Central Asian Migrant Workers in Australia and Their Digital Adaptation: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policy Gaps
摘要
As Australia transitions to a digitally driven economy and society, accessing, navigating, and meaningfully using digital technologies has become essential for inclusion in employment, education, and civic participation. This chapter examines how Central Asian migrants in Australia engage with digital adaptation through the lenses of digital capital and the multilevel digital divide. Drawing on empirical research and policy analysis, the chapter explores how Central Asian migrants develop and mobilize digital capital to pursue upskilling, entrepreneurship, and maintain transnational connections. In addition, it investigates the layered challenges they face, including digital literacy gaps, language barriers, affordability issues, and limited culturally responsive support systems. Using the multilevel digital divide framework, the chapter highlights how these challenges reflect structural inequalities in access, usage, and outcomes. It identifies critical gaps in current policy approaches and argues for targeted, context-specific strategies to enhance digital inclusion. By situating digital adaptation within the broader scope of interregional diaspora engagement, the chapter contributes to scholarship on inclusive digital landscapes, cultural belonging, and the evolving role of diaspora communities in Australia’s multicultural context.