ABSTRACT

Many migrants have had few opportunities to develop functional literacy skills, even in their L1. Even so, migration and integration policies in Western host societies often assume literacy skills and fail to consider accommodations for low-literate migrants. Valid, reliable instruments to identify low-literate migrants and policy-oriented research into the assessment of low-literates are scarce. This study makes a contribution to research and practice in this area. It reports on the development of a valid multilingual assessment tool to efficiently shed light on adult migrants’ literacy skills. This tool was trialed on a representative sample of 351 asylum seekers in Belgian asylum centers. The performance data were analyzed using Rasch Measurement, and DIF analysis. First, the results confirmed the tool allowed for the identification of four literacy levels. Second, frequency distribution of the Rasch person measurements showed that a substantial proportion of asylum seekers do not possess the literacy skills to participate fully in their host society upon arrival. The findings underline the importance of (a) taking literacy skills into account in both integration policy and assessment; (b) viewing literacy as a broad functional spectrum while considering the influence of contextual factors such as language of assessment and processing time.

摘要

许多移民几乎没有机会发展实用的识字技能，即使是在他们的 L1 阶段。即便如此，西方东道国社会的移民和融合政策往往以识字技能为前提，而没有考虑为低文化移民提供便利。识别低文化移民的有效、可靠的工具和对低文化人口评估的政策导向研究很少。本研究对该领域的研究和实践做出了贡献。它报告了有效的多语言评估工具的开发，以有效地揭示成年移民的识字技能。该工具在比利时庇护中心的 351 名寻求庇护者的代表性样本中进行了试用。使用 Rasch 测量和 DIF 分析来分析性能数据。第一的，结果证实该工具可用于识别四个识字水平。其次，Rasch 人测量的频率分布表明，很大一部分寻求庇护者不具备在抵达后充分参与其东道社会的识字技能。调查结果强调了 (a) 在融合政策和评估中考虑识字技能的重要性；(b) 将识字视为一个广泛的功能范围，同时考虑评估语言和处理时间等上下文因素的影响。调查结果强调了 (a) 在融合政策和评估中考虑识字技能的重要性；(b) 将识字视为一个广泛的功能范围，同时考虑评估语言和处理时间等上下文因素的影响。调查结果强调了 (a) 在融合政策和评估中考虑识字技能的重要性；(b) 将识字视为一个广泛的功能范围，同时考虑评估语言和处理时间等上下文因素的影响。