Laotian Australians

[5] During this migration period, Lao people crossed the Lao-Thai border by boat or by swimming and settled in Thai refugee camps.

[17] Following mass migration in the mid-to-late 1970s, Lao people amongst other Indochinese refugees were initially housed in migrant hostels.

[21] Initial stays in these migrant centers were short-lived with many Lao people leaving due to dissatisfaction with the food (22.6%) and a desire to move in with relatives and close friends in the community (54.8%).

However, Lao people still perceived some benefits from their stay in the centers, including the ability to have paperwork processed which would allow them to integrate into Australian society (33.9%) and access to English-language classes (9.7%).

[22] Lao people and other Indochinese ethnic groups chose to form enclaves in the Fairfield LGA nearby the migrant centers to be close to their relatives and friends.

This allowed Lao people with low English proficiency levels to comfortably go about daily life without the obstacle of a language barrier impeding them.

Other factors influencing the Lao people’s decisions to settle in Fairfield LGA included the affordability of housing and proximity to their children’s schools.

For Lao people who chose to live in the Western suburbs outside of the Fairfeld Municipality, the dominant factor influencing this decision was a desire to be closer to their job.

Many women who were designated housewives in Laos had to join the Australian workforce as relying on a single source of income from the husband was insufficient for the cost of living in Australia.

[17] However, a challenge faced by some Lao women was the threat of domestic violence, which made recently arrived migrants particularly vulnerable due to their lack of support system.

A smaller proportion (28.2%) of Lao-Australians stated they utilized resources provided by migrant centers to secure jobs including the assistance of Employment Officers.

[22] For unemployed Lao people looking for work, low levels of English proficiency (85.7%) were the dominant obstacle that preventing them from finding employment followed by a lack of job vacancies (42.9%).

The assimilation of Lao youth into Australian culture was named a source of conflict with their parents, who expressed concern with their children dating and attending school functions and parties as was commonplace in Australia.

Lao men and women use formal speech to address their elders in a manner which if translated to English would come off artificial.

Additionally, the Laotian Language Program operated by SBS Radio caters to the Lao community and is run on Mondays from 4-5pm and Saturdays at 9-10pm.