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Language and migration

Patriots and traitors

By June 6, 2011November 27th, 20203 Comments3 min read6,545 views

Much of my work in recent years around language learning and migrant settlement has questioned the straightforward link between language learning and settlement success. Policy makers as well as migrants themselves assume that a key factor that keeps migrants out of the local job market is their lack of English proficiency, and that increased English proficiency will bring employment. Of course, it doesn’t usually work that way (see here, here or here) because race, gender and education, among other factors, mediate access to employment, too.

Over the past three days the Sydney Morning Herald has been reporting on a “natural field experiment” that once again confirms the tenuous link between English language proficiency and settlement success, particularly as measured by employment outcomes. The story is that of Iraqis who worked as translators and interpreters for the Australian army during the 2003 invasion. When Australian forces withdrew from Iraq in 2008, many of those translators and interpreters, who were by then considered traitors in their homeland and the target of insurgents, were granted residency in Australia and airlifted to safety in a secret military mission.

Three years on, the Sydney Morning Herald has now surveyed over 200 of these individuals about their current life in Australia (read here and here). According to conventional wisdom settling in Australia should be a breeze for these people: as translators and interpreters, they are obviously highly proficient in English; they all have high levels of education, with most of them tertiary educated and having prior experience in their professions; and they’ve obviously demonstrated their commitment to Australian values in a more personal and tangible way than could ever be measured by any citizenship test.

Unfortunately, the fate of these model migrants is no different from those who our politicians like to exhort to learn English, to get an education and to embrace Australian values so that they can find a job. Of 223 former Iraqi army translators and interpreters now living in six capital cities around Australia, only nine are in full-time employment, and of these only one single person is employed in their area of expertise. Thus, for this group, the Australian national unemployment rate of only 4.9% is turned on its head and pretty much constitutes their employment rate.

The personal testimony of the people interviewed for the story is heart-breaking. They cannot go back to Iraq where they’ve seen their colleagues killed because of their work for the Australian troops and where they fear their names can still be found on the execution lists of terror commandos. At the same time, they see their life, skills and self-esteem wasting away in Australia, where they survive by relying on welfare.

How many more migrants will have to face that fact that “coming to Australia was the worst decision of my life,” as a 28-year-old chemical engineer says in the feature, before we recognize that the problem is systemic and not the consequence of individual failures to learn English, get an education or embrace Australian values? Thanks to the Sydney Morning Herald for bringing the issue to a wider audience and thanks also for some excellent journalism!

Ingrid Piller

Author Ingrid Piller

Dr Ingrid Piller, FAHA, is Distinguished Professor of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her research expertise is in bilingual education, intercultural communication, language learning, and multilingualism in the context of migration and globalization.

More posts by Ingrid Piller

Join the discussion 3 Comments

  • Noor says:

    An impressive blog.
    Thank you Ingrid for sharing it.
    The youth these days do immigrate to western lands for greener pastures as Khan said but they end up with odd jobs in a foreign land. Language proficiency, high IELTS and TEFOL scores, expertise in their own fields just dont get them anywhere. The ones living abroad need to tell the ones planning to move that being a first rate citizen in a third world country is better than being rated a third-class citizen in a first world country.

  • khan says:

    Dear Ingrid,

    A powerful post hinting at the latent systematization of the so-called discourses of multilingualism, multiculturalism and plurality.

    A close friend, a graduate civil engineer from Pakistan, emigrated to Canada for greener pastures. He discovered that there was not any relevant job for him in Canadian labor market. After some time, he was advised to do a Canadian degree in his field which he successfully completed. The new degree proved no help and he is still jobless though he still has got three job options open for him : driving cab, working as security guard or delivering pizzas.

    By the way, he scored 8.5/9 on his IELTS. He says and I qoute, ‘ yeh parhay likha muzdooron ko bolaanay ka dhanda hai’. My translation, it is the business of getting literate labour for lower tier of economic system.

    Systemic Problem!

    Khan

  • Dariush Izadi says:

    A thought provoking blog!
    That these types of people, though strongly supported by the governments and fortunately all of whom have a good command of English, are complaining about being unemployed or are feeling left out, let alone other migrants! There’s then no surprise that, to my limited knowledge, migrants’ lack of English proficiency has become a hallmark used by politicians so that they can come up with a workable and interim solution to deflect criticism made against them!

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