In contrast to this concept, the sociolinguistic approach by Holmes and Wilson (2022) represents a view that when the migrant families move to Australia, they are expected to practically use the English language to communicate in a social context, such as in schools, where the children of the migrant families have to use the English language as a communicating medium with the teachers and the school fellows. This concept highlights the fact that even the migrated people require to learn the English language if they want to interact with a school in Australia, or even if they want to find employment in the education sector of Australia, because the only common language spoken in Australian schools is the English language. Moreover, it has been further extracted from the sociolinguistic approach by Holmes and Wilson (2022) that the industrial sectors in Australia, which requires skilled workers to work at places such as iron and coal mines, construction sector etc., are also attracted by the migrants who speak the English language in a fluent way. This reflects that the requirement of the English language for the migrant workers is considered in every small to big industrial sector in Australia from the aspects of employment.
In addition to this, Dryden et al. (2021) has also argued about the challenges which the migrant English as a foreign language (EFL) learners face due to the immigration laws and rules in Australia. One of those challenges includes foreign language anxiety, which according to this study has been known as a negative emotional response imitated by the people who tend to migrate to Australia, but have to learn the English language as a foreign country immigration requirement. The study has further suggested that the possible reactions under this anxiety response includes forgetfulness, when the people start forgetting the message they want to communicate, as a result of which they respond blankly to others or show no reaction towards conversation. Moreover, the other reactions include feelings of isolation and self-avoidance which contributes to low confidence, dissatisfaction and low morale. Dovchin (2020) has also supported this argument, as the author has reported that when immigrants start perceiving foreign language anxiety, then they are less likely to be able to interact in social gatherings, workplaces, shopping centres or even in public transport. These two studies imitate the counter effect or challenge that is faced by the immigrants while learning English as a requirement to migrate in Australia, and as a result people lose their self-identity, and starts feeling isolated, tensed and less responsive, which is indeed a negative consequence of the immigration language policy of Australia.
Furthermore, it has also been reported by Dovchin and Dryden (2022) that the people who migrate to Australia, not only face difficulties in communicating with other people in the English language, but they are also discriminated against their origin, culture, background and ethnicity in various areas of employment, among which the labour industry of Australia is the one. It has been further obtained from this study that the skilled migrants face multiple real-world challenges while looking for jobs in the labour sector of Australia, which requires less communication and focuses more on skilled working. On the other hand, it has been reported by Loosemore et al. (2021) that the construction sector in Australia is open to give jobs to the skilled worker immigrants as the contour is in need for skilled workers in the construction industry, but the reason of complains of the immigrants for not getting good jobs is that these construction sectors only prefer the skilled workers having proficiency in English, for good job designations, while, for the immigrant people who lack proficiency level in English, get jobs in the grey construction economy, where they have multiple job insecurities and exploitation. Therefore, this represents that the Australian employment industry prefers fluent English immigrants only, and discourages or gives unsecured jobs to the one who are unable to speak the English language in a fluent way. These linguistic differences for the immigrants in Australia leads to intra-lingual discrimination, and violates the linguistic human rights of the country as well. However, the findings by Tankosić (2022) also aligns with this, as the author has claimed in the study that the immigrant women in Australia are usually a victim of perpetual foreigner stereotype, as a result of which, they are mistreated in the communities they live and interact with. This ethno-racial discrimination and translingual stereotyping makes the immigrants as socially disrespected, less valued or inferior than the Australians. Moreover, it has also been extracted from this study that the Australian nationals claim that they are Australian by passport and have a valid identity to live in the country, therefore, they claim to obtain the majority of the rights in the work, employment, education, healthcare or other sectors in the country.
Therefore, considering all the different studies related to the need of learning English language for employment in Australia as migrant skilled workers, and the challenges associated with the migrants in terms of learning the English language or English language is indeed a mandatory and valid requirement of the employment sector in Australia, however, the challenges that are faced by the skilled immigrant workers are also inevitable and needs to be considered. The reasons for considering the English language as a mandatory requirement for immigration in Australia, has been supported by multiple evidence and reasons, as it can lead to the violation of workplace rules, health and safety issues at the workplace or can also lead to unmet needs of the migrant skilled workers. However, in contrast to this, this mandatory requirement of learning the English language has led to multiple barriers and hindrances for the skilled migrations in finding jobs in Australia, or working in the Australian employment sector. Therefore, the following section of recommendations, will present some suggestions that the government can use to resolve the complaints of the skilled immigrant workers in Australia.
Recommendations
This section aims to present the recommendations that has been tailored for the chosen group, and can be easily implemented by the government of Australia, in order to resolve the received complaint of employment challenges due to the requirement of English language for the skilled immigrants in the Australian employment sector.
