[lg policy] The Politics of Language Policy in Australia

[Harold Schiffman]

The Politics of Language Policy in Australia

Ozolins (1993) brings us all the way from post WW2 immigration/
formation of multicultural Australia to the adoption National Policy
on Languages (Lo Bianco 1987). The question that it answers most
poingiantly, is “why is there a stigma around learning Asian languages
in Australia”. Ozolins answers by explaining how Australia was still
seeking to forge its own national identity, and was yet to become
fully comfortable with itself. In the context of its own lack of a
cultural foundation, the fear of the influence of non-Anglo Saxon
cultures was palpable. Policies of refugee settlement included the
determination that there would be no ‘undue aggregations of aliens in
any particular towns or centres’ (6 March 1947). The then Minister of
Immigration Arthur Calwell attempts to reassure the continent that
‘for every foreign migrant there wil lbeten people from the United
Kingdom (Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates 1946).

Assimilation was expected, speaking languages other than English at
home was throughly discouraged, and students at school studied French
and German, but never for practical reasons, only to help develop the
cognitive abilities of the students. Arguably the last point may not
have changed much. I would say that, the long held insecurities of
White Australians, is still the invisible barrier which holds young
people back from succeeding in Asian languages.

http://danednie.com/2012/05/23/the-politics-of-language-policy-in-australia/

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