Alicia Boyle

International migration and the changing nature of settlements at the edge

Settlements at the Edge examines the evolution, characteristics, functions and shifting economic basis of settlements in sparsely populated areas of developed nations. With a focus on demographic change, the book features theoretical and applied cases which explore the interface between demography, economy, well-being and the environment. This book offers a comprehensive and insightful knowledge base for understanding the role of population in shaping the development and histories of northern sparsely populated areas of developed nations including Alaska (USA), Australia, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland and other nations with territories within the Arctic Circle.

Immigrant-born workers and quality early childhood education and care in the Northern Territory, Australia

Abstract This paper focuses on the growing immigrant-born population of early childhood education and care (ECEC) workers in the Northern Territory of Australia, who represent a committed but poorly understood group within this workforce. The recent reforms to the ECEC workforce in Australia aim to achieve high-quality ECEC services by (a) growing this workforce size to meet the demand for services; (b) meeting the higher educator-to-children ratios; and (c) raising the overall level of qualifications of ECEC workers. By combining the statistical data in an innovative way, this paper shows that even when the growing numbers in this group are combined with newly qualified, immigrant-born and Australian-born entrants, the total number of workers may still be too small to fully implement recent reforms. It concludes by identifying data quality issues and future research directions that would help inform and develop a new strategy for the Northern Territory ECEC workforce.