Life In Australia Research Articles

The Site of Memory: Reading Surveillance, Alterity, and South Australia’s Indigenous Archives in Natalie Harkin

Natalie Harkin is a Narungga artist and writer from South Australia, whose recent collection Dirty Words (Cordite Books, 2015) draws Australian Indigenous poetry toward conceptual and procedural methodologies. The archive Harkin utilizes in her conceptual writing stems from The Aboriginal Archive held in South Australian government control. It contains documents that detail the surveillance conducted upon her extended family and specif ically those surveillance records that document the life of her grandmother, collected between 1938 and 1947. This essay examines the claims to sovereign expression in Harkin's poetic, a poetic that seeks manifestly to contest the historical record through a critique of the colonial archive as a site of persuasion. This essay considers Harkin's methodologies as reconstituting and resanguinating the subjective expression, emotion, and voice of those silenced by the dominance of the colonial past. The critique of the archive that Harkin provides frames it a racialized historical construction through which systems of surveillance, control, and dominance were enacted. The constitutive genealogies and systems of power that were used to segregate and to control the conditions of Indigenous life in Australia are contextualized historically and criticized for contributing to the monohistoricizing impulses of colonial empires and using the archive to control the historical narrative and the very def inition of Australian indigeneity.

Single mothering as experienced by Burundian refugees in Australia: a qualitative inquiry

BackgroundRefugee mothers have fled from their homeland to escape persecutions with their children only to find other threats to their well-being in the new country. Building on previous research, it is known that being a new immigrant is challenging and requires adaptation. The adaptation process, known as acculturation, may not be successful leading to psychological distress. It is also known that a generation gap can occur when children acculturate faster than their parents. What was lacking was understanding about the experiences of single refugee mothers.MethodsInterpretative phenomenological study was undertaken to explore the lived experiences of eight Burundian refugee single mothers in Australia. Data were collected by in-depth interviews. Each interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsFindings revealed three themes. First theme ‘Traditional mothering practices of Burundian culture’ illustrated mothering strategies as practiced prior to their arrival in Australia including mothering with sufficient social support, strong position of parents, and regular use of physical disciplining. Second theme ‘Challenges identified after arrival to new country’ revealed that mothers felt their children acculturated faster than themselves which led to intergenerational gap. This has also led participants to live in a continuous dilemma, experiencing inner conflicts and struggles associated with their mothering practices, especially when mothers had arrived with a lack of knowledge relating to acceptable mothering practices in a new culture. Final theme, ‘Reforming family life in Australia’ highlighted the decisions made by single refugee mothers which is to embrace both new and original cultures, leading to successful acculturation. However, lack of appropriate knowledge of acceptable mothering practices led to involvement of legal authorities who threatening to remove children from the mother’s care. This has led mothers feeling change of power from ‘mother to child, ‘to child to mother’, raises concerns for family wellbeing.ConclusionsA need for parenting information when entering a new country including education about any legal obligations for parents such as a Child Protection Act will assist successful acculturation. As nurses are likely to encounter refugee single mothers, they are well placed to provide support and education to new refugee single mothers.

Cohort Profile: Building a New Life in Australia (BNLA): the longitudinal study of humanitarian migrants.

Core funding for the project is provided by the Department of Social Services from April 2014; from 2012 to March 2014, funding was provided by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship

Henri Kowalski (1841–1916): A French Musician in Colonial Australia

French virtuoso pianist and composer Henri Kowalski visited Australia in 1880 and then returned in 1885 when he settled in Sydney for twelve years. This article explores his introduction of French repertoire, institutional practices and musical instruments to colonial Sydney. It demonstrates that for a short period at the end of the nineteenth century, there was a much stronger French presence in musical life in Australia than has previously been acknowledged.

The Building a New Life in Australia (BNLA) Dataset: A Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants in Australia

AbstractThis article presents an introduction to the Building a New Life in Australia (BNLA) dataset, a large‐scale longitudinal study of humanitarian migrants in Australia. We outline the main characteristics of the study and provide an overview of the measures available and potential uses. The first three waves of the BNLA data are currently available to approved users, covering the first three years of the settlement journey of a recent cohort of humanitarian migrants in Australia.

Building a new life in Australia: an analysis of the first wave of the longitudinal study of humanitarian migrants in Australia to assess the association between social integration and self-rated health

ObjectivesTo assess the relationship between social integration and physical and mental health among humanitarian migrants (HMs) in Australia.Design, setting and participantsWe used the recently released first wave of data from...

The impact of oral English proficiency on humanitarian migrants’ experiences of settling in Australia

ABSTRACTKey drivers for migrants’ social integration are education, employment, and skills in the dominant language of the settlement country. Data from Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants were used to examine migrants’ English proficiency and how oral English proficiency facilitated or hindered participation in activities that may help them become self-sufficient and settle. Participants were 2399 humanitarian migrants interviewed in the first wave of data collection (during 2013/14). Before arrival in Australia, 80.1% reported they spoke English not well or not at all. After arrival, oral English proficiency was a statistically significant predictor of self-sufficiency (knowing how to look for a job, get help in an emergency, etc.) explaining 21% of the variance while controlling for confounding variables such as age and education. After English proficiency, age (neither too young nor too old), gender (male), education (more than 12 years), and time since arrival (more than one year) were significant predictors of self-sufficiency. Identification of factors that predict self-sufficiency informs the understanding of people who provide support for humanitarian migrants. These findings indicate poor oral English skills may profoundly hinder humanitarian migrants’ ability to settle and highlight the importance of supporting migrants’ English learning.

The English(es) to teach after study and life in Australia: a study of Indonesian English language educators

This study investigates perception of English amongst Indonesian English language educators who pursued postgraduate studies in Australia, leading to decisions on which English(es) to teach upon their return to Indonesia. Through individual interviews, 14 participants were asked about expectations of the English language they would encounter prior to their arrival in Australia, followed by questions about the actual varieties they faced in Australia. They were also asked to reflect on their experiences and suggest which English(es) to teach upon their return to Indonesia. Regardless of the multi-varieties encountered in Australia, the participants were highly influenced by external factors in deciding which English(es) to teach upon returning to Indonesia. Most participants would teach American or British English due to textbook availability, not because of their beliefs; some would also share information about other varieties with their students. Intelligibility, the most important matter in communication, would also be shared with their students.

Alienated and Marginalised: The Social Integration of the Second Generation South Asian Muslims into Australian Society

The purpose of this study was to research the level of social integration of second generation Muslim immigrants of six South Asian communities in Melbourne, who, either had arrived in Australia as accompanied children with their parents or born here. As a lack of information existed relative to their social integration into Australian society, a detailed research study was conducted through a semi-structured questionnaire survey, involving 117 respondents, both male and female, from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, Maldives Island and Myanmar, during the November 2016 and March 2017 period. The findings of this study shows that the second generation Muslims from six South Asian nations are young city dwellers and a majority of them are less optimistic about life in Australia. In today’s Australia, there is still evidence of widespread discrimination against Muslims and especially through employment practices. This research has shown that the younger Muslims from six communities in Melbourne, are more likely to be unemployed, under-employed and living in poverty. Despite their levels of education, Muslims are less likely to work in the professions and less likely to be granted a job interview than the average Australians and receive significantly less economic returns for their level of education than other Australians. This study shows that the significant differences between Muslims and Australian society are found in religiosity, gender roles and sexual norms. However, in practice, Muslims are not developing a totally separate ‘sub-culture’ from the mainstream culture as is evident in the Netherlands, France or Germany. Basic cultural values of migrants appear to change in conformity with the predominant culture of the Australian society. This research has shown that the second generation Muslim migrants, a majority of them have been partially but functionally integrated into the host society, keeping some or more of their own cultural values intact. The results of this study has revealed that it has undermined the previous assumptions on the ground that the second generation Muslim migrants from South Asia would do much better in terms of improving their ‘level of social integration’ than their first generational counter parts in Melbourne. It is apparent from this study that a large section of the second generation Muslims from those six communities, have already been alienated and marginalised in the broader Australian society.

David Coghill: the right place at the right time

David Coghill is a difficult man to get hold of. After a few months of chasing him around the internet with defunct email addresses and one-word replies, we'd arranged to speak on Skype. He sent me his CV—all 35 pages of it—an hour before we spoke. All was forgiven, though, when I saw his wispy beard and toothy grin leaning over his laptop screen. He's been getting used to life in Australia. He moved here in February to be Professor of Developmental Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. “The café culture is great here, fantastic coffee”, he beams. “Even in the hospital people fight about which of the seven or so coffee shops is best.”

Sudanese Humanitarian Migrants in Australian Refereed Journals

This article reviews the literature about Australian South Sudanese humanitarian migrants in refereed journals, and is underpinned by a concern for the settlement experiences of migrants and the reduced effectiveness of research which is compartmentalised into different academic disciplinary fields. Though a large volume of academic work has paid attention to many themes and issues, the present review identifies gaps in the understanding of Sudanese and South Sudanese views on family violence, economic stress, issues specific to older migrants, and perceptions of racialised policing. This article suggests the importance of bringing available knowledge from different disciplines into an accessible and cross-referenced platform to better serve southern Sudanese migrants' needs in assisting successful establishment of their new lives in Australia.

Language, migration and social wellbeing

This article explores language experiences of three Bangladeshi migrant workers with low English proficiency in Australia through narrative inquiry. The narrative of each participant presents insights into the ways in which these migrants navigated through their work and social life, and developed social and communicative strategies to survive in the host country where English is the dominant language. Analyses of the narratives suggest that despite their limited English proficiency, these migrant workers were able to find ways to contribute to the host society and they felt satisfied with their lives in Australia. Although not generalisable, the findings call for taking a critical look at the prevailing assumption that without English language proficiency migrants cannot enjoy a successful life or ensure their social and economic wellbeing in the host society. At the same time, there needs to be a greater recognition of the role of migrants’ first languages in the new society. We also argue that instead of taking a generalised view of ‘success’ and ‘wellbeing’, taking a differentiated view may be warranted and this may require taking into account migrants’ individual circumstances and their desires and expectations in relation to their social origins.

The grant game as training ground for tractability? An Australian Early Career Researcher’s story

The future of education research is linked to what early career researchers in Education are doing and learning to do now. This paper presents a narrative of one early career researcher who works and lives in Australia. She tells the story about how she came to research and to an academic life, about what her doctoral work and education taught her and how now, as an academic in an on-going position, she feels needs to unlearn many of those values and practices in order to succeed particularly in the so-called ‘grant game’. The narrative format, though, is intended to invite and encourage other readings.

Indonesian two-week fieldwork in Australia: Great or no impact?

This paper is a sociolinguistic study on the impact of a two-week fieldwork experienced by English Diploma Program students of Universitas Islam Indonesia(UII)Yogyakarta in Australia. The aspects to be scrutinized are the effect of the program on the students self development and their understanding of Australia and how their return to Indonesia influences their fellow students at the Islamic university. Impact of the two-week field work is seen from two theoretical backgrounds language perception (Lowe, 2000) and orientation (Gardner, 1985). Data collection was carried out through email questionnaires. Several themes occurred were expectation on the fieldwork, expectation on life in Australia, family expectation, reality faced in Australia, most meaningful experiences, and returning to Indonesia.Results of the study show that the fieldwork has brought an "instrumentally oriented" impact on the students self development and understanding of Australia. Even though the students gained more than previously expected, more could have been achieved as there was no strong influence on other UII students, yet.

Are international medical graduates well supported by the emergency medicine community in Australasia? No.

Are international medical graduates well supported by the emergency medicine community in Australasia? No.

Australian Immigration Policy in Practice: a case study of skill recognition and qualification transferability amongst Irish 457 visa holders

ABSTRACTImmigration quotas in Australia are guided primarily by economic policy—the needs of the nation are quite rightly the principal concern of policymakers. Using data from a mixed-methods study, this article engages in a dialogue between labour geography and population and migration studies through an examination of the lived experiences of migrating workers and their families. The paper examines a number of cases where policy and practice have detrimentally affected the migration experience of Irish migrants who came to Australia under the Temporary Work (Skilled) (subclass 457) visa. The case study focuses on interviews with secondary 457 visa applicants, namely the wives of former 457 workers. These interviews highlight the problems faced by newcomers to Australia who arrive under this visa. The experiences relayed by these women demonstrate how ill-considered policy relating to qualification transferability makes entering the workplace and, therefore, transition to life in Australia more difficult than it needs to be. While the cases that underpin this paper ended in migration failure (the families involved returned to Ireland), the core issues of qualification transferability and skill comparison were replicated in the wider study dataset (of 1022 survey responses and 80 qualitative interviews). While acknowledging that citizens generally have more freedom and more civil rights than non-citizens, the findings of this study indicate that further review of Australia’s 457 visa is needed, particularly with respect to the limitations placed on the agency of migrant workers. Greater awareness amongst prospective migrants as to the purpose and limits of the 457 visa is also necessary, in order to avoid misinterpretation and the extreme personal repercussions outlined in this paper.

“A Whole Alternative Universe”: Language and Space in David Malouf’s “The Only Speaker of His Tongue”

By displacing Aboriginal communities, interfering with their migratorial routes and sacred sites and forcing them into sedentary practices, European colonialism disrupted the closely-knit links between people, space and language that had characterised life in Australia for 40,000 years prior to the arrival of the British. In linguistic terms that meant the disappearance of hundreds of languages, the devitalising of traditions that had been based mainly on orality and, ultimately, the silencing of thousands of voices. In the short story Only Speaker of His Tongue, David Malouf imagines the encounter between a Nordic lexicographer and the last speaker of a certain Australian language. As the lexicographer reflects about the threat that the loss of a language poses to cultural diversity, he also exposes his particular views on the possibilities of language. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that although the encounter between the scholar and the Aborigine is fictitious and the story is extremely concise, it reaches much beyond its fictional status by, both directly and indirectly, raising issues related to the past and present treatment that Australia has dedicated to its Aboriginal peoples, to the complexities of the field of salvage linguistics and to the functions of language itself.

The Removal of Convicted Noncitizens from Australia

[Extract] On 22 December 2014 the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (the Minister) issued Direction 65 to supplement section 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). This regime enables the Minister or a delegate to cancel a visa held by a noncitizen convicted of an offence on the basis that they have failed a ‘character test’. Ordinarily a person will fail the character test if they have a ‘substantial criminal record’, defined as a criminal conviction attracting a sentence (or, in practice, adding up to cumulative sentences) of 12 months or more. Of the approximately 500 people in detention awaiting removal (as at December 2015) many have spent most of their life in Australia having arrived as young children. They often have no friends or family in their birth countries and some do not even speak the language of those countries.1 Thousands of dependent children and spouses have also been impacted by the removal of noncitizens from Australia.

Revealed Preference Measures of Quality of Life in Australia's Urban and Regional Areas

Using data from the 2011 Census, we estimate quality of life across Australia. With mobile households, utility will be equalised across regions, so those regions with high real incomes must have a compensating low quality of life and vice versa. There are significant differences in quality of life across the 56 regions we examine. The top‐ranked region in our study is the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, while the Western Australian Outback has the lowest quality of life. The drivers of quality of life are explored, and climate appears to be important as well as certain human‐made cultural amenities.

Refugee-themed picture books for ethical understanding in curriculum English

ABSTRACTThis study looked at the curricular resource potential of refugee-themed picture books for embedding an ethics of responsibility for linguistic diversity into the subject of English studied by all students in English-dominant western societies. Selected picture books were analysed in terms of a Levinasean ethics of responsibility for alterity in order to probe the possibilities of a supplement or alternative to the ethics of empathy long established in the literary component of English. The analyses looked at the books as multimodal artefacts, understanding the linguistic modes of the texts from a translingual perspective. This perspective construes language as mobile semiotic resources that are rendered meaningful through the performances of interlocutors in a given communicative situation. From the analyses, findings were produced about (1) representations of the monolingual sameness of everyday life in Australia as an English-dominant society and (2) the translingual dispositions called forth when language variation enters into the linguistic text. It is concluded that the ethics of responsibility for alterity holds out promise for tapping the curricular resource potential of refugee-themed picture books for embedding ethics into the language awareness component sometimes incorporated into English.