Spanish in Australia Travis 2013

7/25/2019 Spanish in Australia Travis 2013

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2013 (To Appear). September Festival Magazine.

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According to the 2011 census, some 250 different languages are spoken by close to fourmillion Australians. Where does Spanish sit in this? In 2011, there were 117,498 people in

Australia who speak Spanish in the home; this represents approximately one half of onepercent of the Australian population, or 3% of those who speak a language other than

English in the home. Not only is this a small proportion of the population, but thesespeakers are a heterogeneous group, as they originate from some 20 different Spanish-

speaking countries. Though they are small in number and diverse in origin, Spanishspeakers in Australia are a dynamic community, supported by many social and cultural

organisations and events. This September Festival Magazineis of course one example, as isthe Chilean Latin American September Festival with which it is associated.

Here, I present a portrait of Hispanics in Australia, based on figures from the AustralianCensus of Population and Housing, carried out across Australia every five years and most

recently in 2011. The census asks two questions that are of relevance here. In which

country was the person born? provides information on the origins of first-generationimmigrants to Australia. Does the person speak a language other than English at home?(with space to indicate what language that is) gives the number of speakers of different

languages (community languages, as I will refer to them here), including those bornoverseas and those born in Australia. These two questions will be the focus of this

overview, but before zooming in on Spanish, we will briefly consider Australiascommunity languages more broadly.


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Figure 1 Reproduction of questions on country of birth and language spoken at home from the

2011 Australian Census of Population and Housing

!"##$%&'( *+%,$+,-. &% /$.'0+*&+Australia is a linguistically diverse country, and is becoming ever more so. In 1991,approximately 2.5 million people (or 15% of the Australian population) spoke a community

language; in 2011, this had risen to approximately 3.9 million (19% of the population).Thus, in this twenty-year period, we saw the number of speakers of languages other than

English rise by one half. The Australian population over all, on the other hand, rose by 4million in this same time period, an increase of one quarter. Thus, the population of

speakers of community languages is increasing at a faster rate than the Australianpopulation overall.


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Figure 2 Speakers of community languages as a proportion of the Australian population in 1991

(N = 16,357,398) and 2011 (N = 20,422,226) (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

As well as growth in the numbers of speakers, we have also seen an increase in thediversity of community languages spoken. Italian and Greek have long been the mostwidely spoken community languages in Australia, and in 1991, speakers of Italian and

Greek together represented close to 30% of all speakers of Australian communitylanguages. Other European languages included in the top eight community languages were

German, Polish and Spanish. In 2011, for the first time, Mandarin overtook Italian as thenumber one community language, and Arabic and Cantonese overtook Greek to move into

third and fourth place respectively. This reflects a changing trend in Australianimmigration, with more and more immigration coming from Asia and the Arabic-speaking

world, and in general, a decline in the proportion of speakers of European languages.

Apart from Italian and Greek, the only other European language that retained its place in

the top eight from 1991 to 2011 was Spanish, which is one of the few European languagesthat has been consistently growing over this twenty-year period, during which time it

increased by one third (from 90,477 speakers in 1991 to 117,498 in 2011). This is inaccordance with the move away from European immigration, for though Spanish is a

European Language, the majority of our Spanish-speaking immigrants come from LatinAmerica, as we will see below.

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Figure 3 Eight most widely spoken community languages in Australia in 1991 and 2011

(Australian Bureau of Statistics)

12+%&.3 &% /$.'0+*&+Not all of Australias 117,498 Spanish speakers were born in Spanish-speaking countries;close to one third were born in Australia, and a small proportion were born in other (non-

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Spanish speaking) parts of the world. Furthermore, not all those born in Spanish-speaking

countries necessarily speak Spanish, as some lose Spanish after living in Australia for manyyears (in particular, those who arrived when they were young), or marry Australians, and

no longer speak Spanish the home (recall that this is the way in which the question isworded in the census). The number of people born in a Spanish-speaking country is

therefore not surprisingly smaller than the number of Spanish speakers. In 2011, there werejust over 100,000 people born in Spanish-speaking countries residing in Australia, from

distinct regions of the Spanish-speaking world. The largest group is from Chile, which,with nearly 25,000 people, accounts for one-quarter of all Hispanic immigrants in

Australia, almost twice as many as the next most well represented group, those born inSpain (13,000). Five other Latin American countries have strong representation, namely

Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Uruguay and Peru (between 9 and 12%, or 12,000 and8,000 people). The only other countries that have a population of some size are Mexico,

Venezuela and Ecuador, which represent between 2% and 3% of the Australian Hispanicpopulation.

Just as we saw significant changes in the distribution of community languages from 1991 to

2011, we also see significant changes in the distribution of Hispanics over this time period.Particularly notable is Spain: in 1991 there were approximately 15,000 people born inSpain residing in Australia, and in 2011 this had dropped to 13,000; and thus Spanish-born

went from representing 20% of Australias Hispanics in 1991 (with 15,000 people) to just13% (with 13,000). Though less drastic, we also see a drop in the proportion of people from

Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and El Salvador. Where we see an increase is from non-southerncone areas of South America, in particular Colombia and Peru. Likewise for Mexico,

Venezuela and Ecuador: though the numbers are much lower, the proportion of people bornin these three countries has doubled or tripled over these twenty years. These changes are

intrinsically tied in with Australias immigration policy as well as economic and politicalconditions in the country of origin, which we will now consider, focusing on the seven

most well represented regions.Table 1 Ten best represented countries where Spanish is spoken as birthplaces of Australian first

generation immigrants in 2011 and 1991 (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

2011 1991

Chile 25% 27%

Spain 13% 20%

Argentina 12% 15%

Colombia 12% 3%

El Salvador 10% 12%

Uruguay 9% 13%Peru 9% 5%

Mexico 3% 1%

Venezuela 3% 1%

Ecuador 2% 1%

Other 3% 2%


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/ 3&.'"0( "4 12+%&.3 &% /$.'0+*&+In 2011, Australia celebrated 100 years of census collection. This gives us a rich historicalresource, on the basis of which we can chart the demographic makeup of our immigrants.

Figure 4 Number of people residing in Australia who were born in the most well-represented

Spanish-speaking countries in 2011, from 1921-2011 (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

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The Spanish have the longest presence in Australia, and were recorded on the census as

early as 1921, primarily Basques working in the sugar-cane industry in Queensland.Immigration from Spain was relatively minimal, however, until 1958 when the Australian

and Spanish governments signed an agreement according to which the Australian

government offered Spanish immigrants assistance with the cost of travel to Australia(though the Assisted Passages Scheme), as part of the extensive post-World War IIimmigration from Europe. By 1971, the Spanish population had reached its peak, and it

remained relatively stable for the next twenty years, and then began to decline. Spainsadmission to the European Union in 1986, which gave the Spanish ready access to

prosperous states that were much closer and more readily accessible than Australia, notonly slowed immigration to Australia, but resulted in some Spanish immigrants returning

home. There has been a slight rise in Spanish-born in recent years, in particular from 2006-2011, and it will be interesting to see what changes occur between now and the next census

in 2016, given the current economic situation in Spain and across much of Europe.

5##&,0+'&"% 40"# 6+'&% /#-0&7+Australias immigration policy up until the 1970s was governed by the White Australia

Policy, which favoured immigrants from particular countries, in particular Britain. LatinAmerican immigrants during this time were thus primarily British who happened to live in

Latin America, or post-World War II immigrants from Europe, who migrated first to LatinAmerica and then to Australia. In terms of the census recording of immigration from this

region, until 1971, Latin American countries were not reported on individually. In 1971,when data from the different countries was first given, people in Australia born in Spain

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outnumbered those born in the Latin American countries combined. By 1981, however,

those born in Latin America already doubled those born in Spain. This immigration historycan be broken down into three waves, according to time of immigration, which corresponds

with immigration circumstances and region, namely the Southern Cone, El Salvador, and(non-Southern Cone) South America.

C99'=&"#'4( D&49 #$% 741#$%&( !4(%The first major source of immigration to Australia from Latin America was from theSouthern Cone, in particular Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. Immigration from Argentina

and Uruguay was sparked by poor economic conditions (high inflation and highunemployment), and political turmoil, culminating in harsh military dictatorships. The peak

of immigration from these two countries was in the 1970s; Argentinian and Uruguayanimmigrants arrived under the Assisted Passage Scheme, to be housed in migrant hostels

(for example, those in Fairfield in Sydney and Springvale in Melbourne), from which theylater moved to the surrounding suburbs. From the 1980s, with the return of democracy to

both Argentina and Uruguay, immigration has been minimal, and some have returned totheir home country.

The story of immigration from Chile is slightly different, in that it can be broken down intothree distinct phases. The first took place over the last two years of rule of Chiles Christian

Democratic President, Eduardo Frei (1968-1970), a time of immense economic andpolitical turmoil; in this period, many well educated, English speaking, middle-class

Chileans left Chile for Australia. The second phase occurred following the election of leftistpresident Salvador Allende in 1970, which also saw wealthy, educated Chileans come to

Australia. The third, and primary, phase transpired under Augusto Pinochets brutaldictatorship (1973-1990). In this period, immigrants came primarily under the Special

Humanitarian Program for refugees or the Family Reunion Scheme. By 1990, there wereover 18,000 Chileans in Australia, and no doubt due in part to these large numbers and the

fact that a strong community had been established, Chileans continue to immigrate toAustralia today, many coming to join their family, and others coming as professionals to

pursue their career in Australia.

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El Salvador as a country of birth was first reported on the Australian census in 1986, at

which time a figure of just over 2,000 was recorded. By 1996, this had grown five times toalmost 10,000. The vast majority of Salvadoran immigrants came under the Special

Humanitarian Program for refugees, escaping the Salvadoran Civil War (1979-1992), andAustralia received more refugees from El Salvador than from any other Latin American

country. Many had little or no English on arrival, and took work in labouring andproduction. Since the end of the civil war in 1992, there has been minimal continued

immigration from El Salvador.C99'=&"#'4( D&49 !4249:'" "(E F%&1

Finally, in more recent years we have seen increased immigration from areas of South

America outside of the Southern Cone, especially from Colombia and Peru. Though thenumbers are lower for these two countries than for the other Latin American countries

mentioned above, they are increasing much more rapidly, particularly for the Colombians.From 2001 to 2011, the Peruvian population in Australia rose by one half (from 5,600 to

8,200), and the Colombian population almost tripled (from 4,100 to 11,300).


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In the late 1960s, the Australian government expanded its immigration program in Latin

America to offer the Assisted Passage Scheme much more widely, and Peruvians, as wellas Colombians (though to a lesser degree) took advantage of this. Immigrants of this time

typically had little English, and common professions were in trades or production. The pastten years, however, have seen a marked shift in the social demographic, in accordance with

Australian immigration policy which has moved towards schemes that attract skilledworkers. In the more recent arrivals we find large numbers of well educated, highly skilled,

bilinguals. Included in this group are students: there are currently 1,000 Colombiansstudying in Australia, making Colombia second only to Brazil as a source of international

students from Latin America, and 14th

overall.

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In sum, we have seen a shift in the demographic of Australias Spanish-speaking

immigrants. In the 1970s and 1980s (with the exception of the first two phases ofimmigration from Chile), immigrants from the Spanish-speaking world commonly arrived

under humanitarian schemes which allowed them to escape harsh economic and politicalsituations, with little money, little English and varying levels of education, to take on

(initially at least) unskilled or semiskilled jobs. Newer immigrants, in particular over thepast ten years, on the other hand, are highly trained, bilingual professionals, who come to

study, and/or to have their qualifications recognised in order to continue their career inAustralia. What all have in common is that they leave behind their country to seek a better

future in Australia, and in doing this, they become a dynamic and vital force in Australiansociety.

Catherine Travis is Professor of Modern European Languages in the School of LanguageStudies at the Australian National University. The ANU hosts a widely acclaimed Spanish

program which is winner of a national teaching award in 2012, and which includesAustralias only Hispanic Linguistics specialisation. Her research focuses on Hispanic

Linguistics and bilingualism, and she is currently examining the Spanish of Hispanicimmigrants in Australia and the US.

See her website at: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/travis-ce

See her website for Spanish in Australia at: https://sites.google.com/site/espanolaustralia/

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Spanish in Australia Travis 2013