Sense of Belonging Among Multilingual Audiences in Australia

Multilingual audiences have a greater sense of belonging to Australian society than to their language/cultural or local community; 73% said they feel at home in Australia, 59% in their language/cultural community and 62% in the local community. About half (47%) believed they could influence Australian society, but fewer felt they have influence over their language/cultural (41%) and local communities (35%). While they are more likely to feel at home and have their needs met, they are less likely to feel a shared emotional attachment or have confidence in making an impact. Multilingual audiences’ sense of belonging increases with time spent in Australia and their level of English proficiency. Migrants who lived in Australia for more than 10 years were much more likely to feel at home in Australia (76%), compared to people who had been here less than 5 years (64%). Those who have higher confidence in English (83%) also tend to feel more at home than those with lower confidence (64%). This is reflected in the different levels of belonging among the five language communities; Arabic and Italian speakers were the more likely to say they belong compared to Cantonese and Mandarin speakers.