Post-refugee African Australians' perceptions about being and becoming Australian: language, discourse and participation

Abstract

This article provides recent empirical evidence to support the argument that the everyday politics of race and fear of the non-desired Other still persist in Australia more than half a century after the official demise of the White Australia Policy. The article sheds so me insight into how Australian immigration policies are now deliberately designed to normalise and assimilate new migrants into narrow Anglo-Saxon cultural and linguistic norms, thereby inadvertently excluding people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who need Australian citizenship the most. The argument of the article is based on outcomes of a study on personal stories of African refugee background Australian citizens regarding their experiences with the Australian citizenship test; their opinions about the literacy-for-citizenship requirement; and their ideas about being and becoming Australian. The participants to the study expressed strong reservations with the idea of having to undertake a formal citizenship test that neither improves their understanding of the everyday way of life in Australia nor opens avenues for greater opportunities for socio-economic participation and recognition of the linguistic and cultural identities they bring to Australia.