Review of the Circumstances Among Children in Immigrant Families in Australia

Abstract

Australia has always had a very high level of immigration. There were about 1.5 million children 0 to 17 years of age in immigrant families in Australia in 2001. This represented almost 33% of all children. More than a quarter of these children were in families from the most consistent countries of immigrant origin, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Another 17% were in families from other parts of Europe, while 10% were in families from New Zealand, and 3% were in families from other countries in Oceania. Compared with most other OECD countries, there is a dearth of research on children in immigrant families in Australia, and relatively limited administrative data that might allow us to compare immigrant families to other families in the general population. No recent studies track the educational, health, or employment trajectories of children in families in various immigrant groups. Research on children in immigrant families undertaken since the 1970s has been sporadic and fragmentary. None of the flagship studies on child well-being provides specific information about culturally and linguistically diverse children or children in immigrant families. There are no national studies on the involvement of these children with the child welfare, juvenile justice, or out-of-home care systems, and it is therefore not known if they are overrepresented or underrepresented. Studies tend to compare two or three ethnic or language groups, group all immigrants together, or classify immigrant children according to English-speaking or nonEnglish speaking backgrounds. Australians pride themselves on the harmony and the relative lack of racial tension in their society, but hard data on indicators of racial harmony are scarce. We examine the limited evidence base below, and supplement an analysis of census data and data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). The findings are rather paradoxical. On the one hand the research confirms the serious disadvantages in well-being that children in certain immigrant groups face, relative to the overall population. The disadvantages include poorer educational outcomes, exposure to racism, the trauma of separation from the cultural Child Ind Res (2010) 3:439-458

Early childhood economic disadvantage and the health of Hispanic children

“…It is also important to study economic deprivation and child health outside of the U.S., where social and immigration policies are distinct. A recent review in Australia highlighted the multiple structural disadvantages faced by children in immigrant families (Katz & Redmond, 2010), but it is not clear whether the implications for child health would be similar in that setting. Further, although European research has found negative psychological adaption among immigrant youth, little is known about economic deprivation and physical health among children in immigrant families across different European countries (Sam, Vedder, Liebkind, Neto, & Virta, 2008; van Geel & Vedder, 2011).…”

Liminal but Competent: Latin American Migrant Children and School in Australia

“…Recent child migrants seem to perform well in school and there appears to be no significant connection between school achievement and being a child of a non-English speaking background. Katz and Redmond (2009) suggest that migrant parents' high educational attainment, due to Australia's current skilled migration policy, could partly explain their children's high academic achievement. The well documented emphasis migrant parents place on their children's education is most likely another reason.…”

“…As Zhou (1997) states for immigrants in the United States "In the long journey to becoming American, progress is largely contingent upon human and financial capital that their immigrant parents bring along, the social conditions from which their families exit as well as the context that receives them, and their cultural patterns -including values, family relations, and social ties-reconstructed in the process of adaptation" (p. 999). But even when first generation migrant children excel in school, as has been the case for many migrant groups in Australia and elsewhere (Duchesne, 1996;Katz & Redmond, 2009;Ogbu & Simons, 1998;Sam, 2006) reducing their lives to their academic performance as a measure of wellbeing is rather simplistic. Research on the school lives of migrant children has neglected the psychological burden that can accompany intercultural transitions (Laosa, 1999).…”

International Perspectives on the State-as-Parent: Naïve Idealism or Reluctant Pragmatism

“…265–266), difficulties are most pronounced among children from non‐English‐speaking backgrounds and those whose families arrive with less skills and resources. Overall, however, outcomes for children in immigrant families are comparable with those of their peers (Katz & Redmond, , p. 439).…”