Latin Americans in Australia : a study in migration satisfaction

Abstract

Nearly three-fourths of the 33,000 Latin Americans in Australia in mid-1976 are from Chile, Uruguay and Argentina. Political and economic "pushes" plus Australia’s assistance are the main reasons for that flow, but many unmarried immigrants from those and other Latin American nations are motivated by travel desires. Most come from the metropolitan middle class, but there are wide variations between the migrants. Prior to 1969 the flow was notably "non-Latin" (e.g. Anglo-Argentinian), but over 80% of the total have arrived since then and are "true" Latin Americans. About 70% are in Sydney and many associate in several clubs, but otherwise there is no real "community". This is partly because of socio-economic differences between migrants' Latin American background and current situations in Australia. The Latin American immigrants were mainly selected on the basis of their education, qualifications and employment. However, many of them are employed at levels below their skills. The theme of migration satisfaction is developed and applied to Australia's Latin Americans. The literature review discusses the related concept of "place utility" and also the use of "satisfaction" in a sequence leading to "identification" and "acculturation". A measurement scale of nine ranked levels of migration satisfaction is developed using a sample of 299 Latin American Independent Decision Makers in Australia. That scale is then used to identify which characteristics of immigrants are associated with migration satisfaction. Those characteristics are organized as premigration, post-migration, relative change, and personal variables. Several main ones (marital status, motivation, relative change in occupation level, English ability, and friends/relatives in Australia) are used to complete a typology of Latin Americans in Australia. Discriminant analysis is used in an attempt to combine the characteristics in order to diagnose the migration satisfaction of immigrants or predict its level in prospective migrants. The results suggest that further work using the discriminant analysis technique and the concept of migration satisfaction would be very fruitful and of great practical value to immigration officials and social workers dealing with any group of immigrants in any nation, not just Latin Americans in Australia. Likewise, there will be benefits from other studies of the Latin Americans who in the 1970's have become and will probably remain Australia's fastest growing non-British immigrant population in both absolute numbers and in rate of growth. Show more