28 June 2011

Australian migrants need more support

Older Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are struggling more than Australian-born adults in many areas of social and economic wellbeing, a new report to be launched in Melbourne this morning has found.

The National Seniors Australia Productive Ageing Centre report, The Ageing Experience of Australians from Migrant Backgrounds, studies the ageing experiences of Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

National Seniors Australia general manager policy and research, Peter Matwijiw, said the report was based on data from the 2006 census, and paints a detailed picture about this large and significant group of older Australians.

“Australia is a country built on immigration, but it’s less well known that the migrant population has an older age structure than the Australian-born population,’’ he said.

“This report provides a detailed insight into the demographics of CALD Australians as well as assessing factors such as personal income, living arrangements, home ownership, level of education, English proficiency, their involvement in paid work and other factors.

“The results were very different dependent on ethnic background and cultural factors but overall we found that even whilst most have lived in Australia for more than 30 years, they are not faring as well as those born in Australia in terms of social and economic wellbeing.”

The report found that older Australians of Italian and Greek origins are the two largest birthplace and language groups of CALD background.

It also found that aged Australians from countries such as Lebanon, Turkey and Vietnam have lower levels of social and economic wellbeing than the other CALD groups; and older Australians originally from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Sri Lanka are better educated and have better incomes than other groups of CALD adults.

“Interestingly we found that older people from Southern and Eastern European and Asian countries were all more likely to be living at home and not in an institutional care facility than migrants from the English speaking or Western European countries and the Australian born aged. We expect this is probably a result of cultural reasons,’’ he added.

Matwijiw said one in five Australians aged 50 and over were born in a non-English speaking country.

“There needs to be better ways to increase English proficiency in older adults from non-English speaking backgrounds, including those who have lived in Australia for many years,’’ he said.

“English proficiency among CALD older adults declines with increasing age and women are less likely than men to speak English well.

“We know that many dementia patients lose their ability to speak English and revert back to their native language. This also raises some important points about whether health and other services need to be tailored better to meet the needs of CALD Australians.”

Matwijiw said it was now time to look at the findings through different policy and cultural lenses to help older Australians from various backgrounds to improve their ageing experiences.

Peter Matwijiw is available for comment

Media contact: Casey Seaniger 0422 391 627

---

With a quarter of a million members Australia-wide, National Seniors is the consumer lobby for the over 50s. It is the fourth largest organisation of its type in the world.