Research seminar: Deaf people from migrant backgrounds: Australian perspectives

Abstract

Australia is a highly multilingual, multicultural society. Over 30% of people were born overseas and 1 in 5 Australians speak a language other than English at home (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2022). This means that Australia is home to many Deaf and hard of hearing people from migrant backgrounds, but they often fall between the cracks: mainstream deafness services do not know much about migrants and mainstream migrant services do not have expertise in deafness.

In this presentation, Associate Professor Louisa Willoughby gives an overview of research she conducted on the situation and needs of deaf people from migrant backgrounds in Victoria, Australia, and what has changed in the intervening time. One of the most pressing issues identified in the research was a lack of Auslan (Australian Sign Language) classes for Deaf migrants – a basic program has now been running for many years but Deaf migrants still struggle to find appropriate classes to develop their English skills. The presentation is ended by inviting the seminar to reflect on similarities and differences to the situation for Deaf migrants in Sweden and what sort of research and policy initiatives are needed to help improve the situation. 

The seminar is held in English and translated to Swedish Sign Language.

About the speaker

Associate Professor Louisa Willoughby is a sociolinguist/applied linguist who deeply interested in how multlicultural societies respond to linguistic diversity. She works with mainstream institutions such as schools, hospitals and libraries in Australia to explore better ways of engaging with clients from non-English speaking backgrounds and developing multilingual language proficiency. Much of her recent work looks at Deaf sign language users, but she also has a strong interest in migrant languages, especially for small and newly-arrived migrant groups.