ABSTRACT
Drawing on census data, past and present trends in migration, and attitudes towards immigrant heritage languages (HLs) in Australia, this chapter looks at issues and challenges for widespread use and maintenance of HLs in immigrant communities between the mid-1900s. It discusses several aspects of the HL situation in Australia with an eye on implications for future HL education. The chapter provides a brief historical overview of Australia's language-in-migration policy and early developments in HL policy. It also discusses demographic information drawn from the 2011 census and analyzes internal variations within and across immigrant communities as well as patterns of HL maintenance and use across generations. The chapter draws attention to the politics of Mandarin Chinese and the enormous difficulties in equitably assessing HL learners of Mandarin in Australia. It concludes with linkages between the history of Australian immigration and HL policy developments.
