficient and settle. Participants were 2399 humanitarian migrants interviewed in the first wave of data collection (during 2013/14). Before arrival in Australia, 80.1% reported they spoke English not well or not at all. After arrival, oral English proficiency was a statistically significant predictor of self-sufficiency (knowing how to look for a job, get help in an emergency, etc.) explaining 21% of the variance while controlling for confounding variables such as age and education. After English proficiency, age (neither too young nor too old), gender (male), education (more than 12 years), and time since arrival (more than one year) were significant predictors of self-sufficiency. Identification of factors that predict self-sufficiency informs the understanding of people who provide support for humanitarian migrants. These findings indicate poor oral English skills may profoundly hinder humanitarian migrants’ ability to settle and highlight the importance of supporting migrants’ English learning.

Humanitarian migrants' English language proficiency and integration: "All is well and good but the problem is language"

The 14th Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) Conference: Research to results: Using evidence to improve outcomes for families is being held in Melbourne this week. Helen Blake is presenting a paper titled "Humanitarian migrants' English language proficiency and integration: 'All is well and good but the problem is language'" during the conference. The paper is co-authored with myself and Laura Bennetts Kneebone. It uses data from the Building a new life in Australia: the Longitudinal Study of Humanitrian Migrants that is overseen by the National Centre for Longitudinal Data, Department of Social Services (DSS) www.dss.gov.au/ncld and the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS). CSU has written a news release about the research here.  

Helen Blake and Laura Bennetts Kneebone