Skilled Migrants' Experiences of Othering, Alterity and Language Policing

Abstract

The Australian Permanent Migration Program and related settlement services have been critical to Australia's success as a stable, democratic and culturally diverse nation. However, emerging research has revealed that this success may come with a high price for as many as one in four skilled migrants who find themselves employed beneath their level of education, expertise and experience, which we define as underemployment. We designed a study that sought to understand the settlement experiences of 36 Asia-Pacific-skilled migrants working as managers. Incorporating Spivak's concepts of subalternity, othering and alterity as a theoretical framework, our analysis uncovered how migrant identity intersected with the linguistic prejudice and othering that arose in migrants' everyday interactions with coworkers and employers. We found that the skilled migrants experienced linguistic prejudice and discrimination despite their high levels of English language proficiency.