Intertwined Mobilities of Education, Tourism and Labour: The Consequences of 417 and 485 Visas in Australia

Robertson, Shanthi

doi:10.22459/uc.08.2016.03

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In a larger study focussed specifically on the experiences of accounting graduates seeking permanent skilled visas, Frost, Fan et al (2019) similarly identified a tendency to prioritise test preparation and repeat test taking over efforts to gain employment and to engage in social activities, which in this case was also driven in part by obstacles to employment for temporary visa holders in the accounting profession. These findings are consistent with an earlier study by Robertson (2016), who cites an example of a graduate who had gained employment as an accountant on a temporary visa but felt compelled to leave the position in order to focus on test preparation, so as to acquire a permanent visa as a means of gaining certainty over her residency status, and also of widening career options.…”

Section: Migrant Experiences Of Immigration Policy Driven Testingsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…As discussed above, the layered policy space, where English score requirements are engaged for different purposes by governments, professional bodies, and employers, all test users, creates an impetus for migrants to strive for IELTS 8. Research thus far into the experiences of migrants in this context has demonstrated that such aspirations come at a significant cost, in terms of both time, money, and de-skilling (e.g., Frost, 2017;Gribble, 2014;Robertson, 2016). Frost (2017), based on a longitudinal study of the experiences of four skilled migrants taking English tests for the purpose of gaining permanent residency in Australia, found that inconsistencies between English test experiences and communicative experiences at work and in social settings led to perceptions that score requirements were arbitrary.…”

Section: Migrant Experiences Of Immigration Policy Driven Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Negotiating the boundaries of responsibility: Rethinking test takers and the ethics of testing

Frost¹

2021

SiLA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While the importance of accounting for the use of tests as policy instruments is by now widely acknowledged, validation frameworks in language testing rest on core assumptions which, I argue, preclude consideration of the lived experiences and subjectivities of test takers, and of the intentions and purposeful actions these experiences and subjectivities engender. As a result, the complex and dynamic ways that test taker actions are implicated in generating test and policy consequences remain hidden from view, as do the ethical implications of the wider societal impacts of testing practices. Drawing on studies examining test taker experiences of the use of English testing for immigration purposes in the Australian context, I highlight the disconnect between how test takers, test users and language testers come to attribute meanings to testing practices in this complex policy setting, and the types of conflicting decisions and actions which then emerge. To conclude, I argue for a renewed criticality in language testing that extends beyond evaluations of how well, if at all, test uses align with the expectations of test users and/or language testers, to a focus on the expectations of test takers as the stakeholder group to whom we must be primarily accountable. This demands not only further research into the lived experiences of those subjected to testing practices, but also an engagement with the wider discursive space within which problems of language and of policy are imagined, and the ways in which language testing, as a discipline, is implicated in the production of idealised language users, workers, and citizens, together with the various exclusions these entail.

show abstract

Section: Migrant Experiences Of Immigration Policy Driven Testingsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Migrant Experiences Of Immigration Policy Driven Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating the boundaries of responsibility: Rethinking test takers and the ethics of testing

Frost¹

2021

SiLA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…I first outline the context of contemporary migration between Asia and Australia, highlighting how new migration policies and migrant flows have created 'staggered pathways' (Robertson, 2014(Robertson, , 2015a(Robertson, , 2016 of mobility, and then briefly outline the methods underpinning the empirical research. I then move to conceptual arguments around 'bringing time in' to the study of migrant experience and an overview of the existing work on migration and temporality that I draw on and seek to expand upon in the subsequent analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migrant, interrupted: The temporalities of ‘staggered’ migration from Asia to Australia

Robertson

2018

Current Sociology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The mobilities of increasing numbers of ‘middling’ migrants from Asia to Australia involve complex trajectories that encompass multiple transitions across statuses and places as well as ambiguities around temporariness and permanence. This article argues that during these ‘staggered’ migrations, intersections between multiple ‘timescales’ – institutional, biographic and everyday – produce specific experiences of time for migrants that interrupt teleological imaginaries of both life transitions and migration outcomes. Drawing on data from in-depth narrative interviews with middling migrants, this article focuses on two such temporal experiences, ‘contingent temporality’ and ‘indentured temporality’, and seeks to demonstrate how these experiences are produced through the overlaps and intersections of institutional, biographical and everyday timescales. The article seeks to advance empirical understandings of the temporalities of new forms of migrant mobility between Asia and Australia, as well as to contribute new conceptual approaches to scholarship on migration and time.

show abstract

“…As King and Raghuram (2013) have noted, student migration outpaces international migration by four (IOM, 2008). The existing ISM scholarship covers a diverse range of topics, such as the history of ISM, the nomenclature of ‘mobility’ (vs. immigration), the globalisation and monetisation of higher education (and skilled migration transfers) and the implications of pedagogy that result from this form of migration (Brooks & Waters, 2011; Coates, 2009; Findlay et al, 2012; Friesen and Collins, 2017; Kaur Sidhu, 2017; Robertson, 2011, 2013, 2016).…”

Section: Education Agents In Ism and Immigration Infrastructures Scho...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond brokering for recruitment: Education agents in Armenia

Fittante

2022

Population Space and Place

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

International student migration (ISM) makes up an increasingly significant part of all international migration. Scholars have unpacked various aspects of this global mobility. While ISM scholarship has largely focused on a particular stream of migration—namely, student migration from the Global South to the Global North—recent studies have expanded this research to include more diverse case studies. ISM scholarship has also analysed education agents, who provide migration infrastructures and enable student mobility (or, in some cases, immobility). But the scholarship's characterisations of these agents remain somewhat limited: Studies focus largely on the oversized role agents play in student recruitment processes—that is, as those who enable initial mobility. This paper analyzes a unique case study—Indian medical students in Yerevan, Armenia—to unpack education agents' extensive, oftentimes problematic roles in structuring students' postmigration experiences.

show abstract

Intertwined Mobilities of Education, Tourism and Labour: The Consequences of 417 and 485 Visas in Australia

Cited by 6 publications

References 2 publications

Negotiating the boundaries of responsibility: Rethinking test takers and the ethics of testing

Negotiating the boundaries of responsibility: Rethinking test takers and the ethics of testing

Migrant, interrupted: The temporalities of ‘staggered’ migration from Asia to Australia

Beyond brokering for recruitment: Education agents in Armenia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About