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the most common in South Australia and the Northern Territory, Vietnamese in Western Australia and Samoan in Queensland. The language spoken may also differ from suburb to suburb within the same city. For example, in 2011 Chinese-born migrants living in Sydney were concentrated in Hurstville, Rhodes, Burwood, and Allawah, while migrants born in India were concentrated in Harris Park, Westmead and Parramatta (ABS, 2014). The evidence regarding linguistic diversity reported above reflects the general Australian context, and has clear implications for the profession. Evidence regarding the representation (in terms of percentage of caseload) of clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds is not readily available, but evidence that this client group is of concern to the profession is to be found in publications in SPA journals. Volume 13(3) of ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing took cultural diversity as its theme, and attracted papers and clinical insights across a range of areas. With the exception of one article (Stewart, 2011) and one column (Bowen, 2011), all address issues surrounding working with children. Working with adults from diverse cultural backgrounds also presents challenges to the profession, challenges which Australian speech pathologists do not feel highly confident of meeting (Rose, Ferguson, Power, Togher, & Worrall, 2014). Diversity in the future The range, contexts and purposes of practice of speech pathology seem likely to continue to diversify, not only within Australia, but worldwide. New technologies open new possibilities for service delivery and intervention approaches (see, for example, Finch, Clark, & Hill, 2013; Ward & Burns, 2012), thus diversifying the practice of speech pathology. The emerging development of the profession in other countries (see, for example, McAllister et al., 2013) will increase diversity in the international professional workforce, in the clients who will benefit from services, and in the contexts in which speech pathology services are offered. As ASHA states, “Speech-language pathology is a dynamic and continuously developing profession” (2007, p. 2). Who can predict the extent of the diversity we will see in our dynamic and developing profession in fifty years’ time? References American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) (2007). Scope of practice in speech-language pathology . doi:10.1044/policy.SP2007-00283 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2006). Population composition: Languages spoken in Australia . Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/2f762f9584 5417aeca25706c00834efa/d67b7c95e0e8a733ca2570ec0 01117a2!OpenDocument Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2012a). 2011 census shows Asian languages on the rise in Australian households. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/CO-60 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2012b). Cultural diversity in Australia. Reflecting a nation: Stories from the 2011 census . Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov. au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/2071.0main+featur es902012-2013 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2013). The “average” Australian . Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov. au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features30 April+2013

Africa, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the USA have increased in the period between 2001 and 2010. The majority (85%) live in major cities. Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth have the highest migrant population. The ABS report Where Do Migrants Live provides detailed information on the percentage of migrants living in particular areas of those cities (ABS, 2014). Despite this diversity, the 2011 census reveals that the majority of Australians (74%) were born in Australia, and both parents of 54% were also born in Australia (ABS, 2013). The relatively large migrant population is associated with linguistic as well as cultural diversity. More than 300 languages are reported to be spoken in Australia (ABS, 2012a). The most common language spoken in Australian homes is, perhaps unsurprisingly, English. Some 81% of the respondents in the census of 2011 reported that they spoke only English at home. Two percent spoke no English. The most common language other than English (LOTE) reported was Mandarin. Other frequently reported languages included Italian, Arabic, Greek and Vietnamese (ABS, 2013; ABS, 2012b). The most common LOTEs spoken in the home vary with immigration patterns and across age groups. Changes in immigration patterns introduce new languages to the range spoken in Australia, and alter the proportion of speakers recorded for individual languages. These changes are seen in differing demand for services within the community. For example, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (2012) reports increased demand for interpreting services in Persian, Tamil, and Hazaragi (a dialect of Persian spoken in Afghanistan) in 2010–11. Migrants who have recently arrived in Australia are more likely to speak a LOTE in the home than are those who have been in the country for longer (67% of recent arrivals, 49% of more longstanding residents), and maintenance of the LOTE reduces dramatically with increasing length of residence – from 53% for the first generation to 20% in the second and 1.6% in the third (ABS, 2012b). The most common LOTEs spoken by children differ from those reported in the census. McLeod (2011) reports data extracted from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children which shows that, in a sample of 4,983 4–5-year- old children, the most commonly spoken LOTE was Arabic, which was only the fourth most common reported in the census. Data from the same study also indicates that the percentage of children reported to speak a language other than English is lower than the percentage reported in the census, and differs by age. At the first time of sampling, when children were up to 1 year of age, 9.1% were reported to use a LOTE. This increased to 15.7% at time two (2–3 years) and 15.2% at time three (4–5 years). The percentage of children who maintained use of a LOTE between time two and time three was high (Verdon, McLeod, & Winsler, 2014). The proportion of people speaking a language other than English differs by state. Data collected in the 1996 census showed the highest proportion is found in the Northern Territory (24.5%; reflecting the indigenous population) and lowest in Tasmania (3.4%). The proportion in Victoria is 20.7%, New South Wales 18.7%, ACT 14.1%, South Australia 12.6%, Western Australia 11.8%, and Queensland 7.1% (ABS, 2006). The proportion of particular languages spoken has also been shown to vary by state. For example, McLeod (2011) reports that, in the sample of children investigated, Arabic was the most common language spoken in New South Wales and Victoria. Greek was

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JCPSLP Volume 17, Number 1 2015

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