Asylum seekers in Australia face a few very public hurdles. Successive governments have used increasingly restrictive refugee policies to gain votes. Meanwhile, the media often focuses on the issue of…
Murugan Temple, Colombo (Source: Andy Nobes) Do you know which non-Christian religion has grown the fastest in Australia since the new millennium? You might be surprised to hear that it’s…
Language and migration: the workshop presenters and organizers On December 11th, Ingrid Piller (Macquarie University) and Donna Butorac (Curtin University), organised a workshop on Language and Migration for the 2015…
January 26, Australia Day: whether you are celebrating depends on your perspective (Source: news.com.au) Here in Australia we celebrated our national holiday yesterday. Australia Day marks the end of the…
Australia: The White Man's Land (Source: NLA) Australia has a proud national narrative of migration and multiculturalism. It also has an equally prevalent history of exclusionary and discriminatory migration policy.…
"You have the right to remain silent" (Source: Tumblr) “You have the right to remain silent” is an expression familiar to many English speakers. But what is involved in understanding…
Editor's note: We are delighted to bring to our readers today another outstanding experience of bilingual creativity, the poem Malay Sketches by Sydney author Aisyah Shah Idil, a runner up of the…
Condemned to consume My migration newsfeed in the past few weeks has been dominated by news about the Syrian refugee crisis and the various European and international responses. But there…
High Court of Australia (Source: Wikipedia) When people arrive in countries like Australia, seeking to be recognised as refugees and offered protection, it is obviously important that they are able…
Benz, Victoria. 2015. Dynamics of bilingual early childhood education: Parental attitudes and institutional realisation. PhD. Macquarie University. Victoria Benz recently completed her PhD thesis about “Dynamics of bilingual early childhood education: Parental…
Tetteh, Vera W. 2015. Language, Education and Settlement: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography on, with, and for Africans in Australia. PhD thesis, Macquarie University. Vera Williams Tetteh has just completed her PhD…
Linguistic diversity is valued in this school (Photo Courtesy of Angela Turzynski-Azimi) The 46th annual conference of the Australian Linguistic Society (ALS) is being hosted by the University of Western Sydney…
"How bad is your cultural cringe?" (Source: Jenna Guillaume, BuzzFeed) Keith: I’m still really shit at pronouncing Lisa’s surname. With the umlaut o. Hanna: What is Lisa’s surname? (laughter) Keith:…
Voice of China Sydney 2015, Program Booklet It’s a weeknight at the Sydney Town Hall, an ornate 19th century building in the city centre. Almost everyone bustling in the entryway…
Panel on Representing Culturally Diverse Clients Cultural Diversity and the Law: Access to justice in multicultural Australia was a conference held in Sydney on the 13th and 14th of March.…