English Language Proficiency Among Older Migrants in Australia, 2016–2046

Abstract

Australia’s population is growing, ageing and exhibiting increasing heterogeneity with respect to birthplace and ethnic composition. Yet, little is understood about the levels of English language proficiency among the next generation of older migrants in Australia. Utilising a modified cohort-component model incorporating detailed language proficiency transition probabilities, we project birthplace populations by levels of English language proficiency to mid-century. Our results show that although Asian-born migrants tend to have lower levels of English proficiency, the majority of older migrants with poor proficiency are currently from a predominantly European background. In the future, we ..