Analysis of data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that migrants from the Indian subcontinent who take permanent residency (PR) and citizenship have a strong hunger for university education.
The children of these migrants have helped increase Australia’s national average university participation rate.
Andrew Norton from the Australian National University notes in his analysis that the “highest uni participation language groups are now from Southern Asian countries rather than Mandarin and Cantonese.”
Norton’s analysis reveals that more than 80 per cent of 18- to 20-year-olds who speak Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Sinhalese, and Tamil at home attend university. Comparatively, Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi speakers attend at rates of 75 per cent, 74 per cent, and 72 per cent respectively.
Other Asian language groups such as Indonesian at 69 per cent, Vietnamese at 66 per cent, Japanese at 62 per cent, Filipino at 58 per cent and Tagalog at 57 per cent also show good university participation rates.
According to ABS, in 2021, more than 80 per cent of 18- to 20-year-old migrants from five Asian-language backgrounds were studying for a degree. This was way higher when compared to 32.5 per cent of those born in Australia and who spoke English at home. Also, only 35 per cent of young people who are born in Australia go to university while the figure is 59 per cent for those who arrived between 2001 and 2010.
Norton believes that the high university participation rates amongst Indian migrant communities is because most parents came to Australia on skilled visas and hold university education in high regard. He observes:
“Possible reasons include high rates of family arrival through the skilled migration program, creating the usual association between the education of parents and children, and cultural attitudes favouring higher education.”
Dr Ritesh Chugh from Central Queensland University says prior research studies also have found that migrants place a high value on education. He adds:
“As a validation, the educational aspirations become evident through the ABS data that demonstrates strong participation rates in university-level education. In addition, there is a correlation between higher education learning and earning, which inspires migrants to complete tertiary education. Furthermore, through university education, these groups contribute not only to their own financial success but also to Australia’s prosperity.”
Norton’s analysis looks at university participation and doesn’t include vocational education participation rates.