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Refereed proceedings of the national symposium titled Migrant Security 2010: Citizenship and social inclusion in a transnational era
Hosted by the Public Memory Research Centre Faculty of Arts The University of Southern Queensland
15-16 July 2010
On the lands of the Giabal and Jarowair
Editors:
Dr Anna Hayes Dr Robert Mason
Table of Contents
Migrant Security 2010: Citizenship and social inclusion in a transnational era ...... 1 An Interdisciplinary Culturally Responsive Methodology: A Samoan Perspective...... 2 Meaola Amituanai-Toloa & Stuart McNaughton ...... 2 Learning Literacy; Constructing Identity: Migrant and Refugee Participation in English Language Programs ...... 9 Michael Atkinson ...... 9 Meeting the Stranger Within: Considering a Pedagogy of Belonging ...... 17 Jon Austin ...... 17 Murder, Community Talk and Belonging: An exploration of Sudanese community responses to murder ...... 25 Melanie Baak ...... 25 Migration, Religion and Responses by Universities ...... 35 Krzysztof Batorowicz & William Conwell ...... 35 The Condition of ‘Permanent Temporariness’ for Salvadorans in the US and Koreans in Japan: A Study of Legal and Cultural Citizenship ...... 42 William W. Castillo Guardado ...... 42 ‘Going Back’: Homeland and Belonging for Greek Child Migrants ...... 49 Alexandra Dellios ...... 49 Proactive communication management beats hostile media exposure: training for multi-cultural community leaders in living with mass media...... 56 Lee Duffield & Shilpa Bannerjee ...... 56 Behind the ‘Big Man’: Uncovering hidden migrant networks within Scandinavian-Australian sources ...... 65 Mark Emmerson ...... 65 Migrants Between Worlds: Inclusion, Identity and Australian Intercountry Adoption ...... 70 Richard Gehrmann ...... 70 Framing a research project to explore the experiences of international staff in an Australian university ...... 77 Sara Hammer, Gillian Colclough & Henk Huijser ...... 77 Looking through the Gap in the Fence: A Discussion with Employers’ of Skilled Migrants ...... 84 Michelle Harding ...... 84 Gender, migration and human security: HIV vulnerability among rural to urban migrants in the People’s Republic of China ...... 91 Anna Hayes ...... 91 Johann Christian Heussler – German liberal (1820-1907) ...... 99 Chris Herde ...... 99 Catholicism and Alcoholism: The Irish Diaspora lived ethics of the Dropkick Murphys punk band 106 Kieran James & Bligh Grant ...... 106
ii The Dutch on the Tweed ...... 115 Martin Jansen in de Wal ...... 115 The importance of global immigration to South Korea’s nation branding strategies ...... 123 Bongmi Kim ...... 123 Rural Migrant Workers and Civil Society in China: case study of a migrant labour NGO ...... 130 Peifeng Lin ...... 130 Workplace Experiences of International Academic Staff in South Australian Universities ...... 137 Nina Maadad & Noune Melkoumian ...... 137 Rethinking Resentment: Political memory and identity in Australia’s Salvadoran community ..... 146 Robert Mason ...... 146 Migrant Symphonies – the symphonic contribution of resident British composers to Australian musical life ...... 153 Rhoderick McNeill ...... 153 Researching People Beyond the State: A Preliminary Study of German Expatriates in Hong Kong and Governance Performance ...... 159 Thorsten Nieberg ...... 159 A Pacific migrant experience: A case study on the impact of alcohol on migrant Niuean men to Auckland, New Zealand ...... 166 Vili Hapaki Nosa, Peter Adams & Ian Hodges ...... 166 Changing culture, changing practice: Securing a sense of self ...... 174 Eleanor Peeler ...... 174 Negotiating locals in Britain: The relationship between asylum seekers and the local British community in East Anglia ...... 182 Sophia Rainbird ...... 182 Exploring transnational sentiment through embodied practices of music and migratory movement ...... 189 Kerri-Anne Sheehy ...... 189 ‘Repatriation is a Must’: The Rastafari in Ethiopia ...... 196 Maria Stratford ...... 196 Investigating the role of Australian media in making Sudanese refugees feel ‘at home’: A case of advocating online media support to enable refugee settlement ...... 201 Kitty Van Vuuren & Aparna Hebbani ...... 201 The interplay of social context and personal attributes in immigrants’ adaptation and satisfaction with the move to Australia ...... 209 Susan Ellen Watt, Marcella Ramelli & Mark Rubin ...... 209 Work is a human right: seeking asylum, seeking employment ...... 217 Rosemary Webb ...... 217
iii
Migrant Security 2010: Citizenship and social inclusion in a transnational era
15-16 July 2010
Public Memory Research Centre Faculty of Arts, University of Southern Queensland
The symposium convenors would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians, the Giabal and Jarowair, on whose land this meeting takes place. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.
The national symposium ‗Migrant Security: Citizenship and social inclusion in a transnational era‘ was hosted by the University of Southern Queensland‘s Toowoomba campus on the 15th and 16th July 2010. The symposium attracted delegates from across Australian universities, as well as delegates from New Zealand, the United States and Europe. In addition, presentations and papers were provided by governmental and non- governmental bodies affiliated with the provision of services for migrants and refugees. The conference proceedings that follow offer a selection of some of the over seventy papers presented during the two days of the main symposium. Each of the papers included in the proceedings have been double peer-reviewed in their entirety, prior to acceptance in this online collection.
Migration has been central to Toowoomba‘s history for thousands of years, with a major Indigenous meeting place located close to the city. More recently, Toowoomba has welcomed large numbers of African refugees from various backgrounds. Indeed, twenty five per cent of Toowoomba‘s overseas population has arrived within the last decade. The new presence of these visibly different and culturally diverse groups has prompted large proportions of the city to recall and to question the historical and contemporary nature of whiteness and blackness in the Darling Downs region and south-east Queensland. As such, it was particularly apposite that the symposium was hosted at the University of Southern Queensland.
The symposium probed new formulations of migrants‘ experience of community and individual security through their engagement with civic life. It drew particular attention to the changing nature of belonging in modern societies, and the implication of this for citizenship. Contributors proved especially interested by the various forms of insecurity that prevented migrants from attaining a sense of inclusion and belonging, and how local and transnational networks might mitigate this. Key themes that are explored in the proceedings include the nature of inclusive education, the role of interculturality in the modern society, and ways to develop meaningful forms of cultural security and social.
1
An Interdisciplinary Culturally Responsive Methodology: A Samoan Perspective
Meaola Amituanai-Toloa & Stuart McNaughton University of Auckland, Epsom, Auckland, 1150, New Zealand.
Corresponding author: Meaola Amituanai-Toloa ([email protected])
Abstract MacDonald, Amituanai-Toloa, Lai & Farry 2006). The framework of the riddle examined This paper describes a methodology developed to the extent to which Samoan people examine the state of educational achievement in comprehend texts in general and particularly reading comprehension for a group of students Samoan students in bilingual classes in New within the general Pasifika group in New Zealand. Zealand comprehending texts in both Samoan The methodology seeks to reflect aspects of culture and English. that are responsive to the examination of Pasifika people, their way of life and the sustaining of that As a Samoan researcher and educator I am life. There are existing culturally responsive well aware of my cultural roots and routes, methodologies for the indigenous tangatawhenua especially regarding relationships between Kaupapa Maori research in New Zealand. The focus of such studies, and how to approach them, people within the work environment. This is are thought of initially from the Pasifika perspective made more important in research work as and culture. Such focus on those who are not diversity of participatory populations increase. Maori, who might want to conduct effective The author has previously described elsewhere research on Maori. The methodology described in (see Amituanai-Toloa 2002) my initial this paper aims to extend the notion of culturally preparations for research endeavours, responsive methodologies to the Pacific and its particularly the need to be culturally aware, people living in New Zealand for those who are not and to walk the process, of the research Pasifika but want to do research on Pasifika and its mentally before the actual activity takes place. people. A Samoan riddle was used to capture the cultural essence of Pasifika and to reflect the In particular, and in terms of people as responsiveness of the researcher to Pasifika by participants, relationships between people are trying to guess what the answer to the riddle was. crucial to the success of any research hence, The riddle speaks of different lands occupied by the concept of va-tapuia (sacred space) which different inhabitants, who have their own functions is the cornerstone of all Samoan relationships and roles to play in ensuring that, when brought (Amituanai-Toloa 2007) is to be observed at together, one outcome and one entity results. all times. It was appropriate therefore, Riddle guessing is one of the old Pasifika family particularly for research on one‘s own people, pastimes. The coconut, as the answer to the riddle, that a methodology be designed to take into was most appropriate in creating a model that would examine education for Samoan students account a process where prominent aspects of because of its different layers. It is a methodology cultural problem solving (akin to all people) that holistically examines in the most culturally would be necessary. responsive way, the different areas of academic The term ‗culturally responsive‘ has not been achievement for Pasifika and the factors that enhance or hinder that achievement. The prediction stardardised in its definition and it is not is that the ‗coconut model‘ will be particularly possible to define this term adequately in a effective and relevant in research work in any few words. Rather, many explanations of discipline because of its cultural responsiveness. cultural responsiveness are expressed in general terms which may not clarify how Keywords specific concerns of cultural responsiveness go Pasifika research methodology; culturally beyond, the choice of a methodology or ideas responsive methodology; Pasifika research model; about reflective teaching, active pedagogies, or Pasifika people general professional ethics. There is, therefore, a need to address what the term ‗responsiveness‘ t signifies and why the word INTRODUCTION ‗cultural‘ is used in the phrase(Stewart 2009). There are a number of areas where the term, In this study, the researcher chose to examine ‗cultural responsiveness‘ is found, such as the Samoan bilingual students‘ reading health, justice and social policy. In education, comprehension achievement using a the term ‗cultural responsiveness‘ has been framework that was culturally responsive and used internationally for many years (Stewart one which allowed the voice of Pasifika to 2009), although dominant labels such as emerge within a bigger study (McNaughton, 2 ‗multicultural/bicultural‘ have been more seen by Maori students as respectful, genuine commonly used until recently. Though and caring (Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh, different terminologies, the term refers to the Tom, Teddy & Lani 2009). The Maori and underlying issue of equity for students from their practices, like Pasifika, are founded on non-Western ethnic groups, which formed the relationships. As such, every relationship rationale of current research projects on non- needs to be nurtured simply because without Western groups such as the Pasifika group. relationships, the kinship will not exist. It is the same with schools, and Bishop and Addressing this issue is evident in Maori colleagues‘ argument is that Maori children in research in New Zealand where Maori schools can achieve highly when relationships researchers attempt to change the Western between teachers and students are founded on thinking about doing research. Maori care. Both Smith and Bishop argue from the researchers attempt this change by conducting viewpoint of Maori; an indigenous perspective research on their own people which reclaims that uses indigenous tools of the rich oral their cultural way of problem solving and their tradition. This paper adds to Bishop‘s and way of life. However, as Smith (2004) finds, Smith‘s pledges to be culturally responsive by it is in the process of reclaiming that using the Pasifika indigenous tools, such as the difficulties present themselves. One of the tools of the oratory tradition by extending difficulties identified by Smith (2004) when the notion of cultural responsiveness to researching Maori as indigenous peoples of Pasifika – in this specific case, Samoan. The New Zealand has been identity as a Maori in a riddle as a tool of the Samoan oral tradition is Western society. She explains that the Maori used here as a remembrance of culture, struggle against a Western view of history is custom, history and knowledge of our complex given Maori researchers are involved forebears to retell through the practicalities with that view. Hence, she mourns the telling and methodologies of research the olden ways of their histories as insiders. Yet she also of socialisation and problem solving. In this mourns the retelling of the same histories as way, the responsiveness is geared towards outsiders by others, given this negates culture in order to accentuate those aspects of indigenous views and asserts colonial culture most associated with Samoan identity ideology. Smith explains: (including the personal, cultural and gender perspectives). In other words, cultural […] indigenous peoples have struggled responsiveness is when group processes in a against a Western view of history and particular society are dealt with in a holistic yet been complicit with that view. We way, rather than the individualistic thinking of have often allowed our ―histories‖ to be psychological influences that is particularly told and have then become outsiders as dominant in education we heard them being retold (2002: 33). The methodology used in the study mentioned Smith‘s (2002) pledge is to reclaim history and here was an attempt to be culturally responsive to tell it from an indigenous viewpoint with to the Pasifika people, their practices and their indigenous tools – the tools of the oratory ways of problem solving. More importantly, tradition that acknowledges the knowledge of to respond to Western educationalists view of our ancestors, do justice to that knowledge and doing research –a view that is usually bring forth indigenous aspects of the cultures constructed through deficit theorising which into the written tradition for the purpose of places blame on Pasifika people, their remembrance of culture, custom, history and language and their culture. The knowledge. She adds that every indigenous methodology‘s aim was to look holistically at female researcher, like herself, has many the problem so as to be seen as culturally cultural roles to fulfill all of which have their responsive to all people in the learning own stories to tell and ways to tell them. As a community and not just one individual. For grandmother, mother, daughter, example, in the last ten years, the granddaughter, sister and so forth, Smith comparatively low academic achievement of (1999) points us to a crucial component of Pasifika students in New Zealand has finally being true to all these roles and the many begun to receive attention from both research relationships these roles entail so that we do and intervention programmes (McNaughton, not neglect a part of the whole person in the MacDonald, Amituanai-Toloa, Lai & Farry, different roles we are defined as. 2006; Coxon, Anae, Mara, Wendt-Samu & Finau 2002; Education Review Office 1994, Further to Smith‘s work, Bishop and 1995; Elley 2001). Yet, as early as 1981, colleagues‘ (2001) work in the Te Ramsay and colleagues found that the Kotahitanga study of Maori students in academic achievement of Pasifika children in secondary schools further strengthens the South Auckland, particularly Mangere and cultural responsiveness code by suggesting Otara, needed to be addressed. They added a that relationships between teachers and warning then that any efforts to address this students in secondary school settings must be 3 issue ‗might be too late‘ (Ramsay, Sneddon, example, McNaughton et al. 2006, 2008). Grenfell & Ford 1981). However, despite the success, Pasifika students were still achieving below national The Pasifika children from different Pasifika norms on standardised tests, such as island groups, such as Samoa, Tonga, Cook Supplementary Tests of Achievement in Island/Maori, Tokelau, Niue and Fiji, are Reading, (STAR) (Elley 2001). The research second and third generations descendents of study discussed below aimed to address the Pasifika people who first migrated to New ethnic-specific issue from a perspective of Zealand in the early 1950s and 1960s to settle. problem solving in the Samoan context by A large proportion of these children can still examining the low achievement of Samoan speak their traditional language, in addition to students in bilingual classrooms in mainstream English, and are known as language minority schools in South Auckland. A culturally students who are not achieving as highly as responsive methodology and a model to guide other students in mainstream schooling. this examination would be needed. Historically, both in New Zealand and in other countries, the blame for language-minority THE MALAE educational failure has been placed on students, their families, their languages and Problem solving in Samoa begins in the malae cultures, rather than on the failure of the in a fono (meeting) forum. A malae is a education system to cater adequately for them dedicated specific place in the centre of the (Alton-Lee 2003; McCaffrey & Tuafuti 2003; village where the Sa‟o, ali‟i and tulafale (all Cummins 1989). high chiefs), the matais (chiefs) and village people, converge to examine a problem and A lack of research about Pasifika education in solve it. Apart from the high chiefs and general and particularly a lack of research matais, village people would include tagata about the different ethnic groups (such as matutua, (elders), aumaga (married men who Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island/Maori, Niuean, are not matais) taulele‟a (single men), Fijian, Tokelau and other smaller groups), is a aualuma (single women), and young people problem. There is little information on how (au lalovao). Each group has its own role to these students‘ language use in either English play and carry out its functions effectively so or Samoan interacts with their educational that the whole village benefits. Within each achievement. As a result, in the light of low group, however, are also subgroups who work achievement, there is a lack of understanding together to achieve the same objective of the about the developmental patterns and bigger group and the village. In the research relationships in bilingual and biliteracy study, a framework to identify the different development (Amituanai-Toloa, McNaughton groups that play influential roles in the & Lai 2009). achievement of Samoan bilingual students was deemed to be the ideal methodology. In New Zealand, Pasifika people make up 6.9 percent of the total New Zealand population. THE SAMOAN RIDDLE AS A Those identifying with Pasifika people‘s ethnic group had the second largest increase of CULTURAL RESPONSIVE 15 percent from the 2001 to 2006 Census, METHODOLOGY AND MODEL with the highest proportion of children (people aged 0-14 years) of all the major ethnic It was when reading a book written by a groups, at 38 percent (Statistics New Zealand Samoan that the ideal methodology started to 2007). The dilemma for both countries is that emerge. In the book, the topic of ‗riddles‘ research on language development for these nestled between the topic of ‗songs‘ and one children and in relation to, for example, of ‗proverbs‘(Drabble, 2000). The section on instruction of reading comprehension for riddles was small and the riddles within it school age English language learners is were familiar to the researcher except for one. relatively limited (Garcia 2002, 2003; It took several readings of the riddle to Amituanai-Toloa, McNaughton & Lai 2008). understand before it could be answered. Once In New Zealand‘s case, this dilemma appears the answer to the riddle was confirmed correct, more limited by the paucity of the ethnic- it was decided that the riddle was relevant, specific research on which ethnic comparisons applicable, appropriate and more importantly, between the different Pasifika groups could be culturally responsive. The relevance of the based. The little research available is either riddle was in the way it highlights the aspects generalised or, in most cases, does not focus of the Pasifika way of life that is common to on student achievement of different Pasifika the sustenance of that life. Its applicability lies ethnic groups. in the examination of the different ‗lands‘ the riddle refers to. Most appropriate in the riddle, Recently, some initiatives implemented to was the descriptions of each layer and how it solve the achievement issue of Pasifika applies to the description of each part of the students have shown some success (see, for study. The riddle was arguably one that was 4 culturally responsive because it identifies the its nature. Also examined in this chapter, were participants and who they are. It explains the the Samoan concepts of iloa (know) and roles of the different participants named in the malamalama in relation to comprehension and layers figuratively; the use of each layer in to teaching and learning. The third chapter, everyday life in the Pacific and the cultural ‗The Land of Women‘ looked at how the aspects of the different layers from a Pasifika research was conducted. The fourth chapter viewpoint. Understanding the cultural ‗The Land of Black Rock and Sand‘ examined responsiveness of the riddle, therefore, and presented the baseline achievement of optimises the opportunities to understand Samoan students to identify what their reading further the differences between using a comprehension strengths and weaknesses are Western viewpoint and a Pasifika perspective. that teachers can build on to enhance This is the gist of the methodology – to bring comprehension. In this chapter too, the results an approach that is additional and one that is of the effects of the intervention were specifically a Pasifika culturally responsive presented. The fifth chapter, ‗The White approach to a study on Pasifika people. In Sandy Lands‘ presents the results of first addition, the riddle had all the components of a language oral and reading comprehension of methodology that could encapsulate the Samoan bilingual students in relation to their requirements of the study. The Samoan riddle English comprehension. The sixth chapter ‗To goes: the Water‘ presents the results of teacher observations and their relationship with O le tagata e sau i le nu‟u o tane, ona achievement. The final chapter, ‗The „O‟o‟‟ sau ai lea i le nu‟u o fafine, ona sau ai discusses these findings and answers the lea i le oneone uli ma le papa, ona toe research questions. Research is in itself a sau ai lea i le nu‟u oneone sina, ona riddle. o‟o mai ai lea i le vai.
(English translation: There is a man Figure 1: The Different Layers of who comes to the land of men, and then the Coconut Model comes to the land of women, then he comes to the land of black sand and rock and then to the white sandy land and lastly goes to the water) (Lutu- Water Drabble 2000). White sandyBlack Therockland landand The riddle literally refers here to different Theofsand land lands. In global terms, different lands can be bofwomen men different countries. It can also refer to BlackTheWome different races, for example, Melanesians, thjeschlannWom Micronesians, and Polynesians. It can further oolsen refer to different people, for example, Wome Europeans, Asians, Middle Easterners, and so nWom on. In addition, the riddle offers a structure to en Adopted from Amituanai-Toloa (2005). woW guide and to make simple how a study should be constructed just as it did for the study mentioned here. For example, the study was structured in seven chapters – the first was to introduce the problem to be solved, six The „Land of Men‟ according to the layers in the riddle and the last was reserved for new growth. In scientific terms, the ‗land of men‘ is known as the ‗exocarp‘ – the outer kernel of the THE ANSWER TO THE RIDDLE coconut. It is the hard crust that encircles and hence is difficult to penetrate. It is thus ‗the The coco nuciferas or ‗coconut‘ is the answer land of men‘ because it acts as a protective to the riddle because the cross section of a external layer that keeps the contents of the coconut reveals the layers the riddle speaks entity enclosed and protected in preparation about. In layers from outside in, the first for new growth. In the context of Education in chapter, ‗The Malae‟,introduced the study and the study, ‗a man‘ in the land of men could be addressed the ‗problem‘ of low reading the government (for example, the Ministry of comprehension achievement for Samoan Education) an educator, a teacher, a researcher students. The second chapter, ‗The Land of (as is my case) or any person examining a Men‘ examined how comprehension is particular topic. Each has the power to choose constructed from western lenses and how these what to examine and what to present. constructions have come to form the overarching beliefs about comprehension and 5 The ‗land of men‘ in the study was the development in the Samoan language, with the literature review chapter. This chapter evidence of their development in the English presented issues in reading comprehension language, enabled relationships between generally and more specifically issues for languages to be identified. In addition, the students who speak a language and have development of further research on identified English as a second language. From global to components students were weak on, for local these issues were to be examined and example, sentence structure and vocabulary then identify gaps in the literature about what needed to be a specific focus. More needed to be addressed and how they should importantly, the evidence needed to be be addressed. The latter is where the ‗land of blended with the last layer to see what women‘ comes in. outcomes it might provide.
The „Land of Women‟ The „Water‟
Just inside the outer kernel is ‗the land of The ‗water‘ as the last layer is the clear liquid women‘ scientifically called, the inside fibre in the innermost part of the coconut. It is or ‗mesocarp‘. The land of women cushions known in some cultures as, ‗the drink of the the life that it surrounds with the overarching gods‘ or the ‗perfect drink‘. As the innermost support of the ‗land of men‘ for further layer, it is the most protected and most protection and insulation. The ‗land of sustained part of the coconut so that when new women‘ refers to the matriarch in Samoa. Like growth finally eventuates, the white sandy patriarchal roles and functions, matriarchal lands and the water merge internally to roles and functions are also distinctly defined. become what Samoans call, o‟o (arrival).1
The methodology chapter of the study was the The teachers who participated in the study ‗land of women‘ – it is the strongest fibre of were the focus of this layer. The instructional the study because the validity of results and practice needed to be aligned to the student subsequent sections are based on it. achievement to identify ‗what‘ teachers did and ‗how‘ they did it. More specifically, it The „Land of Black Rock and Sand‟ was to identify aspects of teachers‘ pedagogical practice and ideas and beliefs that The third layer of the coconut model was the impacted on their students‘ achievement. ‗black rock and sand‘. Its scientific name is When all these are put together into one ‗endocarp‘. This layer is the hard shell that outcome and one entity, various discussions surrounds the white coconut meat and the occur. These might be making predictions water. about what the next steps to take would be or hypothesizing about the reasons why students‘ In the study, this section represented the achievement is the way it is. This was part of English reading comprehension outcomes of negotiating new growth. bilingual student achievement. That is, the baseline results and the longitudinal The Negotiating of New Growth achievement results to show the effects of the intervention on student achievement. This part of the study involved discussions Together they inform the current status of about the effectiveness of the intervention and student achievement. In relation to the riddle, answering the research questions originally this section provided the strength of the presented in the first chapter, the malae. intervention as seen in the increase in gain Beliefs and ideas of Samoan teachers from scores for bilingual students after the their cultural and spiritual perspectives were intervention. included to argue that increases in student achievement scores cannot be attributed to an The „White Sandy Lands‟ intervention alone such as professional development for teachers. Rather, teachers‘ Following the ‗black rock and sand layer‘ is own beliefs and ideas about what the white coconut meat. Scientifically it is comprehension is, and how it should be taught called the, ‗endosperm‘ or inside kernel. ‗The from their Samoan viewpoint as Samoan white sandy lands‘ in the study referred to the teachers, play influential roles in the results of bilingual students‘ Samoan language achievement of Samoan students in their assessments. Given the paucity of research on classrooms. language development for Samoan students in New Zealand, these results were considered a ‗meaty‘ diet for further research to understand how Samoan students develop in two languages (Samoan and English). The 1 A o‟o is the hardened juice (mixture of white meat merging of evidence of bilingual students‘ and water) of the coconut. This is the part that growth of a new coconut tree originates from. 6 CONCLUSION Samoan bilingual classes‘, PhD Thesis, University of Auckland, New Zealand. The design using the riddle and the resulting Bishop, R, Berryman, M, Cavanagh, T & coconut model as the answer to the riddle was Teddy, L (2003). The TeKotahitanga: a cultural responsive methodology that was Phase 1: The Experiences of Year 9 & 10 most appropriate for the purpose of the study Maori Students in Mainstream Classrooms. in examining the different stakeholders in the Wellington, Ministry of Education. education sector through its different layers. www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications Through the examination, it was evident that /series /9977/5375. Retrieved 060710 in order to get to the ‗water‘ or in other words, solve the problem, there was a process which Coxon, E, Anae, M, Mara, D, Wendt-Samu, T involves a number of different ‗lands‘ as & Finau, C 2002, Literature Review on destinations where one must reach. The Issues Facing Pacific Education, riddle, and the answer to it, provided the study University of Auckland for the New with an appropriate context that is culturally Zealand Ministry of Education, Auckland. responsive to Pasifika people in general and Cummins, J 1989, ‗Empowering minority particularly to students and their parents. It students: A framework for intervention‘, gave validation to a methodology that is Harvard Educational Review, 56 (1):18- familiar and through that familiarisation, 36. guided the process of the research clearly and effectively, resulting in a cultural model that Education Review Office 1994, Annual can be used in other disciplines (especially Report, Education Review Office, with minority groups like the Samoan students Wellington. and their teachers). It is a model that is Education Review Office 1995, Annual comprehensive and holistic in its approach, Report, Education Review Office, whereas initiatives in schools have often had Wellington. narrow foci. Elley, W B 2001, Supplementary Tests of References Achievement in Reading, New Zealand Council for Educational Research, Alton-Lee, A 2003, ‗Impact of teachers and Wellington. schools on variance in outcome‘, in Garcia, G E (ed.) 2003, The reading possession of Ministry of Education, comprehension development and Wellington. instruction of English-language learners, Amituanai-Toloa, M, McNaughton, S, Lai & The Guildford Press, New York. M, Airini 2010, ‗Ua aoina le manogi o le Garcia, G E 2002, ‗Issues surrounding cross- lolo: Pasifika Schooling Improvement‘, in linguistic transfer in bilingual students' possession of Ministry of Education, reading: A study of Mexican-American Wellington. fourth graders‘, Proceedings of the Amituanai-Toloa, M, McNaughton, S, & Lai, Featured speech Research Conference, M 2009, ‗Biliteracy and language May, San Francisco, CA. development in Samoan bilingual Lutu-Drabble, T C 2000, Tusi Pese Fatuga classrooms: The effects of increasing Tuai a Samoa: A Songbook of popular old English reading comprehension‘, songs, photographs and proverbs of International Journal of Bilingual Samoa, Pago Print Shop, Pagopago, Education and Bilingualism, 1:1-19. American Samoa. Amituanai-Toloa, M, McNaughton, S, & Lai, McNaughton, S, MacDonald, S, Amituanai- M 2008, ‗A Profile of Reading Toloa, M, Lai, M & Farry, S 2006, Comprehension in English for Samoan Enhanced teaching and learning of Bilingual Students in Samoan Bilingual comprehension in Years 4-9 in seven Classes‘, New Zealand Journal of Mangere schools: Final TLRI report, Educational Studies, 43(1):5-20. NZCER, Wellington, New Zealand, viewed Amituanai-Toloa, M 2007, ‗The Va Tapuia 30 June 30 2006, (Space made sacred) in bridging research
8 Learning Literacy; Constructing Identity: Migrant and Refugee Participation in English Language Programs
Michael Atkinson ([email protected]) Victoria University, Footscray, Australia
Abstract adult refugees are also traversing very different personal roles as they negotiate the Arguably the initial primary contact for many new cultural transition between their homeland and adult migrants and refugees with Australian society Australia. Differences in gender roles, is through English language programs. The educational approaches, and social and functional value of these programs is well economic values between a western and a documented. Mainstream rhetoric argues that these developing country add to the complexity of skills are needed for successful economic integration within the broader society. This paper meanings such learners must process. From asserts that economically orientated understandings, this perspective an adult ESL literacy program which underpin the role of English Second provides a critical space for participants to Language (ESL) language and literacy programs, reflect upon and redefine their own sense of neither acknowledge nor value the potential social self. role that such programs play. This is especially significant in the case of refugees, where learners This paper reports on a research project which are frequently negotiating not just a new language explored the factors that impacted on the but a new skill (literacy) from within a context personal and social meaningfulness of marked by social and cultural transition. learners within an adult English language and This paper reports on findings from a research literacy program. This program was delivered project which explored the factors that contributed within a tertiary educational setting in to the meaningfulness of learners‘ participation Australia. I propose that the particpation of within an adult English language program. The learners is made more meaningful where the data revealed that meaningful participation emerges social context of learning is acknowledged, from a combination of complementary factors, and where, as will be shown below, cultural which may be broadly interpreted in terms of the and gender differences between learners are acquisition of literacy skills, a sense of social recognised. By way of contrast the functional belonging, and the development of cultural knowledge. These factors exist in tension and orientated ESL language and literacy delivery, combine to create a sense of emerging identity, as which characterises many contemporary learners seek to participate more fully within the programs, is partial and favours certain broader society and express their own sense of self. meanings and learners. Balancing previous cultural ways of knowing with new understandings of the self, constructed through This article begins with a short commentary on engagement with civic society, is central to this the contested definition of literacy itself, in process. It may be pertinent to reframe adult order to establish a platform from which to English language programs from a functional to a understand the inherent ideological bias and more socially inclusive ideology, and thereby enable those on the cultural margins to develop valued meanings of ESL language programs. their own understanding of the broader community The potential impact that such valued and their potential role in mainstream society. meanings can have on learners is also briefly discussed. Keywords Adult literacy, ESL, identity, meaningful THE CONTESTED NATURE OF participation, refugees, LITERACY
The definition of ‗literacy‘ in adult education, INTRODUCTION both in terms of delivery and as an object of inquiry, is highly contested (Street 2001). Adult ESL programs do not simply attend to These contestations impact on, and are peoples‘ language and literacy skills. They are impacted by, differing discourses about the also potential social outlets and a resource for goals and purposes of literacy programs. These understanding society. This is especially so for can range from narrow technicist, economic pre-literate refugee students who are learning and functionalist aims to ones which are more not just a new language but also a new social, political and humanist in nature (Papen language skill; that of communicating 2005). Broadly speaking, mainstream understanding through the written word. On educational policies focus their literacy top of the need to learn new linguistic skills, definition on the functional skills required to
interpret written symbols in order to actively learners to examine their realities and explore function within mainstream society (Lonsdale and express their own identity constructions, & McCurry 2004). On the other hand the they can also potentially impact negatively on definition of literacy from the perspective of a learner‘s emerging sense of self by the New Literacy Studies (Barton 2001; Street reproducing the dominant social discourse and 2003) is centred on the social practices and denying difference (Cooke 2008). This can be bodies of knowledge with which one‘s world particularly acute with regards to gender and culture are interpreted. According to this considerations. framework, literacy includes multiple variants which have equal validity, derived from the An impact of gender within literacy programs social context in which they are used. Others is especially important for people, such as the argue for a definition of literacy that focusses African students reported below, who are on the manner in which power is distributed crossing cultural and social borders and hence and negotiated within society (Stromquist differences in the way gender is defined and 2005; Prinsloo & Janks 2002). Critical expressed. Women, for example, must literacy, as this model has been termed, draws frequently delay and defer their educational its inspiration from a theoretical framework in development until their husbands have which literacy may be used to enable people to acquired enough English to enter the move out of situations of oppression and workforce and fulfil their own traditional reshape their lives. gender roles in terms of providing for their family (African Think Tank Inc. 2007). In As argued by Barton & Hamilton (1998) all terms of theory and praxis, the lack of definitions of literacy are ideologically based recognition of difference between gender roles and framed by people‘s beliefs, attitudes and potentially values these spheres unequally. practices. According to Gomez (2004), understandings of literacy, broadly based on An alternative perspective from which to view one or the other viewpoint, are too simplistic and therefore construct literacy program to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of delivery is presented here. This perspective is literacy program delivery. In other words, the based on the potential for meaningful different ways of analysing literacy and participation of all learners within such delivering literacy instruction, based on one or programs. The notion of meaningful another perspective, are always partial and will participation is discussed below. thus privilege certain kinds of learners and marginalise others. MEANINGFUL PARTICIPATION
This latter point, I would argue, is particularly ESL programs are at a juncture of multiple pertinent in the case of refugee learners, who meanings inclusive of the values of are the focus of this article. Such people have mainstream society, the beliefs of teachers and gone through at least two hugely significant the needs of students. Understanding the adjustments in their lives. One is the time they perceived relevancy and significance of became refugees and another is the time they literacy programs can be achieved through came to Australia. While the first transition viewing such programs through a lens which may, in a physical sense be completed, it can foregrounds the manner in which people still play an important role in the lives of engage, contest and assimilate the multiple participants. The other stage of transition is meanings within their learning experiences. clearly still ongoing. Hence alongside differences in terms of history, gender and Within the research project to which this culture within a group of learners lie a article refers to, the notion of ‗meaningful complex net of social meanings associated participation‘ signifies a framework for with people making sense of (and processing) viewing ESL literacy programs, which their rapidly changing lives. This is encompasses people‘s sense of connection particularly pertinent in the context of this with the society they live in, their own research as it points to the significance of the community and their own emerging sense of social environment for learners., self. It is a notion based on a view that literacy itself cannot and should not be defined From this perspective ESL literacy programs according to the views of any particular group potentially provide a reflective social space for or be framed by one or the other paradigm. participants to understand the meanings and Rather literacy should be seen within a broader values of mainstream society and their frame of reference based upon multiple possible role in that society. Importantly, such perspectives of both literacy and development programs will impact differently on different that is inclusive of socially marginalised people, according to their feelings of identity groups. Within this framework enhancing the and the changing and diverse circumstances of meaningfulness of learner‘s participation their lives. While the meanings imbued within requires acknowledging and incorporating the an ESL literacy program can act as a space for 10 collective values of people‘s learning continuing trend within Australian English experiences in order to reinforce positive language provision for migrants and transformation. Understanding and positively humanitarian entrants. As a review of the facilitating the emerging sense of identity of migrant English language program shows, learners is integral to this process. It also proposed changes to the curriculum will requires strengthening networks into the further emphasise ‗employability skills at the community and cultivating a feeling of higher levels [...] and [...] flexibility for belonging within a learning culture. This inclusion of new work preparation skills latter point is particularly important given the training for lower level clients‘ (DIAC social isolation that and marginalisation that 2008:25). many refugees feel as they attempt to become a part of the broader Australian society. RESEARCH DESIGN
THE STUDY CONTEXT The research design was a case study within a phenomenological perspective. In this The participants of the project analysed in this research project the case is clearly bounded by paper were refugees from Togo and the Sudan, the experiences of a group of humanitarian who were studying English literacy within an entrants participating in an AMEP program adult educational setting in Australia delivered in a tertiary educational campus in (Atkinson 2010). All the participants were, or Australia. A phenomenological perspective had been, enrolled in an adult English highlights the subjective experience(s) of the language and literacy course, delivered individuals and their own perceptions of their through the Australian Federal Government‘s life and world around them. The focus is on Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP). Of understanding a process from the point of view the ten participants, eight were women of the participants themselves, as it is their reflecting the gender disparity within the meanings and their understandings which are classes themselves. important (Mertens 2005).
This latter point is particularly pertinent with In this current research project participants regards to the study context. Of the 55 wrote about their past, their initial experiences students enrolled in the program at the time of in Australia, their aspirations, the problems the research, 33 had less than six years of they had and how they overcame them. These schooling. Of these 33, 31 were women. written stories were shared, and thus provided Many of the women in the ESL program had space for others to further discuss meanings of added family responsibilities and frequently significance. Asking students to write stories came from a situation of economic was compatible with the expressed needs of dependency upon men. They have also not had students to build upon their writing and the same educational opportunities afforded to reading skills, and therefore comprised a men in their home country. Upon arrival in research data collection tactic ‗sanctioned‘ by Australia many are pressured into finding the existing curriculum. From the written work by Centrelink. This situation can be at stories and subsequent discussion a picture odds with their traditional cultural emerged characterised by change and responsibilities of looking after the family and aspiration, revealing how the participants supporting their husbands. Through not negotiated the meanings within the broader acknowledging the gender of students within society and in their own immediate and the program there is no official provision to familial needs. acknowledge and thereby take into account the existing constraints of gender upon the Data analysis was grounded in the learning needs and outcomes of students, the identification of the recurring topics and purposes for which they come to learn and the themes that emerged from the data. These unique educational challenges that they may initial topics were further analysed to identify face. sub-topics which, once identified, informed further data analysis (Muthukrishna 2006). The next stage involved developing patterns of The AMEP English language course is relationships between the categories identified designed to guide teachers to create and leading to an understanding of the complex deliver a syllabus that enables students to links between the beliefs, experiences, and achieve specified competency outcomes perspectives of the participants. Validity was against which a student‘s progress is enhanced through asking participants to revisit measured. The course is not only designed to their own construction standardise English language instruction for new migrants but also to ensure a level of accountability to funding authorities and a responsiveness to labour markets. This emphasis on skills for employment is a 11 THE FINDINGS in terms of concomitant feelings of uncertainty over future options which are held to be Key themes which contributed to the dependent upon their English language ability. meaningfulness of people‘s participation The following two statements allude to this within the ESL Literacy Program included the sense of uncertainty. acquisition of functional literacy skills, relationships with teachers and fellow students I want to do welfare. My writing is not and the acquisition of and access to (new) good but I think I can do this course, cultural knowledge. Within these meanings God willing (Student K, Togolese man, the duality of the functional and the social was 2009, pers. comm.., 11 March). clearly evident. Far from being mutually exclusive, the social and the functional aspects of the learning of students frequently Without English, without writing complemented each other. What also strongly English you cannot get a good job in emerged was a vision of literacy acquisition as Australia. This is the difficulty I am an individual journey, tempered by cultural facing (Student D, Sudanese woman, and social factors which often travelled in 2008, pers. comm., 28 November). parallel with the learners‘ own sense of connection and adjustment to Australian In some respects, therefore, the identity of society and their understanding of Australian learners is not just in transition but also on culture. hold as they attempt to acquire a perceived satisfactory level of English language and The most obvious sense of meaning emerges literacy competency and maintain their sense in relation to the English language skills of self-confidence and personal belief. students strive to acquire, and especially their confidence and ability to read and write. This feeling of transition and tension is not Indicative of the functional approach of the restricted to English language acquisition, but AMEP program, this was frequently in line is rather a key and ongoing feature of their with educational rhetoric that emphasised lives; particularly their financial lives as the reading, writing, listening, speaking and following statements reveal in different ways. grammar skills. The relationship between The first statement expresses a student‘s these functional skills and the social may be reflection upon their relationship with the key discerned in the statement below. The institution, which controls their financial following statement expresses the security, namely Centrelink. understanding which many students held. For them, English language and literacy skills are Centrelink is our ‗father‘ (Student V, essential in order to have access to the Togolese woman, 2009, pers. comm., opportunities afforded to members of 11 March). Australian society within the context of employment, further study and social discourse. A ‗father‘ is at once a symbol of authority, of security, of control. Humanitarian entrants are English is necessary for speaking to deeply thankful for the financial support they neighbours, for reading things like are given to settle into Australia. But as the letters, letters from Centrelink, bills following quote shows this appreciation is many things, getting a job, talking with hampered by what they see as the unnecessary my child‘s teacher. These things we pressure placed on their lives. need English for [...]. If we want to do another course, like me I want to do a I get a letter every week from childcare course. We need English for Centrelink. Centrelink is wanting me this. We need to learn how to write to get a job. But my English is not (Student N, Sudanese woman, 2009, good enough. If my boss tells me to do pers.comm., 11 February). something and I do the wrong thing because of English this is no good. Me Alongside the importance of acquiring I don‘t want to get a job until my functional skills lies a sense of personal English is good (Student R, Togolese aspiration and of hope. Acquiring English man, 2009, pers. comm., 11 February). literacy is not just a means of liberation but also a constraining influence on people in their Negotiating the institutional meanings which pursuit of realising and expressing their own impact on their lives is an ongoing process. sense of identity. From a socially contextual The statement below, therefore, is not simply a point of view the duality within a student‘s reference to understanding the meanings of experience of learning English is reproduced society but also a reference to the deep 12 feelings of confusion and uncertainty within are forced to revisit and reflect upon their own learners‘ lives and their need to regain control understandings and rethink their own roles as over factors which so heavily influence their part of their cultural adjustment. In an ESL financial and social wellbeing. course directed towards the integration of migrants within the broader society, as the You know, with that man when he AMEP program is directed towards, this is an taught us. I learn so much about important, although largely unacknowledged, Centrelink and money and about point. payments. This was good. I need this information (Student R, Togolese man, Of further significance is that this process of 2009, pers. comm., 11 February). reflection is not necessarily an easy one and is, in a similar fashion to a student‘s existential
experiences, often marked by confusion and The man in question in the above statement uncertainty. This is reflected in the following was a culturally sensitive representative from statement: Centrelink. Through actively listening to the needs of students he provided not only key I need to be quiet. I don‘t understand information but also a sympathetic ear to the this country. If I do something I might feelings of uncertainty and confusion held by do the wrong thing. First we must students in terms of their dealings with understand this country. This is why I government welfare. don‘t say very much. I want to
understand. Then we can know if we These feelings of uncertainty and do the right thing (Student M, Sudanese disconnection from the meanings within woman, 2009, pers. comm., 11 March). institutions extend generally to the broader society and have a significant impact on people‘s emerging sense of belonging. This Alongside the sense of difference felt by the sense of confusion is caught in the following participants in this research project, and their student statement. sense of vulnerability and their confusion there is arguably another meaning in this statement. What I fear when I leave the house is The significance of the words in the statement doing something wrong. I do not mean immediately above lies not just in the feeling doing something against the law. I of difference expressed by this research don‘t mean that. I mean something participant but also in her determination to against the culture, doing wrong things understand her new environment in order to for this culture (Student O, Sudanese integrate more fully with it. This is reaffirmed woman, 2009, pers. comm., 25 March). by the statements of other participants which reveal a desire to understand and negotiate
wider social meanings alongside an aspiration As indicated in the student statement to develop and extend one‘s own sense of self immediately above, negotiating the present within an environment of difference. meanings of day-to-day existence is an ongoing process. It is also a process of deep personal consequence. These everyday What I really must learn. I must learn experiences can even affect a student‘s sense the cultural rules of this country of security and morality. The following (Student N, Sudanese woman, 2008, statement shows the potential sense of tension pers. comm., 14 November). within the everyday experiences of learners. This course, it helps me with my
confidence, not confidence in my self. I saw a lady take something from the I already have that, but confidence in bag of another lady on the station. The this society (Student O, Sudanese train person asked if anyone had seen woman, 2009, pers. comm., 25 March). anything. I said nothing. My husband said to be quiet. In my country where I come from the police will take me It is the desire to extend one‘s own life that is away if I talk to them (Student E, so important in the context of this research. Sudanese woman, 2009, pers. comm., 4 Each learner must negotiate their own journey March). of integration and face challenges particular to their own circumstances and the social and In including this quote I am not claiming that cultural contexts of their lives. Their knowledge of the police should be an aspect of challenge lies in ‗merging‘ their own sense of adult ESL delivery. What I do claim however identity with the meanings of mainstream is that learners are undergoing a process of (Anglo-) Australian society, particularly when rethinking their understandings of how society they frequently lack the power and the operates and the rules of society. In other understanding to negotiate the meanings that words, learners, in their day to day experiences directly impact on their lives. The following 13 statements show that this emergence of an to a process. The following statement reveals increasingly hybrid identity is an ever present the effectiveness of this tentative action for dynamic for learners. The statements were enabling participants to reflect upon and expressed within a discussion about raising express their emerging sense of identity. children, and concern about the role of the participants as both mothers and as members Some people they speak and they say of an ethnic group. we should do this and this but they don‘t understand Australian ways. They don‘t think. They just do I want my children to succeed in something because that is the way Australia and not forget who they are Australian people do things. But this and where they have come from. might not [be] good for us because we […] but in this country our children don‘t understand what we are doing. learn new ways. At school they learn We need to learn about Australian new things. They learn Australian culture so that we can make a new way. ways. They do not listen to adults. This is what I think (Student J, What do we do with our children? Sudanese woman, 2009, pers. comm., (Student J, Sudanese woman, 2009, 11 March). pers. comm., 11 March)
The statement also uncovers a key priority for Traversing African and Australian cultural this student – to make a new way – which lies values and negotiating the role of raising beyond the institutional discourse but is children in a new and very different society is nevertheless a vital and integral motivating intensely difficult. Loneliness, isolation, a factor in her learning and participation in the lack of English skills, a lack of knowledge of ESL language and literacy course. how society operates, pressure from institutions and employment pressures vie with An English language and literacy program, as a need to maintain one‘s own cultural identity indicated by the above statements, is not within a society that does not necessarily simply a place of learning but also a space understand or acknowledge the challenge of wherein people can reflect upon and process fashioning an emerging sense of self from their own lives. The privileging of economic within an identity grounded in difference. It is values as defined by the AMEP curriculum this ongoing dynamic of identity formation does not expressly enable students to extend combined with a personal appreciation of who their networks or gain an experience of they are which appears to be a key (and Australian society from the perspective of unacknowledged) component of learner‘s lives their own needs. As Kral & Schwab (2003:18) and their meaningful participation in their ESL note ‗if education is to be successful and to language and literacy course. lead to sustainable outcomes, it must be integrated in to the social and cultural DISCUSSION framework of the whole community‘. From the perspective of ‗meaningful participation‘, As a consequence of this research I was able to if an English language and literacy program is identify and act upon a broader student need to be effective in enhancing the integration of with regards to understanding the meanings humanitarian refugees into the broader that affected their lives. For example, students Australian community then attention must be repeatedly expressed difficulties they had with given to the mechanisms which support local Centrelink. As a result, representatives of networks between the program and support Centrelink were brought into the program to organisations. discuss key issues that students had. Likewise representatives from the state police force, Evidence suggests however that far from being from employment providers, welfare agencies, strengthend local support networks between the education department, and other service providers and the ESL student body governmental departments were brought into have been undermined. At the time this the program. Particularly important in this research was carried out Centrelink had regard was addressing the challenge, often recently cancelled its multicultural officer raised by mothers, of childcare and the position. In addition a high turnover of staff at education of children, By enabling participants the organisation, which provided settlement to access information that was revealed by the services further reduced network support for research process to be an area of need, space humanitarian entrants. The lack of strong links was created for participants to reflect upon and between the ESL Literacy program and express their own views about matters of outside agencies compromises the support that identified importance. In other words the staff can bring to learners themselves resulting identified meaningfulness of the participation in a lack of provision for learners to gain the of students tentatively moved from a concept 14 support they need or be put into contact with foregrounds the essential aspect of our own those who can give this support. humanity.
The lack of recognition of the social References environment of learners also ignores the importance for learners to rethink and reflect African Think Tank Inc. 2007, African upon their own sense of self within a safe and resettlement in Australia: The way forward, secure environment. It is hence a serious viewed 5 March 2009, omission within the context that literacy
16 Meeting the Stranger Within: Considering a Pedagogy of Belonging
Jon Austin ([email protected]) University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Qld, 4350 Australia.
Abstract are movement, fear, and alienation, and it is the combined effect of these that has led to the The image of the Migrant is one of the defining degrees of mistrust, protective posturings and motifs of contemporary times and has given rise to social schisming that characterise the most concerns for security both for and from the concerning challenges to democratic social immigrant. The postmodern experience of relationships and genuine performance of globalising systems has meant that concomitant community of current times. In very much ruptures and reformations of anchors of belonging – the disruption of place-based senses of identity – summary form, I would like to explain my have led to a sense of constancy of transience, of a view of these three features. permanent process of Settling without any real sense of Belonging. The experience of Migrant is It has been much asserted that the current age one of an encounter with difference and is one of massively increased and increasing strangeness, dissonance and anxiety for both the rapidity, and that rapidity is of movement. Arrival and for those already in Place. How Things, ideas, currencies, viruses, news, Difference is perceived and received will determine people – all travel the globe at seemingly the ease with which the Arrival is admitted to Place. irresistible rates of increasing speed. The Genuinely critical educative work is a vehicle for the mediation of a prevailing conceptualisation of purpose of such movement is not, clearly, to Difference as deficit and its reformulation in the be found in any kinetic aesthetic, but in public consciousness as presenting no barrier to relocation and propagation: objects in Belonging. movement seek ultimately and repeatedly to root, to bed down in a new locale, however Drawing on Baumann‘s social commentary and temporarily. Inevitably, this puts the object notions of community in the contemporary era moving into an impact situation with whatever and on Giroux‘s notion of border pedagogies, this mechanisms exist to preserve the sanctity of paper sketches a possible pedagogy of belonging the old/new place. Whether it be the 2009 derived from a shift in focus from the Arrival to those in Place, from the Other to the Self. In this, attempts by the government of the People‘s emphasis is placed on the ideas of zones of Republic of China to prevent the re- difference, community, belonging and the stimulation of (not quite) lost memories of the educative imperative of ‗turning the gaze‘ on to events of Tiananmen Square 20 years earlier the Centre. through the filtering out of extraterritorial information flows from public television Keywords reception or by various physical forms of Belonging, border pedagogy, borderlands, border security, movement clearly evokes difference, liquid times resistance. It is this mission to enter freely – ‗[these] pressures aimed at the piercing and dismantling of boundaries‘ – that constitutes, I understand that Australians are in Zygmunt Bauman‘s view, the very essence disturbed when they see boats arrive on of globalisation (2007: 6). our shores unannounced. Australians wanted strong border management and Movement creates disruption and change, it I will provide it. unsettles. Whether seen as akin to the disarray left in the wake of the animated cloud of dust Julia Gillard, statement on elevation to Prime th of any Warner Brothers‘ Looney Tunes Minister, 24 June 2010. cartoon character or as a bowling ball scattering pins at the local ten-pin alley, PREAMBLE movement creates change, either in what is left behind or in what is newly encountered. In the This paper is based on a claim that there are context of migration, the disruption and three distinct but intimately connected features attendant uncertainty and insecurity flow two of contemporary society that combine to leave ways. What we witness is a growing sense of social relationships teetering uncertainly on need for security for whilst simultaneously something of a knife-edge. The three features
provoking a growing call for security from the Australians for what insights these practices Migrant. might yield insofar as the development of migrant security is concerned. This constitutes the basis for the insecurity that underpins a concern to preserve what currently is, in the face of the onrush of what might become. Bauman has argued that the desire to minimise uncertainty, to promote and protect those resident within has been one of the main impetuses for the establishment and development of the city, but that with the development of the ‗open society‘ in the globalised era, ‗fear has settled inside, saturating our daily routines‘ (2007: 9). As a result, technologies of security are increasingly deployed to maintain a sense of safety in the face of the presence of the Other at Home. No longer is the demarcation line between Them and Us, between Self and Other at a distance. It now confronts us in our back yard, and the maintenance of boundary fences – both actual and imaginary – has come to constitute one of, if not the, most sensitive functions of contemporary government:
[T]he modern variety of insecurity is distinctively marked by a fear of human maleficence and malefactors. It is shot through by suspicion towards other humans and their intentions and by a refusal to trust the constancy and reliability of human companionships… From the start, the modern state was therefore confronted with the daunting task of the management of fear Figure 1: Indigenous Australian country & (Bauman, 2007:57-58). borders (Donna Moodie 2010, used with permission). Hedetoft argues that boundaries – borders – are being drawn more and more tightly and Indigenous or local knowledges carry wisdom rigidly in some ways, and have become what about social practices that have served to he has termed ‗asymmetric ensure social, cultural and environmental membranes…allowing exit, but protect[ing] sustainability for millennia, and currently there against unwanted entrance of units from the is a growing acknowledgement of what has other side‘ (2003: 151-152). It is in the space been lost through the devaluation of this around the border that insecurity breeds, but it wisdom, primarily through mechanisms of is in that same space that the potential for primitivising. For the purposes of the current greater inter-human understanding and the paper, I would like to draw upon one of these development of more genuinely democratic practices to establish a base from which to and non-exploitative relationships with suggest how the question of migrant security Difference might be built. The pedagogical might be addressed. This particular aspect of contribution to such a project is the focus of Australian Indigenous practice is derived from this paper. the protocols that shaped the visitation, use and settlement of one clan‘s country by MEETING AT THE BORDER members of another. As a non-Indigenous Australian, I am not, of course, privy to the deeper levels of ceremony, knowledge and Arguably, the dominant motif of the practice that are essential for a more contemporary age is that of the border, but comprehensive presentation of the matters at encounters with Others at the border are hand here. I have, however, consulted with ancient experiences, ones that have been respected Indigenous Australians and have managed in this country for tens of thousands their approval for the account of very complex of years in a spirit of seeming harmony, and culturally nuanced practices that I am respect and balance. It is worth exploring the providing here. Any errors in this, of course, ways in which border crossings were and are of my own making and responsibility. continue to be engaged in by Indigenous 18 It is well-acknowledged that the original was frequent, there were sets of protocols that inhabitants of what we would now call surrounded such contact. These protocols Australia deployed ways of marking the included such things as the acknowledgement boundaries of one clan‘s country from of the sacredness of certain sites and another‘s that were unrecognisable to the early significant features of what white thinking waves of non-indigenous migrant settlers. might call the features of the natural Indeed, the perceived lack of any means of environment – a tree, a rock, a mountain could marking proprietary relations with the hold major significance for both the landscape comprehensible to the European demarcation of country and for the migrants in the 18th, 19th and most of the 20th preservation of the spiritual boundedness of centuries was persistently touted as an people and land. Crisscrossing this was / is a indicator of this space being terra nullius. In complex system of totems, dreaming tracks the European imperial/colonial imagination, and songlines that provided for the physical, Australia was a space to be claimed and social and spiritual navigation across and developed. That it was already a place of deep between country and clan (for a useful and significant meaning was another summary of key features of Indigenous inconvenient truth (with apologies to Al Gore). Australian demarcation of country see It is these two terms – space and place – and McDonald 2008, p18ff). politics of identity and belonging that are played out across the borders between the two In the diagrammatic representation of county that assume a central importance in this paper. shown in figure 1, a number of borderland areas are portrayed. In these borderlands, Space here is seen as territory we move movement of people occurred and occurs through; place, however, is where we stop and invest meaning. Through the investment of space with emotional, psychic, social, and spiritual meaning, we make a claim to belonging. Typically, the attachments of self that lead to a sense of belonging are shared with and by others, and this is where claims to connection and to sovereignty are based and where the forging of collective identity finds sustenance and takes root.
In this simplistic explanation of the connection between place and identity is to be found the source of many of the concerns over migrant security. Here, it is useful – although doubly concerning – to realise that such concerns over security issues attaching to migrants are as much about security from migrants as it is about security for migrants, and that the fear or trepidation – at the very least, suspicion – that drenches the encounter with the Migrant or even the very idea of encountering the Figure 2: Border crossing (detail from Migrant, can be traced back to this basic Donna Moodie, 2010, used with point: migrant security is about questions of permission). who belongs, about the boundaries that are or largely unchallenged, but always with a should be drawn between those in place and requirement, enforced by elders, that the those arriving, about border crossing. stories of place and of those who come from Accompanying this, though, is a school of and belong to that place are respected, thought about what might constitute a remembered, told and preserved. borderland that would work to revivify public democratic life instead of smothering it. Figure 2 shows a more detailed depiction of
the movement across borders. Allegiances and Markings of territorial custodianship (as belonging based on country, skin group, opposed to ownership or control) in Australian totemic and other markers and reminders of Indigenous communities were there for those affiliation allow for both the free movement who knew how to remember, look, and across and respectful use of land while at the interpret the signs. Frequently such same time preserving and maintaining core knowledge was the province of certain connections to land, home and clan. members of a clan, typically those considered to be wise, the elders. Each clan had its own In summary, then, movement across and specific connection to place – to ‗country‘ – between borders was typically free and and while inter-clan and inter-country contact 19 unfettered as long as the respect due to local protested about the sheer numbers of totems and spirits was fully, visibly and people coming to Australia. Seen by correctly accorded. The freedom of movement many as a conservative stance, the issue was based upon a connectedness and sense on has always been about how well the similarity rather than a sense of difference. Land (our mother) can support the While totems and clan and skin groups might people. Because the land is living it provide differentiation mechanisms, the core requires looking after, migrants and ethic was one of commonality and the belief in non-indigenous Australians don't seem belonging that accompanied a sense of holistic to have a system of nurture and care, connection to and between Self, others and the just processes of resource use and land. Belonging connected the Self to the abuse. For us its the elephant in the physical, social, cultural and psychic domains. room! What further effects will the As long as the stories of totem, clan and place remained true to memory, movement of migrant experience have on us? (Donna ‗outsiders‘ could and would not be considered Moodie 2010, pers comm., July 1) to be suspicious or fear-inducing. It was only It is from a reconsideration of the idea of when the due respect failed to be shown zones of contact in Indigenous Australian land (through, for example, inaccuracies in stories systems that possibilities of contributing to a that evinced a sloppiness or disrespect) that more secure migratory experience might be border crossing became problematic. considered.
It was the role of the elders in each clan to ensure the accuracy of the local stories of THE BORDER/LAND place that were told by those with connection – those who belonged – through the complex Noted critical pedagogy theorist, practitioner, layers of multi-dimensional ties that flowed cultural studies scholar and critical intellectual across borders. It was also their responsibility worker, Henry Giroux, has developed an idea to ensure the correct passing on of these of what he terms a border pedagogy (2005). stories. This educative role has relevance for For Giroux, borders and border crossing are the consideration of a critical educative central metaphors and organising devices for engagement with migrant security in any genuinely transformative theory of contemporary times education and educative practice, and their traversing as terrains of difference crucial to a Indigenous Australian systems of management revivified cultural democracy: of migratory activity mediated encounters with Others and difference seemingly harmoniously The concept of borders provides a for tens of thousands of years. Based upon continuing and crucial referent for reciprocal notions of obligation to land, spirit understanding the co-mingling – and each other, the system was, however, of sometimes clash – of multiple cultures, little use when it butted up against a totally languages, literacies, histories, different way of conceptualising borders and sexualities, and identities. Thinking in boundaries. The proprietary epistemology terms of borders allows one to critically that drove the Western imperialist adventure engage the struggle over those saw boundaries and borders in totally different territories, spaces, and contact zones ways: here, they were markers of exclusion where power operates to either expand and inclusion, the demarcation lines for those or shrink the distance and who belong(ed) and those who have no place connectedness among individuals, here. Borders were to be struggled over. groups and places (2005: 2). Borderlands in this view were contested places, places of victory and defeat, life and In the context of migrant security, borders death. assume a literal presence as well as a powerful role in the social imaginary, but in a much As a partial aside, it is illuminating to think broader view, borders metaphorically carve about the responses of many contemporary out places of inclusion and exclusion. In Indigenous Australians to the contemporary Giroux‘s view, borders are both enabling and migrant ‗issue‘. For many, concerns over exclusionary: they work to sculpt insider population and migration policies and places of belonging whilst at the same time practices are rooted directly in the age-old throwing up the barriers that attempt to system of land sketched above: preserve the integrity of the included by marking the territory of the excluded.1 The Migrant project, like colonialisation has been a disabling experience for us. Over the years 1 For an analysis of this in the Australian context, numerous Aboriginal Australians have the reader is referred to Ghassan Hage‘s 1998 book, White Nation. 20 In the idea of the borderland resides the space in Place and Those Arriving, between Those where difference experiences both similarity Belonging and Those Yet-To-Belong was and difference itself. This is the zone of progressively narrowed? In this view, the contact where Self and Other – regardless of borderland marks the point of engagement for the particular perspective – come head-to- understanding and shared belonging, a place head. It is here that the Stranger meets the where emancipatory possibilities reside and Stranger, and it is within this engagement that the opportunities for the reconstruction of fear and comfort exist. For Giroux, the genuinely democratic cultural, political and borderland is seemingly a dichotomous place social relationships lie latent in their where power works to close or to open cultural opposition to extant forces of divisiveness and and political borders, where it ‗operates to fear. In Giroux‘s view: either expand or shrink the distance and connectedness among individuals, groups and there is an increased need for a politics places‘ (2005: 2). In the Indigenous and a notion of border crossing that can Australian example above, the possibility of work across the fault lines of nations, closer and more communal ties between clans classes, races, sexualities, and religions is the expectation. In contemporary Australian as they operate to create new forms of times, the borderlands are the battlegrounds division, demarcation, and separation for control rather than for community and (2005: 6) borders have come to operate as ‗the primary category for signifying spaces of confinement, It is through this project that migrant security, internment, punishment, surveillance, and in terms of reformulating exploitative, control‘ (2005: 2). oppressive and exclusionary practices of difference, might be better secured. The central motif of the concern for security in a migrant context is that of safety, and I would IDEAS OF/FOR A BORDER argue that in current times, it is safety from that is uppermost in the mind of the PEDAGOGY: A PEDAGOGY OF community in place, of those who inhabit the BELONGING side of the border that marks and legitimises their belonging. Difference in the borderland Education assumes a primary role in any is unthinkingly construed as deficit, as challenge to bring about a traversing of deviance or delinquency and therefore to be borders in ways that construct rather than expelled, erased and expunged. constrain more inclusive notions of belonging and community. A border pedagogy can be At the time of writing, the Australian conceptualised that draws some of its potency government is in a neck-and-neck race with its from the experiences and practices of opposition to arrive at a strong enough policy Indigenous Australians and that at the same on border security to soothe an electorate time merges these with central tenets of the portrayed as almost apoplectic over the critical education/pedagogy tradition. Giroux increase of ‗illegal arrivals‘. These arrivals in has described in some detail a small number of 2009 resulted in 6206 applications for asylum features of what he sees as the core aspects of - South Africa had 220,000; Canada 34,000. In terms of world ranking, these figures placed a border pedagogy. In summary, a border Australia 33rd in total number of applications, pedagogy: 41st on a per capita basis and 71st in world terms relative to GDP. In total, 3,441 1. has as its central focus the ‗illegals‘ were granted asylum status in interrogation of difference with a Australia in 2009 – around 1 per cent of the view to stimulating a total number of immigrants to this country for reconceptualisation of a democratic that year (Horin 2010: 9). In purely numerical public ethic of engagement; terms, this does not speak to a flood of difference flowing across the borders but the 2. prioritises the transformative response to this phenomenon has seemingly potential of critical educative work in entered the public imagination in ways that schools and other sites of education would presumably see a continuation of the role in the pursuit of a ‗radical very negative and divisive equating of Migrant democratic society‘; with Difference. 3. seeks to create and draw upon To follow Giroux‘s line of thinking a little opportunities for students and further, what might happen if communities teachers to collaboratively engage in looked to engage in the second of the the experiences of the Other, that is, possibilities outlined above: what if the of border crossing, such that new borderlands were seen to be places where the forms of understanding, solidarity space between Self and Other, between Those and empathy might flow; 21 4. works to highlight the partiality of of fear and insecurity that attaches to the idea particular discourses of difference – of Migrant in the heads and hearts of many of both dominant and subaltern – and those already in place; it is the basis of the come to expose the means by which perceived need for security from the Migrant. these have been constructed, From a social amelioration point of view, what valorised and demonised; might a pedagogy of belonging then look like?
5. promotes the importance of working There appear to me to be three key elements with forms of language that are here. First, a pedagogy of belonging would ‗multiaccentual and dispersed‘, and work to expose difference as just that – which are seen as always partial and difference - as opposed to deficit. This organic; requires an approach to the study of identity in both individual and collective senses that 6. draws on the power of dialogic seeks to minimise the space between the self engagement across difference – of and the Other. This entails the speaking with as opposed to acknowledgement that a zone of contact in a speaking for those who suffer the migrant sense is also a zone of difference, the exclusions of otherness; and space where discourses of both inclusion and exclusion have the room to play, be 7. pedagogically works against notions interrogated and reconstructed (see Figure 3). of totalising and closed curriculum It is here that the emancipatory potential of the texts and practices and foregrounds borderland resides, since it is here that the the marginalising effect of these work of dialogue, understanding and (Giroux 2005: 20-23). conscientisation are likely to find greatest traction in the task of reducing insecurity and Crucially for my purposes here, the idea of a border pedagogy shifts the focus of education uncertainty. The pedagogical task is to expose for social harmony away from the more typical the ways in which senses of self are developed focus on the victims of marginalisation and and influenced in contemporary social, exploitation and repositions it on those for cultural and political contexts. It is here that whom the discourses of dominance and the interests of hegemonic forces of influence belonging have advantaged: might be seen at work. It is also here that a commitment to realise the agentic potential of Border pedagogy shifts the emphasis of citizens might be aroused. Here, the primary the knowledge/power relationship away thrust should be to make clear the ways in from the limited emphasis on the which individual identity is always the result mapping of domination toward the the multifarious forces acting with greater or politically strategic issue of engaging in the ways in which knowledge can be remapped, reterritorialized and decentred in the wider interests of rewriting the borders and coordinates of an oppositional cultural politics (Austin 2005: 22).
The basic intent of drawing upon a pedagogy of the type envisaged by Giroux is to set up the educative conditions that might come to enable citizens to recognise the ways in which they are positioned by dominant social discourses to view the claims of Self and Other – of those in place and those arriving – in particular ways. The ways in which Figure 3: Self, Other, Difference individuals are complicit in the perpetuation of lesser power to orient citizens towards certain such divisive discourses by virtue of their societally-expected positions. Once one engagement in daily social practices then understands something of the process of the presents as a core curriculum component. The development of an unthinking acceptance of effects of the operation of such discourses of normality, desirability and worth, then one division on the Migrant are well-established might better be able to locate those tiny spaces and documented. The effects, however, on the for the operation of agency in resisting or Resident remain significantly less examined. reformulating what is considered to be Arguably, it is this uncertainty over identity acceptable or normal. In all of this, difference and belonging that explains the current sense needs to be conceptualised and engaged as a 22 relational experience that typically references work, of course, requires the summoning up of an invisible, unspoken centre that legitimises another essential quality: that of (civic) and validates the lives, culture and cultural courage. Border crossing – both in the ancient capital of those deemed to belong. sense and that of Giroux – is a courageous act, but then, so is most work aiming at social A pedagogy that was looking to contribute to transformation. the education of citizens who might hold a view of belonging that was not dependent CONCLUSION upon or determined by thin claims to ‗acceptability‘ would look to mine the lines of That the project of realising communities of difference that separate centre from periphery, harmony and justice is one that is always in included from excluded for the opportunities process of becoming is readily apparent. This to build the type of border crossing is not a utopian adventure, looking to work experiences Giroux sees as so crucial. In the from a blueprint of an ideal community. migrant context, this might require the Harmonious, non-exploitative and sustainable experience of the Other to find greater communities are by nature emergent visibility in the classroom. It might require the communities and the role of education and historical conditions of the development of teaching in this project is an obviously crucial senses of nationality, national identity and one. But the obvious and the apparent do not patriotic rites and symbols to be interrogated necessarily carry with them a sense of the for the omissions they conceal as much as for urgent or the imperative. This is the basis for the statements they carry about who lives and hooks‘s point that ‗[w]ounds will not heal if belongs here. In contemporary Australian left unattended‘ (1996: 213). settings, this would require a deep analysis of whiteness and white ethnicity, since this is Realising the potential contribution that forms of educative practice derived from a desire for probably the single most invisible component social betterment might make to the of the Australian identity: the underlying emergence of sustainable communities of care default position of whiteness as a carrier of constitutes a crucial step in the process of universality; the invisible marker of generating a healing environment. That task is superiority, privilege and belonging. not one that fits happily with currently dominant discourses of education that valorise A third aspect of a pedagogy of belonging is a the technicist and the utilitarian. focus on the idea of Home. Here, home needs Consequently, educators who see a social to be seen as a complex category of affective transformational role for and purpose in their domain investments, as much as a physical work will require the resilience that genuine locale. It needs to be explored as having long civic courage (Giroux 1988: 142 ) releases. historical tendrils that variously crisscross and entangle those of others, sometimes sharing a An appropriate pedagogical response to the positive history, at others bespeaking a conflict issue of Migrant security is an essential step in ridden one. Home needs to assume a central the development of some forms of solidity and place in a concern to remove the worst of semi-permanence in Bauman‘s liquid times. insecurities surrounding the potential for Sustainable, democratic social relationships contact with difference. It must be seen as and the communities of care that might grow being located in places which themselves out of these require educators to consider their admit of multiple, often contradictory uses and work carefully in the light of the imperative of purposes. Home emits a vibe of both comfort such a task, lest we find ourselves, Groundhog and fear, and this emotional ambivalence Day-like, revisiting time and again the presents as a trigger to a consideration of what question of who belongs. Gayatri Spivak has termed ‗moments of bafflement‘ (1990: 137), of working through Acknowledgments the prime questions: Who belongs here? Whose home is this? I acknowledge and greatly appreciate the time, thoughts and corrections provided to this part It is in the consideration of the place and reach of the paper by John Williams-Mozley (a of Home that Giroux‘s idea of borderlands Western Arunta man) and Donna Moodie (a emerges, and that the lessons from the Gamillraay woman) of the Centre for practices of border crossing drawn from Australian Indigenous Knowledges, University millennia of Indigenous Australian encounters of Southern Queensland. The responsibility with Difference might indicate a positive path for errors or inaccuracies, however, resides for critical educative work to follow in with the author. undoing the discursively-generated panics attaching to the idea of the Migrant. Such
23 References
Bauman, Z 2007, Liquid Times: Living in an hooks, b 1996, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Age of Uncertainty, Polity Press, Cambridge. Representations, Routledge, New York. Giroux, H 1988, Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a critical pedagogy of learning, Horin, A 2010, ‗Race card is a great, big Bergin & Garvey, Westport, CT. attack on everything that makes us great‘, Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend th Giroux, H 2005, Border Crossings: Cultural Edition, 3th-4 July: 9. Workers and the Politics of Education, (2nd ed), Routledge, New York/London. McDonald, J 2008, ‗Dreamtime Superhighway: Sydney Basin Rock Art and Hage, G 1998, White Nation: Fantasies of Prehistoric Information Exchange‘, Terra White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society, Australis 27, ANU E-Press, Canberra. Pluto Press, Annandale, NSW. Spivak, G C 1990, The Post-Colonial Critic: Hedetoft, U 2003, The Global Turn: National Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues, Routledge, Encounters with the World, Aalborg London. University Press, Aalborg, Denmark.
24 Murder, Community Talk and Belonging: An exploration of Sudanese community responses to murder
Melanie Baak ([email protected]) University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia
Abstract desire to belong, a desire that cannot be categorised as good or bad, left or right – in On 26th October 2009, Alex Ngong Akok short, a desire without a fixed political ground Akol, a young man originally from Sudan, was but with immense political possibilities‘. By murdered by a group of Australian youths. considering belonging as not only about This paper will explore the narrative responses membership and identification with certain of members of the Mading Aweil community groups or communities, but also as ‗about the of Dinka from southern Sudan subsequent to social places constructed by such Alex‘s murder. Through analysing identifications and memberships, and the ways conversations and experiences in the community in the days following Alex‘s death, in which social place has resonances with I will explore how his murder impacted on stability of the self, or with feelings of being senses of belonging for members of the part of a larger whole and with the emotional Sudanese community living in Adelaide. I will and social bonds that are related to such places‘ argue that for members of the Sudanese (Anthias 2006: 21), this paper considers the community, Alex‘s murder and subsequent experiences of members of the Mading Aweil reports by the media, emphasised and community as a means of understanding the exacerbated the lack of belonging many of multiple negotiations of belonging that take them already felt in Australia as a visibly place ‗and the ways in which individuals, different minority group. groups, and nations render and live out their Keywords specificity as singular: as that which is now, in African, Australia, belonging, community, this way, with this affect‘ (Probyn 1996: 152- nation, Sudanese 3). A desire to belong, however, is ultimately underscored by a desire to belong to something; a group, a body or a collection of INTRODUCTION people, a community.
th 1 Community ‗can satisfy people‘s needs (or On October 26 2009 Alex Ngong Akok Akol , desires) to belong‘ (Mason 2000: 4). If a young man originally from Sudan, was community is considered as a collective to murdered by a group of Australian youths. which members feel an interconnectedness This paper considers how Ngong‘s murder (Kelly 2003), then experiences of belonging are influenced negotiations, desires and exclusions inextricably intertwined with notions of from belonging for members of the Mading community. However, as Dwyer (1999) Aweil community of Dinka from South Sudan suggests, drawing on Anderson‘s (1983) notion living in South Australia at that time. Through of imagined communities, ‗there are no natural considering academic contexts, media or self-evident communities...[i]nstead discourse and experiences of community communities must be understood as always members in the weeks following the murder, I constructed or imagined, produced within call into question the ‗tenacious and fragile particular discursive and historical moments‘ desire‘ (Probyn 1996: 6) to belong. (Dwyer 1999: 64). While I have labelled communities such as the Mading Aweil In the current era of increased global flows of community, the Sudanese community and the people, money and materials, global Australian community, I do so with some uncertainty about economic stability and wars trepidation acknowledging that these on terror, desires to belong become ever more communities are constructed at a particular tenacious, fragile and complicated. As Probyn moment. Still further I acknowledge that (1996: 9) suggests ‗in a climate marked by a negotiations of belonging within these wide-spread politics of polarisation, it is of the communities reflect these moments. In utmost urgency that we take into account this addition, I adopt a notion of community that ‗acknowledges the diversity of people and their 1 participation in both discursive and I knew Alex by his Dinka name, Ngong, and will extradiscursive relations with the community‘ call him by that name in this paper.
(Panelli & Welch 2005: 1592). This paper, Migration to Australia has largely been shaped however, is not specifically about community, by the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, more but rather a consideration of the desire of a commonly referred to as the ‗White Australia‘ group of people to belong to certain policy, a migration policy aimed at keeping communities, most particularly the ‗imagined‘ migrants with skin colours other than white national community. I will consider the nation out of Australia (Mares 2002). While the final as a form of ‗imagined community‘ (Anderson vestiges of the ‗White Australia‘ policy were 1983; Hall 1993: 355), a macro level of removed from government policy in 1973 community that centres around the notion of a (Department of Immigration and Citizenship shared ‗imaginary‘ national identification. 2009), its legacy has continued through forms Through contemplating negotiations, desires of social exclusion and othering. The and exclusions from belonging for members of historical exclusion of Indigenous Australians, the Mading Aweil community in relation to the recent migrants and people of colour from Australian nation I will propose that members belonging to the white Anglo-Celtic ‗norm‘ of the Sudanese community at the time of continues through exclusionary practices and Ngong‘s death were positioned ‗outside the construction of a particular ‗Australian belonging‘ (Probyn 1996) to the nation. identity‘ today (Ahluwalia 2001; Hage 2000).
BACKDROP Historically, refugees who arrive in Australia have been socially constructed as different, Since the mid 1990s, 27,645 people who deviant and a danger to ‗the Australian nation identify their birth place as Sudan have and national identity‘ (McMaster 2001: 34). migrated to Australia (Department of In recent years there has been a rise in what Immigration and Citizenship 2010), with a Ang (2000: 5) refers to as ‗reactionary majority having been resettled under identity politics‘, a fear of threat to the British- Australia‘s humanitarian entrant program. derived, white homogeneity that was thought The peak years of resettlement of Sudanese to epitomise Australian identity. This born migrants was in the period from 2003 to ‗reactionary identity politics‘ is no longer 2006. These figures do not include the large based on appeals to racial supremacy, but number of children born to those of Sudanese rather to ‗cultural uniformity parading under origin while living in countries of exile such as the politics of nationalism and patriotism‘ Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt and Uganda. (Giroux 1993: 5). ‗Reactionary identity politics‘ were exemplified by people such as As with many migrant and refugee groups, Pauline Hanson; a politician who incited fear those originally from Sudan come to Australia of Aboriginal Australians and migrant groups with hopes and dreams for a future of safety, suggesting that unless white, working-class security and opportunities for education, Australians rallied against migration and what employment, housing and stability (Baak she termed ‗the Aboriginal industry‘, ‗we will 2007; Browne 2006; Huýnh 2004; McMichael lose our country forever, and become strangers 2002; Oikonomidoy 2007). What many did in our own land‘ (cited in Ang 2000: 5). not know prior to their resettlement in These politics have been further perpetuated Australia was the complicated backdrop of and linked to the immigration of African colonial, migration and ‗race‘ history of which refugees, including Sudanese, by people such they have become a part. As the first-ever as Associate Professor Andrew Fraser who large intake of migrants or refugees from commented to the Australian media in 2005 Africa to Australia, those from Sudanese that ‗an expanding black population is a sure- backgrounds were rapidly constructed as a fire recipe for increases in crime, violence and visibly different minority group. A brief a wide range of other social problems‘ (cited understanding of Australia‘s migration history in Dick 2005). and recent events are necessary to understand the backdrop on which Ngong‘s murder and In the two years prior to Ngong‘s murder, two subsequent community talk took place. murders occurred in Australia of young men who were identified by the media as Sudanese. Australia has been described as ‗the product of The portrayals of those from Sudanese violent colonisation‘ with a history of backgrounds on both of these occasions, invasion, conquest and dispossession, which is situated Africans and most specifically continually expunged in favour of an ‗image Sudanese, as ‗outside the parameters of what of harmony, equality, justice and a ―fair go for is culturally similar (or acceptable)‘ (Hanson- all‖‘ (Matthews & Aberdeen 2008: 89). The Easey & Augoustinos 2010: 313) to the colonising process positioned indigenous Australian norm. people as ‗object, inferior, other‘ (Moreton- Robinson 2003: 31) and constructed an image The first murder was that of Liep Gony in of the Australian nation and its subjects as Melbourne, Victoria in 2007. The second was white Anglo-Celtic. the 2008 murder of Daniel Thongjang Awak in Adelaide, South Australia. The media‘s 26 response to the murder of Liep Gony is politics‘ that shape Australia‘s history comprehensively considered in Due‘s (2008) influence the backdrop against which Ngong‘s article „Who are strangers?‟: „Absorbing‟ murder, community talk surrounding his Sudanese Refugees into a White Australia. murder and negotiations of belonging Soon after Liep‘s murder the former Minister discussed in this paper take place. for Immigration, Kevin Andrews, reduced the intake of immigrants from Africa being THE EVENT resettled under Australia‘s humanitarian entrant program stating that ‗some groups th don‘t seem to be settling and adjusting into the At about 4.30pm on Monday October 26 Australian way of life as quickly as we would 2009 outside a sports club in the Western hope‘ (cited in The Australian 2007). Due suburbs of Adelaide, Alex Ngong Akol Akok (2008) links Andrews‘ comments and decision was fatally stabbed. Six young men ranging in to limit intakes of African refugees directly to age from 15 to 22 were subsequently arrested Liep‘s murder and further suggests that and await sentencing (Fewster 2010). In the subsequent media discourses centred on two weeks following Ngong‘s murder, ‗whiteness as a normative mode of belonging frequent reports appeared in local newspapers in Australia‘ (Due 2008). including The Advertiser (see Dowdell & Robertson 2009; Fewster & Dowdell 2009; Thongjang‘s murder occurred less than 12 Fewster, Dowdell & Robertson 2009; months prior to Ngong‘s murder and affected Robertson 2009), on nightly television news the relatively small Sudanese community in programs, and in online news sources such as South Australia deeply. Thongjang was killed AdelaideNow (see Fewster, Dowdell & by another young man from the same sub- Robertson 2009; McGregor 2009). The fear community of Dinka from Sudan. As reported that Ngong‘s murder incited in Mading Aweil by one newspaper (see Lower 2008), community members, as will be detailed later, Thongjang and his attacker were in fact friends resulted in an intense concern over how the only months before the attack. Initial media community was being perceived by the reports, however, erroneously suggested that general Australian public. To try to gain an the murder was gang related and demonstrated understanding of how they were being concern at the ‗rising levels of violence within perceived, every community member watched the Sudanese community‘ (Robertson, the reports that filled the nightly news on McGuire & McGregor 2008). Much of the every television channel and those who were media discourse surrounding Thongjang‘s literate in English would read the newspapers murder further centred around the positioning and report on what they contained to other of Sudanese in Australia as a deviant ‗other‘ members of the community. In this way, by suggesting the existence of ‗race-based community talk frequently centred on media gangs‘ (see Australian Associated Press discourses as an entree into considering how 2008a, 2008b; Lower & Akerman 2008). they were being positioned as individuals and as a community. Media, governmental and academic responses surrounding the deaths of Liep and Thongjang As is typical in the Sudanese community, in categorised those from Sudanese backgrounds the days after Ngong‘s death, community in Australia under the labels of ‗Sudanese‘ or members gathered at the home of one of ‗Sudanese refugees‘ suggesting that as ‗part of Ngong‘s relatives in the Western suburbs of a homogenised moral collective, they share Adelaide. Up to twenty women could be ―race‖, educational deficits and pre-arrival found on the nights following sleeping on deprivations in common‘ and this collective blankets and mattresses spread across the floor group performed ‗frequent category-bound of the large rumpus room at the rear of the asocial and violent acts‘ (Hanson-Easey & home. The largest of the gatherings took place Augoustinos 2010: 307). These essentialising at this home on the Saturday following claims which positioned ‗the Sudanese‘ as a Ngong‘s murder. This was the first non- homogenous group based on shared culture school and work day following the murder, so and ethnicity, meant that all those who could a special gathering took place. This gathering be categorised as ‗Sudanese‘, a categorisation was referred to by the Arabic word karama which in everyday life and media discourse which literally means ‗dignity‘ but describes invariably took place on the basis of skin the gathering which takes place following a colour, were positioned through forms of person‘s death to reflect on and remember new/cultural racism as ‗other‘ to the white their life. The women gathered the night Anglo-Celtic Australian norm. before and early on the day of the karama to prepare food, and by mid-afternoon over one These two prior murders and the media hundred community members, predominantly discourses surrounding the murders, as well as from the Mading Aweil community, had the complicated background of colonisation, gathered for prayers and reflections on ‗race‘ relations and ‗reactionary identity Ngong‘s life. Also at this time, one of the 27 youths who was present at the incident that (Butler 2009). Consequently, people from resulted in Ngong‘s death recounted the events Sudanese backgrounds in Australia were that surrounded Ngong‘s murder. Community positioned as ‗subjects‘ who were ‗not quite gatherings for refugee and migrant recognizable as subjects‘ (Butler 2009: 4) communities are common sites for information thereby further rendering them outside exchange and conversation on what has been belonging to the ‗imagined‘ national going on in the community (Guerin, Hussein community. Elmi & Guerin 2006; Ong 2003). It is at this karama where much of the community talk As outlined in the background, belonging in presented in this paper took place. Australia is a complex and contested issue. Against a backdrop of colonialism which has As a member of the community by marriage, I historically excluded Indigenous Australians, attended these community gatherings and the the Australian national identity was, until karama, helping with food preparations and relatively recently, considered exclusively of sharing in the grief of other community white-Anglo heritage. Belonging to the members at the tragic death of the Ngong we Australian nation was, and continues to be had known. I knew Ngong personally since racialised (Mares 2002; Moreton-Robinson 2004 when I used to help him with his school 2003). As Moreton-Robinson suggests ‗[w]ho homework, gave him driving lessons, had belongs, and the degree of that belonging, is Kiswahili lessons from him and on one inextricably tied to white possession. The occasion drove to Melbourne with him. For right to be here and the sense of belonging it six months we saw each other several times a creates are reinforced institutionally and week, but our lives gradually grew apart and I socially‘ (Moreton-Robinson 2003: 37). had not seen Ngong for two years prior to his What does this mean then for Sudanese, who death. by nature of their black skin colour are constructed as a ‗black‘, highly visible BELONGING AND THE minority in an overwhelmingly white „IMAGINED‟ NATIONAL Australia, where blackness is equated with being outside national modes of belonging? COMMUNITY
In the days that followed Ngong‘s murder, A „RACIALLY MOTIVATED members of the Mading Aweil community ATTACK‟ ON A „SUDANESE frequently asked the author ‗If the MAN‟ Government knew that people didn‘t want us here, why did they bring us?‘ Drawing not While race as a biological construct has been only on their understanding of the apparently disproven, rendering differentiations on the ‗racially motivated‘ murder of Ngong, but also basis of ‗race‘ more difficult, many have on the media discourse that surrounded argued that there have been new forms of Ngong‘s death, they expressed a sense of ‗racism‘ in the form of ‗culturalization of race‘ exclusion that threatened their sense of and ‗ethnicization of race thinking‘ (Jackson belonging in Australia. This section will Jr. 2005: 393) (see also Anthias 1992; Balibar consider the complexities of belonging to the 2007; Giroux 1993; Hall 1993; Modood 2005). nation for members of the Mading Aweil The dominant theme of these new forms of community in South Australia by considering racism, or what Balibar terms neo-racism ‗is the nation as ‗a symbolic formation [...] which not biological heredity but the produced an ―idea‖ of the nation as an insurmountability of cultural differences, a ―imagined community‖, with whose meanings racism which, at first sight, does not postulate we could identify and which, through this the superiority of certain groups or peoples in imaginary identification, constituted its relation to others but ―only‖ the harmfulness citizens as ―subjects‖‘ (Hall 1993: 355). of abolishing frontiers, the incompatibility of life-styles and traditions‘ (Balibar 2007: 84). I will consider two ways in which Sudanese In the current era of increased global flows of were positioned as outside national belonging. people, money and materials, fears of Firstly, I will argue that by activating ‗cultural economic instability and wars on terror, these belonging‘ as a frame of recognition (Butler forms of neo-racism tend to focus on the threat 2009), ‗Sudanese‘ were rendered outside of immigrants to national stability and security belonging to the nation. I will consider how (Balibar 2007). through processes of cultural racism, Ngong was constructed as a ‗Sudanese man‘ and his Newspaper reports in the days following murder as a ‗racially motivated attack‘. Ngong‘s death repeatedly referred to him as a Secondly, I will consider the ways by which ‗Sudanese man‘ (for example ‗Murdered Ngong was constructed as a criminal and the Sudanese man Akol ―Alex‖ Akok‘ (Dowdell ‗Sudanese‘ as animals, which rendered his life & Robertson 2009), ‗Sudanese man Akol ‗ungrievable‘, as a life that wasn‘t quite a life ―Alex‖ Akok was murdered‘(Fewster & 28 Dowdell 2009), ‗a 24-year-old Sudanese man‘ on the two days following Ngong‘s murder (Robertson 2009)). For a young man who quoted witnesses at the attack who suggested spent his childhood years living in Sudan, his that it was ‗racially‘ motivated. An article adolescent years living in Kenya where he published the day after Ngong‘s murder states developed strong connections and that a witness ‗described one of the men as identifications, and the past six years living in brown skinned and said the rest were white‘ Australia where he was accepted as a special (Robertson 2009: 15). The second article humanitarian entrant and considered himself states that ‗[f]riend Nuar John Ruy said he an Australian, being categorised as a believed the attack was racially motivated [...] ‗Sudanese man‘ does not reflect the ―They were all whites and they came for me complexities of his lived experience. first,‖ he said‘ (Dowdell & Robertson 2009: Categorising Ngong as a ‗Sudanese man‘ 13). In addition, the recounting at Ngong‘s imbued what Hall (1993: 357) has referred to karama of the incident surrounding his murder as ‗cultural racism‘, a form of racism, which by a young man present at the attack, also brings together and condenses ‗into a single constructed a description of a random discourse questions of race and ethnicity with ‗racially‘ based attack. questions of nation, national and cultural belonging: ―Cultural belongingness‖ [...] has For members of the Mading Aweil replaced genetic purity and functions as the community, these descriptions incited intense coded language for race and colour‘. fear. Many of the women present at the karama described a fear of leaving their homes Through considering ‗cultural belongingness‘ and repeatedly stated that they had left Africa as a frame of recognition through which to get away from danger, if they were going to ‗[f]orms of racism instituted and active at the be killed by people in Australia then they level of perception tend to produce iconic might as well have stayed in Africa. They had versions of populations‘ (Butler 2009: 24), been cautioned by South Australian Police identification of Ngong as a ‗Sudanese man‘ representatives not to leave their homes unless immediately positioned him in terms of ‗race‘, completely necessary, and to make sure they ethnicity, colour and gender. The frame of travelled directly to and from their recognition for understanding ‗Sudanese‘ had destinations. Community members feared that already positioned them as black, as ‗other‘, as if Ngong‘s murder was a random racially foreign, as failing to integrate, increasingly motivated attack, more would follow. As one violent, members of gangs, from backgrounds woman described to me in an interview in the of war, trauma and violence and having low month following the karama: levels of education (see Ackerman 2007; Colic-Peisker & Tilbury 2008; Due 2008; Nyalong2: So it‘s coming now. It‘s not Hanson-Easey & Augoustinos 2010; Lehman good, you know. Not like before. Not 2006; Levett 2007; Lower 2008; Lower & like before. Akerman 2008; Windle 2008). Mel: I wonder why?
Without explicitly detailing Ngong‘s Nyalong: Yeah. Coming now. blackness, identifying him as ‗Sudanese‘ Aggressive. I don‘t know. positioned him as a black man, and in a nation Mel: Until people feel scared. Like where ‗white skin colour is certainly a when I was talking to the ladies at the valuable capital in claiming one‘s belonging to karama, they are really scared. the nation as a governmental White Australian‘ (Hage 2000: 57), Ngong and, by Nyalong: Yeah it‘s true. Now I not safe virtue of the frame of recognition, other like before. Free, no. ‗Sudanese‘ were positioned on the edge of national belonging. For members of the Mel: They don‘t want their children to Mading Aweil community, negotiating go to the park or ... belongings in Australia when ‗our belongings Nyalong: it‘s true. Yeah because now, are conditioned by our bodies and where they maybe someone can go and hit the are placed on the globe‘ (Rowe 2005: 36), child and run. being black in a normatively white nation automatically positioned them outside Mel: No it‘s not good for people belonging. though. You think you got away from... Nyalong: there. That‘s why, you know, While Ngong was constructed as ‗black‘ by when they talk, I said we are not...like virtue of his being ‗Sudanese‘, he was further they said Sudanese people are bad. I racialised by the reporting of his murder by both the media and in community talk as a ‗racially motivated attack‘. Descriptions from the two main articles published in South 2 To protect the woman‘s identity a pseudonym has Australia‘s main newspaper, The Advertiser, been used. 29 said no, we are not bad, it‘s only for (Dowdell & Robertson 2009) seemed to young people. Yeah. endeavour to justify Ngong‘s murder by emphasising Ngong‘s own misdemeanours. Mel: And even young people, just only An article published two days after Ngong‘s some young people. Not all. Like the murder opens with ‗Murdered Sudanese man same with khawaja [white people], you Akol ―Alex‖ Akok was about to face trial in have some bad ones, you have some the District Court on serious trespass and good ones. assault charges‘ (Dowdell & Robertson 2009). Nyalong: So now they making By focussing on Ngong‘s supposed something very big, you know. Very criminality, these newspaper articles seemed big. And they will lose their life you to suggest Ngong‘s life, in some respects, was know. They will kill, that is the ‗already lost or forfeited‘ (Butler 2009: 31) or problem. That‘s why now we‘re ‗unworthy of being lived‘ (Giroux 2006: 180). scared... Through this reduction of his life to a life of criminality, his life was rendered (Nyalong 2009, pers. comm., 28 ‗ungrievable‘, ‗since, in the twisted logic that November) rationalizes their death, the loss of such populations is deemed necessary to protect the This conversation reflected not only Nyalong‘s lives of ―the living‖‘ (Butler 2009: 31). fear of future racially motivated attacks, but also her concern at the positioning of all ‗Sudanese people‘ as bad, suggesting instead that it was just the ‗young people‘ who were bad. I suggested that categorising all young people as bad was also not appropriate, that it was only some young people who were causing problems. Nyalong seemed concerned not only that some young people would be killed (lose their lives), but also that they may be involved in retaliatory attacks (they will kill). Nyalong‘s response reflected the feelings of many other members of the Mading Aweil community at the time who demonstrated concern not only over their own safety from attacks by other ‗Australians‘, but also a grave fear over the possibility of retaliatory attacks by young people from the Sudanese community. They worried that further attacks, whether of or by, members of the Sudanese community would serve to further illustrate their perceived ‗failure to integrate‘ and their position as deviant ‗others‘.
Figure 1. Page 11 from The Advertiser, THE INDISTINGUISHABILITY Thursday October 29th 2009 (Reproduced OF AN UNGRIEVABLE LIFE with permission from Advertiser Newspapers Pty Limited). Drawing on Butler (2004, 2009) and Giroux (2006), I propose that media discourses While the situation is different Giroux‘ (2006) surrounding Ngong‘s death rendered Ngong‘s comments on media reports of looting, crime, life as ungrievable and indistinguishable rape and murder supposedly committed by a through images of criminality and animality. number of black residents of New Orleans Through the media‘s focus on Ngong‘s following Hurricane Katrina, are no less supposed criminality and ill-considered relevant to the reports made following placement of an article on a page in The Ngong‘s murder. He states that: Advertiser newspaper, it appeared to members of the Mading Aweil community that they [I]t must be noted that there is more at were considered undeserving of being stake here than the resurgence of old- considered human or of making lives in style racism; there is the recognition Australia. that some groups have the power to protect themselves from such Media reports such as The Advertiser‟s stereotypes and others do not, and for ‗Murdered Man was Facing Court Charges‘ those who do not – especially poor 30 blacks – racist myths have a way of As Baker suggests ‗there can be no genuine producing precise, if not deadly, sense of community between degrader and material consequences. Given the degraded or exploiter and exploited – these public‘s preoccupation with violence relationships mock the very idea of and safety, crime and terror merge in community‘ (Baker 1987: 35). By rendering the all-too-familiar equation of black Ngong‘s life and the lives of other people from culture with the culture of criminality, Sudanese backgrounds as ungrievable and and images of poor blacks are made indistinguishable from images of criminality indistinguishable from images of crime and animality, the media ensured the and violence (Giroux 2006: 176-7). degradation and the exploitation of members of the Sudanese community. The genuine It is this indistinguishability of Ngong‘s life sense of community, the sense of belonging from that of his alleged criminality that that Sudanese may have felt in the ‗imagined‘ rendered his life ungrievable. Australian community was killed. The community talk surrounding media This indistinguishability was further seen in representations of Ngong‘s murder identified a the way in which members of the Mading desire to belong, but an ultimate recognition Aweil community felt that they were equated that current media discourse positioned people with chimpanzees through the ill-considered from Sudanese backgrounds outside of placement of an article in The Advertiser, belonging in Australia. The media reports South Australia‘s main commercial newspaper surrounding Ngong‘s death sent a clear (see Figure 1). Three days after Ngong‘s message to people from Sudanese death, The Advertiser contained an article backgrounds in Australia; the Australian explaining how Ngong‘s murder was being ‗society neither wants, cares about, or needs considered as a targeted attack by a gang. you‘ (Giroux 2006: 188). This was immediately underset by a very large photo, originally in colour, of chimpanzees at Acknowledgments a chimpanzee refuge centre in Cameroon mourning the death of ‗one of their own‘ (The Advertiser 2009: 11). In the days following First and foremost, I am indebted to my husband, Kuol Baak, without whom my the publishing of this page, a number of male understanding of everything in this paper would members of the community carried a folded up not be what it is. My thanks also to everyone in copy of this page around with them in their the Mading Aweil community who shared their pockets. They would unfold it and discuss it experiences with me and I hope that we never with every other community member they met. have to share an experience like Ngong‘s death The community talk that took place in the again. To those present at the Migrant Security Mading Aweil community surrounding this Symposium and the two anonymous reviewers, photo reflected a deep sense of sadness, thank you for your insightful reviews and indignity, despair and injustice. They feedback. Finally, thank you to my PhD perceived that this photo rendered them akin to supervisors, Rob Hattam and Vicki Crowley, chimpanzees, by seemingly likening their own for their helpful comments, ideas and support. grief at the death of ‗one of their own‘ to that of the chimpanzees. References Forms of racism that take place through renderings of certain populations as akin to animals are not new (Holland 2005). In 1936, Ackerman, P 2007, 'Refugee Fury at Africa Wyndham (1936: 131) suggested that the Ban; Sudanese: Minister Insulted Us', Dinka were of a ‗purely animal consciousness‘ Sunday Mail, June 18 2010, and could prove to be ‗perfect domestic pets‘.
—— 2009, Frames of War: When is Life —— 2006, 'Reading Hurricane Katrina: Race, Grievable?, Verso, London. Class, and the Biopolitics of Disposability', College Literature, 33(3):171-96. Colic-Peisker, V & Tilbury, F 2008, 'Being Black in Australia: a Case Study of Guerin, P, Hussein Elmi, F & Guerin, B 2006, Intergroup Relations', Race and Class, 'Weddings and Parties: Cultural Healing in 49(4):38-56. One Community of Somali Women', Australian e-Journal for the Advancement Department of Immigration and Citizenship of Mental Health, 2009, 'Fact Sheet 8 - Abolition of the
Levett, C 2007, 'Andrews Tempers Integration Oikonomidoy, E 2007, '"I See Myself as a Remarks, Sudanese Groups Says', Sydney Different Person who [has] Acquired a Lot Morning Herald, September 9 2010, ...": Somali Female Students' Journeys to
Lower, G & Akerman, P 2008, 'Payback Probyn, E 1996, Outside Belongings, Concerns After Sudanese Death', The Routledge, New York. Australian, viewed 21st June 2010,
Windle, J 2008, 'The Racialisation of African Youth in Australia', Social Identities, 14(5):553-66.
34 Migration, Religion and Responses by Universities
Krzysztof Batorowicz & William Conwell University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia.
Correspnding author: Krzysztof Batorowicz ([email protected])
Abstract universities in many countries. In Australia, for example, migrants are amongst staff The process of globalisation, immigration on a large members (both academic and professional) scale, work in other countries and growing and students. Some of them became migrants international education (study in other countries or because they won their positions based on students and academic exchange programs) have open international competition; some decided contributed to direct contact between various to undertake studies in order to gain local cultures, including different religions. Immigrants and international students brought to their new qualifications and some are simply university countries religious diversity with introduction of students. Their presence has changed the religions and faiths unknown to the local racial, ethnic and national composition of communities. There is a new interest in religion universities. amongst world leaders, politicians, journalists, academics and various professional groups. Migration has also contributed to cultural, linguistic and religious diversity on campus. The significance of religion in the twenty-first Although international students in Australian century was anticipated by some well-known universities cannot be classified as figures (Andre Malraux, John Paul II). However, the fact that this eventuated so visibly and so early immigrants, they are de facto temporary receives attention in the media, academic writings migrants, significantly contributing to the and the broader community. The state–church diversity of the student population. relations are continuously reconsidered in many countries and the new practices observed, The paper notes the growing interest in commented on and widely debated. Religion has a religion both from global perspectives as well growing role in public and political life. as within universities. This makes the claim of secularisation (understood as a declining These developments also have an impact on interest in religion and religious practices) universities. Even public universities in countries where the rule of separation of state and church is seriously questionable. This makes the claim maintained, have been unable to ignore the religious of secularisation seriously questionable. and spiritual needs of students, staff, visitors and the broader community. There is also a practical focus on universities‘ possible response to the growing interest in This paper notes new developments in relation to religion and the religious and spiritual needs of religion from a global perspective. The new students and staff. attitudes towards religion within universities are also analysed. Although the new current policies and practices in relation to religion are very THE NEW CHARACTER OF different not only in particular countries but also UNIVERSITIES between particular universities within the countries, a discussion on a more unified approach can be In the last three decades, universities became encouraged. Possible future options for dealing with very international and multicultural in terms of religious and spiritual issues in practice are also their composition, both in relation to students partly considered in this paper. and staff. This is particularly visible in Keywords relation to universities in the United States, Migration, multiculturalism, religion, religious Australia, Canada, Great Britain and many diversity, university European countries. From a multicultural perspective it is appropriate to note that the internationalisation of higher education by INTRODUCTION making university places available for fees to students from other countries, the international Migration is a factor which has contributed to exchange programs for staff and students, the changed composition of contemporary employment of staff based on international competition, and more generally, globalisation
has made universities very exciting places. and those working with him think The presence on campus of staff and students religion is key to the global agenda from other countries creates the opportunity (Time, June 9, 2008). for direct contact with various cultures, languages, styles of teaching, research Even more vocal about religion has been the methods, learning expectations and so on. French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Firstly, as Students and staff members from other the well-known politician and interior minister countries also represent different religions, he wrote a book titled ‗The Republic, the thus contributing to religious diversity within a Religions, and Hope‘ with a strong focus on university. religion. The book was influential and generated interest amongst intellectuals and The aspect of cultural diversity cannot be religious officials, not only in France, but also ignored any more in the university setting. The in Italy where it was later published. Later, as majority of students from religious minorities the President of France he made a number of are frequently coming from other countries to public comments about religion. For example, a university in an often-unfamiliar country, far as Newsweek (2008) reported: from their families, communities, religious groups and places of worship. Visiting He told diplomats in Paris last month academics experience similar problems as do that the two most important challenges participants coming to a university for a facing society in the 21st century are conference or other short-term activity. This climate change and ―the conditions of is a particularly difficult time for people of any the return of the religious in most of minority and in particular for people from our societies‖. Last month, he declared religious minorities for whom religious to his UMP Party and visiting German observance and practice is important. Chancellor Angele Merkel that it was ―a mistake‖ to withdraw the reference SPECIAL INTEREST IN to ―Europe's Christian roots‖ from the RELIGION AMONGST European Constitution.
POLITICAL LEADERS–SOME In December 2007 during his visit to Rome, EXAMPLES President Sarkozy made a statement, which was considered by the majority of French Interest in religion and speeches with people to be very controversial at least. Rather reference to religion by the current and than commenting, it is probably more previous presidents of the United States are appropriate to quote (Beer de 2008): well known. For example as Hunter (2010) notes: France's roots are essentially Christian... A man who believes (in It is well known that President Jimmy God) is a man filled with hope. And it Carter‘s approach to the Middle East is in the Republic's interest that there conflict and issues of human rights was should be many believers. Gradual to a great extent determined by his deep emptying of rural parishes, spiritual Christian faith. desertification of suburbs, vanishing of (religious sponsored) youth clubs or Less known are the current religious interests shortage of priests have not made the of other world leaders. French happier. The school teacher will never replace the priest or the minister Time magazine (June 9, 2008) contained a when it comes to passing down values significant article about Tony Blair. Although or learning the differences between Tony Blair was no longer the British Prime Good and Evil. Minister, the focus of the article ‗Tony Blair‘s leap of faith‘ was on his religious views. It is clear that both Tony Blair and Nicolas Michael Elliott conducted an interview with Sarkozy have demonstrated a special interest Blair (after he formally unveiled The Tony in religion and have articulated this interest in Blair Faith Foundation in New York in May the public domain. 2008) and commented: RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY Faith is part of our future‘, Blair says, ‗and faith and the values it brings with AUSTRALIAN DEBATE it are an essential part of making globalisation work‘. For Blair, the goal Brennan (2007) argues that Australians should is to rescue faith from the twin keep religion in place. Discussing politics and challenges of irrelevance – the idea that religion, he believes that ‗each has its place religion is no more than an interesting and each must be kept in place for the good of aspect of history – and extremism. Blair 36 us all, and for the good of our Commonwealth‘ said they prayed and that almost 80 (Brennan 2007:231). percent believed in God.
There were significant religious issues in Nearly half of the freshmen said they Australian politics during pre-election 2007 were seeking opportunities to grow public debates. Before Kevin Rudd (2006) spiritually, according to the survey by became the Prime Minister of Australia, he the Higher Education Research Institute had written an influential article, full of at the University of California in Los surprises for some, concentrating on politics Angeles. and religion as well as more generally about Christianity, encouraging a national, public At the University of Wisconsin, an debate. He wrote that: interdisciplinary program in religious studies was created seven years ago and developed In both George Bush's America and into between 70 to 75 majors each year. The John Howard's Australia, we see today University‘s officials make links between the the political orchestration of various attacks of September 11th, 2001 and interest in forms of organised Christianity in religion. support of the conservative incumbency. ... US Catholic, In US universities there is not only interest in Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians the study of religion but also in academic are now engaged in a national research. Although in public universities discussion on the role of the religious research investigation involving religious Right. The same debate must now issues was seen as inappropriate, this has occur here in Australia (Rudd 2006). changed. A practical shift since the early 1990s has taken place with religion as a Although this statement can be seen by some research topic. Sometimes research observers as populist politics, careful and investigations deal with religion and critical analysis of Rudd‘s articled economics, political sciences or history in supplemented by his demonstrated public various university departments, whereas behaviour (for example regular church previously religious topics were accepted only attendance and media interviews close to the in a department dealing with religion. There is church building) tend to support the a realisation that religious elements help to conclusion that he is genuine about the understand the mechanisms in economics, important role of religion in public life. politics or society.
RELIGION ON UNIVERSITY Clayton (2002) noted some specific examples CAMPUSES: AMERICAN AND of American universities and research projects related to religion: AUSTRALIAN EXAMPLES A Santa Clara University economist is Religion has become very popular on using economic tools to study religious campuses of American universities. According extremism. An Emory University to Peter Gomes, who has been with Harvard interdisciplinary institute is conducting University for 37 years and remembers the a research project on marriage, sex, and time when students who have been seen as family issues as they relate to religious were considered as not bright – ‗there Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And is probably more active religious life now than such research is trickling into the there has been in 100 years‘ (Finder 2007). classroom, observers say, through courses with words like ―God‖ or Finder (2007) notes that: ―religion‖ in their titles, many of them offered outside the religion department. More students are enrolling in religion courses, even majoring in religion; Some interesting points in practice about more are living in dormitories or religion in general as well as on campus were houses where matters of faith and made by Stanley Fish (2005) in his article spirituality are a part of daily ‗One University under God‘. He made an conversation; and discussion groups are interesting distinction between religion as an being created for students to grapple object of study and taking religion seriously. with such questions as what happens By taking religion seriously, he understood after death… that religion ‗would be to regard it not as a phenomenon to be analysed at arm's length, A survey of the spiritual lives of but as a candidate for the truth. In liberal college students, the first of its kind, theory, however, the category of truth has been showed in 2004 that more than two- reserved for hypotheses that take their chances thirds of 112,000 freshmen surveyed in the ―marketplace of ideas‖. 37 Fish (2005), having a long association with the FUTURE OPTIONS FOR College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the DEALING WITH RELIGION University of Illinois in Chicago showed the practical aspect of religious interest on campus, noting that on his campus there were Religion is an important part of culture as it 27 religious organisations for students. He has been argued elsewhere (Batorowicz 2007) made suggestions that: and is an important part of life for many people. Religion cannot be ignored by any Announce a course with ―religion‖ in university, public or private, regardless of the title, and you will have an overflow whether religious bodies establish them or not. population. Announce a lecture or The fact is that there are religious and spiritual panel on ―religion in our time‖ and you needs on campus. will have to hire a larger hall (Fish 2005). As the composition of the population on campus is constantly changing and there are A group of 25 scholars from different students and staff coming from different American universities, representing various religious backgrounds, the services should try disciplines wrote The Wingspread Declaration to respond to these changes. The traditional on Religion and Public Life. The purpose of model of chaplaincy (where established and the declaration was to rethink the role of focusing on Christian students and staff) does religion and colleges and universities in their not address the needs of other religious groups curriculum and to provide students with, what on campus. If special facilities responding to they called ‗religious literacy‘ within not only religious and spiritual needs of others such as religious studies but also their total education. small mosque or an Islamic centre or a The declaration states ‗students must learn the Buddhist centre are added, they may create relevance of religion to all disciplines – religious separation and possible conflicts sciences, humanities, arts, social sciences – between particular groups. Although a respect and the professions‘ (Calhoun 2007). to all religious traditions should be given and realisation of different religious requirements, With an increasing number of international an approach towards multi-faith facilities may students from Islamic countries, there was be further explored and experimented in recognition in Australia that they should be practice. Such an approach is currently popular provided with space for prayers and with halal in many universities. However, it requires food. extensive consultations with particular religious and spiritual communities, their There were also instances of offering some leaders and development on campus inter- discrete courses of religion. However, religion religious dialogue and creating culture of in a general sense was not treated seriously in mutual understanding between particular Australian universities. Currently, there are groups. voices in Australia that religion is back in the public space and universities should abandon IMPLICATIONS OF THE the commitment to secularisation by INTEREST IN RELIGION AND incorporating an understanding of religions PRACTICAL ISSUES OF into teaching programs (Bouma 2007). RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY IN Limited presence of religion within Australian universities has been the result of secularist UNIVERSITIES – A tendencies. There is an understanding for PRACTITIONER‟S secularist positions or presence, however, as PERSPECTIVE Bouma pointed out: ‗Secularists have a right to have a voice in universities but not a voice to There are a number of implications for the denigrate or relegate religions to a non-space‘ increased interest in religion for universities. (Bouma quoted by Horin, 2007). The majority The first is that religion must be taken of Australian public universities provide seriously by universities. Secondly, in the chaplaincy services with a tendency towards a globalised world and increasingly more multi-faith approach to religious multicultural and international character of our services. Religious studies courses are universities the response should be global. available at some universities. Some Thirdly, we need to recognise that universities universities are making provisions for become multi-religious as their students, staff religious observation time for staff and and other clients represent many religions. The students, including arrangement for challenges are serious and difficult at a examinations and attendance of classes. practical level.
In consideration of a practitioner‘s perspective, some examples addressing a number of practical issues of religious 38 diversity in universities are identified and the diversity of religious and spiritual discussed. The rationale for presenting these traditions in a safe and inviting environment. examples is to suggest that universities adopt a Deliberations should not be made in haste as more unified approach to the growth of regards to creation of a facility, which will religious and spiritual diversity within their ultimately represent a place for worship and institutions. This of course acknowledges that spiritual contemplation. It is prudent to varying countries differ in relation to policies consider the dynamics of competing needs and practices on religion. Taking this into associated with varying religious traditions account a basic model of a multifaith approach that may be required to share space within one is presented for consideration. structure or the possibility of developing a structure that provides separate areas catering Higher learning institutions must begin by to specific religious requirements. This is of recognising that religion and spirituality may course contingent on availability of be part of student life on campus and making institutional funding. this aspect significant rather than a marginalised issue. Such recognition The growth in cultural diversity on campuses represents also a more inclusive culture for the around the world commands enhancement to student and staff body who identify with the services provided such as sustenance for religious values. the health of soul, body and mind. This can take the form of halals‘ food being made Development of an official, clear policy on available and the prospect of religious religion adopted by governing bodies in all curriculum development at universities while universities, published and widely available to being sympathetic to religious observances all is critical in meeting the religious diversity such as Ramadan by rescheduling at university level. Having a policy examinations if they fall within this period. unsanctioned by governing bodies such as the Furthermore, development of specific services document ‗Policy on Religion, Belief and responding to the needs of particular religious Non-Belief for Students‘ signed by a staff groups and traditions through consultation and member of the Equal Opportunity Office at the their cooperation and involvement is an University of York in the United Kingdom, essential element. although well intentioned, falls short of having the impact a policy sanctioned by a university Facilitation of religious dialogue on campuses governing body would have campus wide. An through initiation of interreligious programs analogy which might suit this situation is with the participation of various faith having a structure without a foundation. organisations presents the shared commonality Crucial to this point is making an appropriate of religious support for the institutions‘ appointment of a qualified officer, experienced community. Opportunities for religious in managing and communicating with services, practices and faith development to sensitivity across the diversity of religions, encourage utilisation of the central point responsible for the implementation of such a which deals with religious affairs, such as policy. provision of religious and spiritual services weekly, is important and should be promoted Creating guidelines for the purpose of being widely. Involvement of religious leaders in the principle motive for carrying out actions in university life through participation in line with the policy represents sound thinking developing programs and services should be in support of a policy on religion. Contents of also considered. Supporting religious groups such guidelines should include amongst other organised by students and provision of things the development of an advisory body to information on religious events promote provide ongoing consultation on religious and inclusiveness and brings about awareness of spiritual needs. Reflecting on the religious and the diversity of religions on campuses. spiritual needs of students and staff, provision for this advisory body to nominate for Achieving success in managing the diversity appointment of chaplains representing the of religions and nationalities on campuses diversity of religions on campus is important. around the world can be problematic but Chaplains will carry out the sensitive work through strategic planning obstacles can be associated with providing support services for overcome. The University of Southern those who make up the religious and spiritual Queensland for example applies these practical diversity on university campuses. The suggestions in its daily operations of the appointment status of chaplains can take the Multifaith Centre. This represents a clear form of voluntary or paid. understanding of a number of relevant issues associated with the practicality of the growth The establishment by universities of a central in religious diversity at universities. These point dealing with religious affairs can be seen include but are not limited to acknowledging as an outcome of policy adoption and provides the importance of supporting the university the university community a place to practice community‘s spiritual well being; the 39 awareness that it is not about tolerating References religious diversity as it is of accepting differences; promotion of social inclusiveness Abbott, T 2007, ‗Trying to be all things to all which ultimately leads to reduction of people‘, Online Opinion, 9 March, viewed isolationism; encouragement of interreligious 2 May 2010,
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41 The Condition of ‘Permanent Temporariness’ for Salvadorans in the US and Koreans in Japan: A Study of Legal and Cultural Citizenship
William W. Castillo Guardado ([email protected]) University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, United States.
Abstract 203). However, many ‗foreign‘ groups already reside within the territorial boundaries of the Immigrants occupy an ambiguous position in state, creating a ‗gap between the people in the contemporary nation states. As states define the state and the people of the state‘ (Waldinger criteria necessary for citizenship, immigrant groups 2007: 137). are sorted into legal and illegal categories. In cases where ‗temporary‘ migrant communities lived and In defining the criteria for membership, worked in the host country over generations, questions arise over the disparity between cultural nationals of a state must find ways to allow and legal citizenship. What does it mean to be a some people in. The system of jus soli defines permanent foreigner? This project analyses the citizenship as based on the soil you were born experiences of Korean immigrants to Japan since on, while jus sanguinis defines citizenship the 1950s, who are designated by the Japanese based on parentage (Miller 2007: 38). government as ‗special permanent residents‘. These However, the inclusion of immigrants may not experiences are compared to those of Salvadoran always necessarily be justified by jus immigrants in the United States since the 1980s sanguinis or jus soli alone, and it is the more who have been granted ‗temporary protected nuanced cases where these concepts have status‘. The focus is on the shift that occurs as immigrants transition from temporary to permanent failed to adequately account for the social settlement even while their legal status continues to reality faced by immigrants that this paper define them as ‗foreign‘. These issues give insight aims to understand. into the process of identity formation, social and political inclusion, and the legal framework that A study of illegal and legal immigrants would regulates their existence. be useful to understand the paths to citizenship available to immigrants and the implications Keywords their presence has on national identity. However, such a division between illegal and Citizenship, Koreans in Japan, Legal Exclusion, legal is not clearly demarcated, and in many Permanent Temporariness, Salvadoran Immigration, Temporary Protected Status, US Immigration instances immigrants are subject to a third, Policy more ambiguous legal situation that contains both elements of illegality and legality. Of interest are the designations carried by Korean INTRODUCTION immigrants in Japan since the 1950s (referred to as zainichi in Japanese) and Salvadorian The modern concept of citizenship, defined as immigrants in the US since the 1980s who are membership to the state of which you are a in some form of temporary legality – the national, is fragile (Invernizzi 2008: xii). designation of ‗special permanent residents‘ Within this lies the assumption of a fixed for Koreans and ‗temporary protected status‘ national identity, indivisible sovereignty, and for Salvadorans (Morris-Suzuki 2006: 307). ethnic homogeneity that is described by Sen (2008: 6) as being neither ‗possible nor Such ambiguous legal positions, while desirable‘. Nation states will ‗wall attempting to designate Salvadorans and themselves,‘ to use Waldinger‘s (2007) phrase, Koreans as ‗foreign,‘ are not synchronous with from outside immigrants who pose a challenge the place attachment and identity formation to the membership of the national collectivity. that may occur as temporary settlement Yet, just as the boundaries of the state are becomes permanent. What happens when an defined, so are the boundaries of the nation individual feels integrated into a society, yet is (Waldinger 2007: 137). Coutin describes this still accorded temporary, foreign status? What process as the ‗sorting and removing‘ of those does it mean to be permanently temporary? who do not belong, an attempt to remove More interesting is the liminal legal distinction pockets of foreignness within the state (2007: both groups carry that both excludes and
includes members already in the state. As of the past, to be forgotten as quickly as Menjivar aptly states: possible‘ (Morris-Suzuki 2006, p. 304). One of the most glaring reminders of Japan‘s colonial it is precisely the uncertainty of past were those Koreans who had remained [Salvadoran] immigrants‘ legality that (Ibid., p. 304-5). The Supreme Commander presents an opportunity to better for the Allied Powers in 1946 suggested capture how political decisions treating Koreans as Japanese nationals until embodied in immigration law constrain the governments of Korea recognised their and enable human action. Examining nationality. When in 1948 the Koreas this ambiguity as directly linked to state separated into North and South, both of the power in a time when the nation-state is new Korean governments recognised Koreans believed by some to be in decline in Japan as their nationals. As such, the highlights the central role the state still expectation in Japan was still one in which plays in shaping and regulating Koreans would return to their homeland (Kim immigrants‘ lives (2006: 1001). 2008: 876).
This paper will first consider the political and By the time of the Korean War in 1950, the historical context that came to shape the lives prospect of returning home diminished for of zainichi Koreans in Japan. It will then Koreans in Japan who had previously seen examine the ways Koreans have sought their stay as temporary. The Japanese viewed inclusion into the Japanese state and the zainichi as a subversive element within the implications their status has on the state, as an ‗enemy‘ within (Morris Suzuki monocultural ideal of Japanese society. Then, 2006: 303). Zainichi would need to either be the legal history of Salvadorans in the US will expulsed or wholly assimilated into society be discussed, followed by a discussion of the under the new Cold War atmosphere of the different forms of cultural integration and early 1950s. With the signing of the 1952 San exclusion that have marked their experience, Francisco Peace Treaty and the Immigration followed by a discussion on the effect their Control Act, ‗the Japanese government presence has on the multicultural US ideal. deprived Koreans in Japan of Japanese The development of such modern, legally nationality without giving them an opportunity ambiguous situation is discussed with to choose their destinies‘ (Kim 2006: 57). In reference to the discrimination, constraints, other words, they were now to be regarded as and rights accorded to Salvadorans and ‗complete aliens‘ under Japanese law that Koreans by their respective governments. granted temporary legal status until other laws After reviewing the history that created the decided their legality. The San Francisco trajectories of Koreans and Salvadorans, I will Peace Treaty defined those deserving discuss the points at which their legal and temporary legality as those who had resided cultural experiences intersect. How does their continuously in Japan since 1945. (Ibid.: 58- ‗temporary‘ status shape the extent to which 60). With these laws we see the creation of a they seek inclusion into the state? liminal legal situation in which the law inhibits nearly every aspect of the immigrant‘s life, THE LEGAL EXCLUSION OF making them subject to various forms of KOREANS IN JAPAN special approval by the government.
The presence of Koreans in Japan dates back The loss of Japanese nationality for Koreans to the annexation of the Korean peninsula in meant that the government could easily 1910 by the Japanese. By the time of Japan‘s exclude zainichi by making Japanese surrender in 1945, there were nearly 2 million citizenship a prerequisite for opportunity. Koreans in mainland Japan who had Perhaps most significant was the 1952 Alien voluntarily or forcibly migrated, with nearly Registration Law. The law required Koreans to 1.5 million eventually returning to Korea register as ‗aliens‘; renew their Alien immediately after the war. The roughly Registration every three years and submit 600,000 Koreans who remained behind in fingerprints; and carry their Alien Registration Japan and their descendants would later card with them at all times and present it to become zainichi-kankokujin, or ‗Koreans law enforcement if requested. Failure to follow residing in Japan‘ (Morris Suzuki 2006, p. any of the previous provisions could be 304). punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or deportation. Zainichi would also be barred In the post-war period, the Japanese from receiving any social security or welfare government debated the extent to which benefits, and stripped of any civil service jobs. Koreans should be included in the state, (Ibid.: 56-61). In essence, these regulations especially since the Japanese empire, ‗once made zainichi subject to deportation while still such a source of pride and national self- legally allowing them to reside within the confidence, had become an embarrassing piece state.
43 A further complication in defining the legal they had now viewed as home. The legal status of zainichi was divisions within the ‗foreign‘ label that had been imposed on them group. On one side were Koreans sympathetic was increasingly seen as removed from the to the North Korean regime, organised as cultural reality that the zainichi formed part of chongryong, and on the other were those who Japanese society. sided with the South Korean regime, known as mindan. A third group also emerged that sided THE CULTURAL INTEGRATION with neither government and instead wished to OF KOREANS IN JAPAN define themselves as citizens of a future re- united Korea (Morris-Suzuki 2006: 304-5). The Japanese government would deal with As their settlement in Japan shifted from these divisions by giving preference to those temporary to permanent in the 1950s, zainichi opting for South Korean identification. When faced numerous forms of discrimination and Japan and South Korea normalised relations in disadvantages in the workplace, at school, and 1965, the Korea-Japan Normalization Treaty in government. Interestingly, in order to avoid allowed zainichi to apply for South Korean facing such obstacles, zainichi have always nationality and receive ‗permanent resident had the option of becoming Japanese citizens status‘ in Japan (Kim 2006: 60). A through marriage or an arduous process of requirement for permanent status, however, legalisation. Why have Koreans remained a was a continued presence in Japan since 1945 separate group? The answer may lie in the and the adoption of South Korean nationality. social stakes of the naturalisation process. Those who had travelled within that period or could not obtain South Korean nationality Japan has attempted to maintain the notion of were excluded (Ibid.: 56-57). Although this a pure, untainted Japanese identity, signalled a change in the legal inclusion of encapsulated by the notion of tan‟itsu zainichi, several issues remained. Many minzokuron (theories of monoculturalism). Koreans who identified with the North refused The underlying assumption is that nationality to apply for permanent status and thus and ethnicity are inextricably linked; to be a remained ‗stateless‘, unable to travel and Japanese citizen means to be Japanese stripped of civil rights. Only until the 1981 ethnically. In order to allow people into the Immigration Control Act were chongryong state as citizens, Japanese society creates allowed to apply for a special residence permit markers of Japanese identity that determine (Kim 2008: 877). In such cases, zainichi were inclusion or exclusion into the state. The still regarded as immigrants with loyalties pathway to citizenship, whether through elsewhere, as people who were temporary. marriage or paperwork, requires becoming Japanese in the cultural sense in order to Change occurred during the 1980s and 1990s, remove any possibility of foreignness or as Japan sought to comply with the difference within this identity. But whereas International Covenants on Human Rights that Japanese nationality is clearly definable, called for equality in social citizenship rights Japanese ethnicity is not (Chapman 2006: 96; for citizens and non-citizens, and as a result Tai 2006: 370-1). several measures were passed to legally include zainichi into Japanese society. For Koreans, regardless of North and South example, Koreans and other foreign residents Korean identification, are not so willing to were allowed to receive social services like shed their Korean identity and become fully National Health Insurance and Welfare assimilated as Japanese. According to benefits; the Alien Registration Law of 1992 Chapman, ‗the choice is either a zainichi abolished fingerprinting; the 1984 Family identity and therefore exclusion, or a Japanese Registration Law allowed foreigners to identity and therefore assimilation‘ (2006: 91). naturalise without having to adopt Japanese The belief of the Japanese government is that names, and nationality could now be immigration policies are an attempt to erase transmitted maternally as well as paternally; in the Korean cultural presence in Japan—that is, 1991 zainichi were allowed to work in civil to strip ethnic Koreans of their identification to service positions; and in 1995 zainichi were their heritage. One way this was attempted, for allowed to participate in limited local example, was by forcing Koreans to adopt a elections. As of today, the Alien Registration Japanese name upon naturalisation until 1984, Law still requires that aliens carry their when this requirement was overturned registration card at all times and that they (Chapman 2006: 90). present it to law enforcement upon request, with failure to do so punishable by a 200,000 The most recent movement by zainichi groups yen fine or one year imprisonment (Kim 2006: in the 2000s aimed at accommodating the 60-65; Morris-Suzuki 2006: 304-7). Slowly, reality of the zainichi experience through the however, the legal framework that defined and creation of the ‗Korean-Japanese‘ identity. controlled zainichi existence unravelled, with The main assumption behind this term is that zainichi becoming included into the society nationality does not have to correspond with 44 ethnicity. It means that Koreans who naturalise and Vietnamese cases was based on the need as Japanese citizens may retain their Korean to maintain the image that the US supported name, heritage, and culture (Tai 2004: 370-1). immigrants fleeing leftist governments. Since It also indicates that individuals see Salvadorans were fleeing a right-wing, US- themselves as belonging to Japan, not because backed government, it would be against US of the ‗myth of bloodline‘, but because of the interests to recognise them as political cultural indoctrination that occurs as refugees from a war the US was funding and settlement becomes permanent (Chapman supporting. 2006: 94-95). To counter the unequal application of the law, Koreans have begun to challenge the several events in the 1990s redefined the ambiguous legal situation accorded to them by residence of Salvadorans and effectively create the Japanese government, seeing themselves a new class of immigrants within the instead as participants in Japan and deserving framework of legal and illegal immigrants. of the rights and privileges associated with The most significant case was that of citizenship. In order for zainichi to be included American Baptist Church vs. Thornburgh, in in the Japanese state, the standard, rigid which the American Baptist Church (ABC) in notions of citizenship promoted by the 1986 called for protecting Salvadorans against Japanese government would need to be deportation. When the case was settled out of dismantled. However, the fluid forces court in 1990, the US created a new temporary determining their inclusion and exclusion are status, known as ABC, that allowed not limited solely to Japan. Across the world, a Salvadorans who had been denied asylum to group with distinct historical and cultural ties have their cases re-evaluated, as well as allow is posing a similar challenge to a host country any Salvadoran who had entered the US before attempting to include and exclude ‗foreign‘ 1990 to become an asylum seeker. An ABC- elements within the state. class immigrant would be granted temporary legal residence and a work permit in the US. THE LEGAL EXCLUSION OF ABC Salvadorans, however, faced uncertainty over how to make their presence permanent, SALVADORANS IN THE US since the expiration of their protection or a rejection of their asylum application would In the United States, the arrival of Salvadoran lead to illegal status and possibly deportation immigrants in the 1980s would lead to the (Bailey et al. 2002: 129). In the same year, the creation of policies like those in Japan that US passed the Immigration Act of 1990 that restricted the actions of foreigners seeking created Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for inclusion into the nation state. In the 1980s, Salvadorans who arrived before September civil war erupted in El Salvador between leftist 1990, protecting them from deportation for 18 guerrillas and the US-backed Salvadoran months (Menjivar 2006: 1012). TPS was government. A wave of immigrants took granted to Salvadorans who, because of refuge in the United States during the 1980s, political conflict or natural disaster, could not and by the 1990s nearly one million had made safely return to their country. TPS Salvadorans the trek to the north (Menjivar 2006: 1010). could also apply for ABC, apply yearly for a Contrary to their expectations, upon arriving to work permit, and obtain a social security the US, Salvadorans were not warmly number. TPS Salvadorans had to continually welcomed. Though most had fled the country renew their legality through a slew of to escape violence, the United States confusing applications and deadlines. For both government treated Salvadoran immigrants as ABC and TPS Salvadorans, legal residence illegal economic migrants, not refugees. was still uncertain, and the prospect of Vietnamese and Nicaraguan immigrants, on deportation always existed upon the expiration the other hand, were granted asylum at of each of the acts. When the TPS program significantly higher rates during the same expired in 1995, Salvadorans became even period in the 1980s. Salvadorans, by being more uncertain of their legality. However, the designated as economic migrants, were subject 1996 Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant to policies that could potentially deport them Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) extended a back to dangerous conditions in El Salvador cancellation of deportation to those who had (Bailey et al. 2003: 76; Menjivar 2006: 1010- resided continuously in the US for ten years. 11). Furthermore, in the same year the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act The preferential treatment of Vietnamese and (NACARA) provided a cancellation of Nicaraguan immigrants in the 1980s by the US deportation and conferred a work permit to government would be challenged by lawyers those who had arrived before September 1990 and civil rights groups representing and had also applied for ABC status. The Salvadoran immigrants. They rejected US amount of applications created such a large immigration laws designed around Cold War backlog in the offices of the Immigration and foreign policy; US preference for Nicaraguan Naturalization Services (INS) that for many 45 the condition of temporary legal status lasted The US values the promotion of more than a decade (Bailey et al. 2002: 126-7; multiculturalism, in which varying cultures Menjivar 2006: 1011-15). contribute to the national identity. Yet, the notion still maintains that of an assimilation The effects of the aforementioned laws on paradigm, where immigrants adhere to the Salvadoran lives were immense. For one, ABC main tenets of American society and shed their and TPS Salvadorans were given the right to former identities. But as the case of live and work in the United States, which Salvadorans demonstrate, a hybrid culture may included paying taxes, yet were prevented still emerge. Many of those protected under from accessing many social services (Menjivar the legal limbo of 1990s legislations can in 2006: 1008). Furthermore, as stated by fact be considered de facto citizens who live Menjivar, ‗immigration law has effectively legally absent lives. produced a population of long-time residents with suspended lives‘ (Ibid.: 1015). Bailey et TOWARDS A COMPARISON OF al. describes the condition of Salvadorans as SALVADORANS AND KOREANS ‗truncated transnationalism,‘ where ‗they cannot formally settle and yet they must prove Even though there are a host of differences that they have; [and] they cannot physically between the cases of zainichi Koreans and return…‘ (2003: 75). Those who apply for ABC and TPS Salvadorans, the similarities asylum, for example, must stay grounded in they share in the challenges posed to the the US and cannot visit family members in El nation state and to notions of citizenship are Salvador, for such a visit would contradict worth analysing. In other words, in cases their claim that it is dangerous for them to where historical, political, and social return (Bailey et al. 2002: 138-9). This differences between the two groups resulted in situation, rather than creating temporary similar legislation that regarded immigrants as immigrants, encourages the transition into occupying the realms of legality and illegality, permanent settlement. immigrants became the focus of citizenship discourse. THE CULTURAL INTEGRATION OF SALVADORANS IN THE US One of the most significant differences between both groups is that while Salvadorans Salvadorans, attempting to join the path to were immigrants to the US in the 1980s and citizenship, are continually set back by laws then began to seek pathways to citizenship, placing them in a gray area of inclusion. In Koreans in Japan had previously been legal fact, according to Coutin, the desirability of Japanese citizens within the Japanese empire. citizenship is ‗fueled, in part, by exclusionary For Koreans, there was a need to regain rights, policies that make citizenship a prerequisite such as voting and employment in civil for opportunities‘ (2007: 205). The rights service, that were formerly granted before the available for these citizens who form part of 1952 Peace Treaty. This contrast would create the fabric of US society are highly desirable, differing objectives for becoming a citizen. In such as access to education, jobs, and services Japan, legislation was passed that attempted to that require US citizenship. Menjivar states prevent zainichi from regaining Japanese that ‗even when immigrants perform tasks nationality unless they shed their former through which they participate in and identity. The purpose was to remove from contribute to society (e.g., raising children, Japan, to use Coutin‘s phrase, ‗pockets of working, and paying taxes), they are excluded foreignness‘ (2007: 203). In the US, however, from full membership if they lack full the main goal of Salvadorans was the (permanent) legal recognition‘ (2006: 1004). recognition that their immigration had resulted For Salvadoran children, for example, it from political, not economic, circumstances becomes highly desirable to obtain citizenship that should grant them asylum protection. US because universities require legal status in legislation that granted temporary status to order to grant in-state rather than international these immigrants was a way of acknowledging tuition. For adults, US citizenship is required the risky situation of return for Salvadorans, to work in civil services. Finally, for most and although such legislation granted a Salvadorans legal status is desirable because it potential path towards legality, it did not allows for unrestricted travel outside of the necessarily grant a path towards citizenship. In US. With naturalisation come an array of other words, the purpose of temporary opportunities that define inclusion into the protected status in the US was not the removal nation state. For many who have remained in of Salvadorans as a cultural group. the US waiting for the INS to process their asylum claims or TPS, the meaning of ‗home‘ Another key difference is the system of jus has shifted to include the US (Bailey et al. sanguinis used by Japan compared to jus soli 2003: 76). in the United States, a contrast also linked to competing views of monoculturalism and 46 multiculturalism. In Japan, the reason for of quasi-legality. Many Koreans were forcibly adopting a system of citizenship based on brought to Japan, while many Salvadorans saw parentage is related to the need to maintain the themselves as having no choice but to escape ‗myth of bloodline‘ that links Japanese society violence in El Salvador. As a result of conflict together. Since in Japan ethnicity and in their homelands, they remained in their host nationality are regarded as one, it was countries. Temporary legal status, with necessary to grant Japanese nationality to perpetual looming deadlines and provisions those who were of Japanese descent regulating human action, responded to these (Kashiwazaki 1998: 282). The same system fears and essentially linked citizenship with was also adopted by the Republic of Korea human rights (Menjivar 2006: 1005). and the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea in the 1950s, who used the notion of jus In the US and Japan, people thus categorised sanguinis to grant Koreans in Japan overseas still faced similar issues of discrimination. In nationality. By using parentage as the bond of Japan, discriminatory policies were directly citizenship, Japan can uphold its utopian ideal aimed at the Korean minority, such as their of a monocultural society free from outsiders. removal from employment in civil service A consequence of this system is that the jobs. The most blatant instances of descendants of non-Japanese are to be treated discrimination are seen in cases like Chongsok as foreigners as well. For zainichi, it means Pak v. the Hitachi Company (1974), where a that the legal ambiguity of their residence in second generation zainichi was successfully Japan is transmitted to their offspring— hired, only to be laid off by the company once sometimes to children whose only home is it learned he was a ‗foreigner‘; The company Japan. In contrast, in the United States the policy was to hire only Japanese citizens (Kim system of jus soli, whereby those born within 2006: 62). In the US, discrimination was the boundaries of the state are granted aimed at immigrants in general, and more citizenship, allows for a speedier legal specifically those from Mexico. Anti- inclusion of the children of immigrants born in immigrant sentiment in the US argued that the US. Households, for example, will even though such citizens may be physically sometimes consist of both parents without present, they violated the law and are not legal status and children who are US citizens entitled to work or use social services. In (Bailey et al. 2002: 136). In the case of California, where a large immigrant Salvadorans, the legal ambiguity of temporary population from Latin America exists, calls status is erased by the second generation. have been made for mandating English as the official language, preventing illegal The legal frameworks constructed by the immigrants from holding driver‘s licenses, and Japanese and US governments severely limit preventing illegal immigrants from using human action. For Koreans identifying with social services. Unlike in Japan where Koreans the South, unrestricted travel outside of Japan were explicitly banned from using social was only allowed until 1965 when the Japan- services, in the US immigrants are still able to Korea Normalization Treaty allowed them to use some social services. Proposition 187 in apply for South Korean documentation. It was California resulted from frameworks, not until 1981 that Koreans who identified proposals, and social stratification that saw with North Korea could apply for travel immigrants as draining social services paid for permits. Similarly, in the US Salvadoran by American tax payers (Coutin 2007: 109). immigrants had to remain in the US because of Although these proposals target illegal the travel restrictions of temporary status. immigrants, they also become of concern to Asylum applicants who left the country to visit the small Salvadoran population who hold El Salvador would void their cases for temporary status. Salvadorans could also face protection. Yet what is the purpose of discrimination for being perceived and grounding ‗foreigners‘ to the state? In both mistaken as Mexican economic migrants. In cases, national debate has occurred regarding both the US and Japan, social structures of the deportation of these immigrant groups. In racial discrimination were thus at play. Japan, the purpose of removing Koreans would be to create a purely Japanese society The uncertainty created in both situations can (Tai 2004: 357-8). In the US, some have be aptly described using Menjivar‘s (2006: ??) viewed deportation as a method to remove phrase of ‗permanent temporariness‘. The ‗criminals‘ who have broken the law by phrase describes the condition of Salvadorans immigrating. However, the ethical who face ‗enormous anxiety, as each deadline consequences of physically removing a accentuates these immigrants‘ precarious significant number of people who identify situation, which for many has gone on for over with the state reduce calls for the blanket two decades‘ (Menjivar 2006: 1000). In other deportation of illegal immigrants. words, ‗permanent temporariness‘ signals a Acknowledging that the presence of these prolonged period of being designated a immigrants groups is not necessarily done by temporary resident. During this time, the choice, the law creates for them a distinction immigrant may develop permanent place 47 attachment to the society that constructs them References as eventually returning home. ‗Home‘, however, shifts in meaning to include the host Bailey, A, Wright, R, Mountz, A, Miyares, I society. I suggest using this term to refer to the 2002, ‗(Re)producing Salvadorian condition of zainichi as well, who similarly Transnational Geographies‘, Annals of the face a prolonged period of legal status that Association of American Geographers, assumes the temporariness of a group already 92(3): 125-144. well-grounded into the host society. Unlike Salvadorans, whose experience with ______2003, ‗The Interrupted Circle: temporary protection has only spanned two Truncated Trans nationalism and the decades, Koreans in Japan have been Salvadoran Experience‘, Journal of Latin experiencing temporary designation for over American Geography, 2(1): 74-86. four generations. The Alien Registration Laws that have permeated their daily lives, like TPS Bellamy, R 2008, Citizenship: A Very Short and ABC, require constantly registering their Introduction, Oxford University Press, temporary status every few years. Failure to Oxford. properly register allows the Japanese state to strip Koreans of their claims to residency, and Chapman, D 2006, ‗Discourses of may lead to expulsion. In both the US and Multicultural Coexistence (Tabunka Kyosei) Japan, these immigration laws have served the and the 'old-comer' Korean Residents of purpose of containing and controlling the Japan‘, Asian Ethnicity, 7(1): 89-102. actions of ‗foreign‘ groups within the state, resulting in a tug of war between inclusion and Coutin, S 2007, Nations of Emigrants: Shifting exclusion. Boundaries of Citizenship in El Salvador and the United States, Cornell University CONCLUSION Press, New York.
Even though the political, historical, and Invernizzi, A 2008, Children and Citizenship, economic conditions that created the legal SAGE Publications, Los Angeles. frameworks for Salvadorans and Koreans differ, their experience of coping with legal Kashiwazaki, C 1996, ‗The Origin of and cultural integration is similar. Being Citizenship in a Comparative Perspective‘, legally and culturally foreign does not paper presented at the Annual meeting of the necessarily mean being an outsider. Their calls American Sociological Association, New for inclusion into the legal system creates York. national discourse over the meaning of citizenship. Whereas the concept of the nation Kim, B 2008, ‗Bringing Class Back In: The state attempts to create timeless and orderly Changing Basis of Inequality and the physical and cultural boundaries, the social Korean Minority in Japan‘, Ethnic and experience of immigrant groups within states Racial Studies, 31(5): 871-898. highlights the artificial construction of the nation state. The identities of states are ______2006, ‗From Exclusion to changing around the world, and the Inclusion? The Legal Treatment of immigration laws in place to maintain those ‗Foreigners‘ In Contemporary Japan‘, identities are not keeping pace. The Immigrants and Minorities, 24(1): 51-73. maintenance of state boundaries should not be done at the expense of people who form part Menjivar, C 2006, ‗Liminal Legality: of the state through their contributions to Salvadoran and Guatemalan Immigrants‘ society, but who are not politically included in Lives in the United States‘, American the system that regulates their existence. Journal of Sociology, 111( 4): 999-1037.
Acknowledgements Miller, T 2007, Cultural Citizenship: Cosmopolitanism, Consumerism, and Television in a Neoliberal Age, Temple I would like to thank my parents Marco and University Press, Philadelphia. Blanca; my siblings Henry, Marco, and Carol; Prof. Analiese Richard for guiding this project Morris-Suzuki, T 2006, ‗Defining the from the start; Prof. Susan Sample, Prof. Laura Boundaries of the Cold War Nation: 1950s Bathurst, and the rest of the faculty at the Japan and the Other Within‘, Japanese School of International Studies; the University Studies, 26(3): 303-317. of the Pacific; my relatives in El Salvador; and my friends in Osaka, Japan. Tai, E 2004, ‗―Korean Japanese‖: A New Identity Option for Resident Koreans in Japan‘, Critical Asian Studies, 36(3): 355- 382. 48 ‘Going Back’: Homeland and Belonging for Greek Child Migrants
Alexandra Dellios ([email protected]) University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia.
Abstract accurately be labelled a mythic landscape, the romanticised backdrop of childhood pasts, or a Homeland, rather than a physical locality, is a narrative of the self formed by present and narrative of a migrant‘s personal past; it is often a future identity aspirations. As a place, it is mythic landscape formed by childhood nostalgia. ultimately unobtainable. Perhaps this is why, This is especially so in the author‘s collection of in some of its representations, a tone of oral testimonies of Greek child migrants who bitterness manages to cut across the initial arrived in Melbourne during the 1960s and 1970s. Their act of ‗going back‘ to Greece in adulthood romanticism. The act of going back to the can be analysed within the framework of identity physical homeland does not make the loss less formation, an ongoing process reliant on the palpable, for the past cannot be retrieved. revision of personal and collective memories. The interviewees‘ symbolic conception of this act of On one level I am claiming the existence of a going back and their attachment of meaning (or lack collective imagination in this ‗migrant thereof) to place has many implications for the way literature‘. However, it is important to this demographic constructs national, transnational acknowledge that the homeland may have the and cultural belonging, both in collective and same form (a narrative of self), but be imbued individual terms. Going back was an experience of self-discovery, a repudiation or ‗retranslation‘ of the with a number of different meanings, which narrative of homeland. Ultimately, the experience ultimately depend on the conditions of of going back enhances trans-cultural identities. departure and settlement. For example, a war- Interestingly, the experience had more importance torn refugee may imagine the homeland as for their conceptualisation of place, and their sense something tragic and forever lost; while the of belonging in Australia, than it did for their sense second-generation Australian might have a of belonging in the homeland. This can be linked to confused jumble of images gathered from the importance of their respective community family discussions, which are treated with networks, and the importance of these communities cynicism or curiosity (Nguyen 2009). In this in their childhood sense of security and their adult sense of familiarity. The reality of the confronted paper, I am concerned with what homeland homeland was at odds with their mythic landscape. means for post-war child migrants in Unexpectedly then, going back increases a sense of particular. What narratives—those personal belonging in their own self-constructed cultural memory fragments made comprehensible and landscapes in Melbourne. coherent—have gone into its construction?
Keywords Child migrants‘ experiences of displacement Belonging, community, homeland, memory, and adjustment are unlike that of their parents. narrative The first few years of their lives have been spent in their place of birth, but the choice to emigrate was not their own, and their HOMELAND AND THE CHILD consequent development and transition into MIGRANT adulthood—including their socialisation within the school—has been in a cultural The concept of the ‗homeland‘ features environment most likely alien to that which prominently in much literature on the migrant they experience at home. In a multicultural experience. Insofar as this literature forms a Australia the child is immediately rendered a collective imagination of various diasporas in hyphenated-Australian; until the 1970s, he or Australia, one could generalise and say that she might have been a ‗New Australian‘, the homeland is imagined as a distant and shedding ethnicity in public and guarding it in unchanging oasis in a disturbing and private. These are, however, simplistic dislocating world. Most importantly, in this assignations. One can set the child migrant literature, the homeland is longed for. It is not into convenient sociological models (see a nation. It is a personal past—a myriad of Erikson 1968; Childs 1940), but these are not fragmented significant and insignificant events sufficient for the study of memories. Here, I made comprehensible and coherent for the make do with interpretations of personal individual migrant. While aspects of the narratives, reading how inter-subjective physical landscape are often described in perspectives and current discursive practices loving detail, the homeland could more have shaped these individuals‘ memories. In
this sense, memory and identity are identity and belonging, resided elsewhere, and intertwined and conceived as a continual not in their mythic homeland. process of ‗retranslation‘ (King 2000: 21). Undeniably, child migrants are faced with a unique process of identity formation: their Place place of birth and early childhood memories are known and indeed often cherished; but their subsequent development has played out Perhaps their homeland may once have been in Australia. These places have become their romanticised, the unchanging and distant oasis own, a familiar cultural geography with of childhood memories, and perhaps this understood codes of behaviour (even as they explains the strangeness they encountered. But remain alien to their parents). Child migrants now, the homeland is devoid of this must negotiate two—perhaps multiple—world romanticisation. While the act of returning is views. How then, is the homeland a part of imbued with some symbolic significance, the their identities? What position does it now encounter with the physical homeland seemed hold in relation to the adopted home, the place to invite little but vague affection at best and in which they have spent most of their lives? confused dejection at worst. For my interviewees, the acceptance of a cross- This paper will seek to provide a number of cultural existence attributed little meaning to answers to these questions by exploring the physical place, to locality. All now fervently oral testimonies of Greek migrants who express the belief that one can be Greek arrived as children in Melbourne during the regardless of their place of residence. Going 1960s and 1970s and have made return back seemed to confirm this belief. journeys to Greece. While these narratives do not always form a collective image—nor Community in childhood and should they be expected to—they clearly adolescence complicate understandings of cultural adjustment and integration for child migrants. Before discussing these recollections we must Eleven people—most of whom emigrated first understand a few details about my from villages in northern Greece—offered interviewees‘ upbringing and the variables their recollections for the purpose of this affecting their process of adjustment and study. All eleven have been back to Greece at integration as child migrants in Melbourne least once; five have gone back more than during the 1960s and 1970s. This process twice. informs their personal narratives. We do not have access to their childhood perspectives, or THE HOMELAND AS to their adolescent feeling of belonging. Their NARRATIVE AND MEMORY recollections ultimately inform us of how they currently view their identities in an Australia When recalling their experiences of going significantly different from the one in which back, many took the interview as an they grew up. Their acceptance of hybrid opportunity to make sense of and attribute belonging in the present and the ease with meaning to what was universally described as which they operate in accepting cultural a ‗strange‘ experience. We cannot have access communities shape their recollections of to their conception of homeland before the childhood. Consequently, some remember a experience of going back. This is ultimately a struggle to arrive at where they are today; question of whether it is possible to objectify others, more frequently, take it as given that our past selves. It is nevertheless possible to they have always felt they belonged—the past pin-point going back as a turning point in their and present self is collapsed into one. conceptualisation of homeland—that is, insofar as the homeland forms a personal It nevertheless becomes clear from their narrative of belonging. In this sense, the recollections that a key variable in my strangeness they encountered is explained as interviewees‘ relative ease of adjustment in a an affront to their ethnic selves. Going back new country is the strength and size of their was an experience of self-discovery for my community networks. In Melbourne, many interviewees. The act of going back enhances post-war Greeks were concentrated in a trans-cultural identities. It reaffirmed their number of inner-city suburbs (Victorian Ethnic hybrid existence. Some found themselves Affairs Commission 1988). They continued having to articulate—for the first time and the patterns of chain migration that were often with some trepidation—their separate typical of pre-war settlement (Allimonos existence as Greek-Australians. Going back 2001). Some had followed relatives; others also prompted the realisation (implicit or had chosen areas based on the number of explicit) that their sense of security and people from their village or region already community, and therefore their sense of settled there. By the 1960s, many of these collectivities had formed large, coherent, and organised communities. Indeed, the number of 50 regional clubs and organisations exploded in often romanticised, images of the homeland. Melbourne from the early 1960s (DeStoop These stories were a part of the child‘s 1996). The ‗Greek church building era‘ upbringing.1 (Tsounis 1975) also began, and numerous community spaces became available. By the GOING BACK 1970s, some inner-city state schools had a Greek student population of up to seventy per The act of going back is significant in shaping cent (DeStoop 1996). and transforming their personal narratives of their homeland. In this instance, I One interviewee, Helen Strangos, estimates conceptualise it as a turning point, a that from her village of about sixty-five re/affirmation of their hybrid identities, or a families, six arrived and settled in Fitzroy. confirmation of adult belonging in Melbourne, Perhaps in her efforts to oppose my and more specifically within their assumption that cultural conflict ensued, Helen communities. insists that she did not feel a significant change or sense of displacement. In her Many of my interviewees made the decision to Fitzroy community, within her home, and on go back for similar reasons—or, at least, now the streets, she was amongst the group of justify that decision in similar ways. Seeing children from her village of Kozani. The same family left behind, or wanting to ‗show the applies for her in school; they were labelled kids‘ their ‗heritage, their roots‘ was common. the ‗Kozani kids‘. Helen remembers her Anna Sfitskis and Sophia Toutoglou revealed childhood with fondness. Settlement does not more personal reasons: Anna tells me it was a evoke memories of forced displacement or ‗test‘ to see if her village was still home; cultural conflict. This indicates the positive similarly Sophia says she returned to ‗see what effect that a close-knit community can make she‘d been missing‘ (2010 pers. comm., 10 on the migrant child‘s adjustment. Helen April). Anna and Sophia, as older arrivals with insists: ‗I didn‘t feel foreign because I had so clearer memories of their villages, held much much of back home here‘ (2010 pers. comm., higher expectations about going back. 31 January). Consequently, the experience of feeling a stranger in Greece left an indelible impression Similarly, six of my interviewees settled in on them and prompted an explicit and around the Clayton area and thus entered reassessment of their identity, a process that the Oakleigh Greek Community. An had previously (throughout their adolescence increasing number of families from the in Australia) relied on the eventual attainment villages surrounding the town of Serres in of the distant and unchanging homeland. Anna northern Greece—particularly the village of recalls: Terpni—settled in this area from 1965 (Kouris 1998). As such, many of my interviewees I wanted to go back a lot... when you entered and contributed to a well-established ask, when did I feel like Australia Greek community. They were otherwise became home, I think for me it was already equipped with a number of personal after I went back. Because I wanted to networks and systems of support, often relying go so much, and I went back and I sort on this to guard them against occasional of felt. When we were there, everything discrimination or alienation from mainstream we heard about Australia, it used to Anglo-Australian society. make us happy. I think the turning point came for me then. I felt like Within these communities, interaction would Australia was my home. When I went mainly occur between families—immediate to Greece, I sort of felt a bit strange, and extended—or close friends from their and everything was changing there too, village or region (General Studies Department and everything looked a lot smaller, Swinburne College of Technology 1973). and it wasn‘t as pretty as I imagined it. Children would typically accompany their You always keep the best memories. parents on their weekly visits to other families. (2010 pers. comm., 10 April). Conceivably then, the imaginations of these children were shaped in large part by the stories told by these adult migrants, stories of home (Isaacs 1976: 32). Migrant parents were 1 Interestingly, politics was not discussed in the home. more isolated than their children from Few of my interviewees‘ parents remained mainstream Anglo-Australian society due to interested in what was happening in Greece the language barrier and their concentrated politically. Ultimately this is reaffirmed in my employment within the manufacturing sector. interviewees‘ recollections: homeland is not a Their shared stories of longing—compounded nation state; it remains a mythic landscape framed by childhood nostalgia. For further discussion on by their alienation from and confused this theme see Kennedy and Roudometof (2002) conception of mainstream Anglo-Australian and their exploration of the ‗delocalisation‘ of society—inevitably presented crystallised, and communities and transnational collectivities. 51 On going back, all eleven interviewees visited of behaviour in a country in which they the villages in which they were born. Few, thought they would find a sense of belonging. however, were able to retrospectively attach Barbara, otherwise vague and reluctant with much emotion to returning to their physical her recollections, remembers one incident childhood landscapes outside of its connection vividly. She and her husband Tom went out to to rekindling ties with relatives left behind; dinner one night at a Greek taverna on an this reunion was significant for many. island village. Barbara insists that without Generally, after this reunion, my interviewees saying a word of English, the waiter ‗caught would tour Greece, concentrating on ‗touristy‘ them out‘ as Australians. She reasons that sites. Athens was a must, as were the islands going out to dinner at six o‘clock had exposed (typically Thassos, Santorini, and Mykonos). them as Greeks in Greece rarely start dinner so These popular sites form the international or early. Barbara recalls ‗[i]t felt a bit strange. tourists‘ image of Greece. Here, in the second Being in your own country, and [being] called part of their trip, my interviewees were seeing Australians‘ (2010 pers. comm., 8 April). Ari Greece through tourists‘ eyes. In many Papadopoulos confronted a similar situation, instances, they unconsciously positioned which he is also able to recall in great detail. themselves as tourists. Helen Strangos Like Barbara and Tom, he made efforts to hide implicitly makes this link. After listing the his ‗foreignness‘. When asked by a taxi driver sites she visited in Greece, she continues to where he was from, Ari answered with the recount her excitement at the prospect of name of his village. The taxi driver asked showing Australia to her Greek cousins. again. Ari eventually conceded with However, many rejected the label of tourist, Melbourne, and the taxi driver was satisfied. perhaps due to its implication of a complete Ari now reasons that it was the act of putting cultural alienation from Greece. The label thus his seat-belt on that exposed him as a confounded them, and denied them the chance foreigner, as ‗Greeks didn‘t wear seatbelts‘ to explore the reasons for their overwhelming (2010 pers. comm., 1 February). sense of ‗strangeness‘, which was ultimately a reflection on the role of homeland in their past The realisation that one was being ‗exposed‘ conceptualisation of self. as an Australian and the evident conflict between different codes of behaviour left an Strange/Strangers impression. The experiences that required them to renegotiate long-harboured memories Making sense of their experience of going of homeland are particularly vivid. Barbara back often transformed into musings on being and Tom‘s recollections are indicative of this. a stranger or feeling strange. This can be They had made a pact with each other not to linked to the various disparities and conflicts speak English and to try to ‗blend in.‘ As such, between narratives of the mythic homeland they joined a Greek tour group and admit to and the confronted reality. On one (simple) taking great delight in ‗fooling‘ their fellow level—the reality of physical space—the travellers into believing they were from ‗their individual was confronted with the strangeness parts‘ of Greece. Their ultimate failure to of distorted perspective: the village seemed blend in confers a tone of regret and confusion strangely small to many. This reorientation of over an otherwise happy time. childhood and adult perspectives of space was felt keenly by Helen Koryfas in particular. As a contrast, Peter Koryfas‘ nonchalance is Helen‘s sister Anna mentioned that her village interesting. Peter states: ‗they could pick it that was not as ‗pretty‘ as she remembered; her I was from outside [but] I didn‘t care. I conflated childhood narrative of homeland enjoyed my holiday and that‘s it‘ (2010 pers. (more concrete and tangible than her younger comm., 10 April). Similarly, his wife Helen sister Helen‘s) was similarly undermined. On found it amusing. Being picked out as another (simple) level, my interviewees— Australians because of their accents was accustomed to a modern, sprawling city like ‗funny.‘ Their amusement forms another Melbourne—were struck by the geographical version of strangeness. They too confronted isolation and seemingly backward-looking something they were not expecting, but conventions and morals of their birth villages reacted differently to the Katsimbas‘. (Donkin 1983). Some found the village lifestyle, as a contrast to urban living, relaxing Chris Toutoglou spent some time recounting and refreshing. Others, particularly women, his sense of strangeness, which ultimately found it frustrating, even reproachable. In any revolved around his search for an all- case, all found the possibility of a return to this encompassing and definite label, an type of rural existence inconceivable as a long- unambiguous label he is seemingly still term reality. searching for. He remembers feeling comfortable in his village, which he translates Many interviewees, such as Barbara and Tom as ‗feeling Greek.‘ However, he later Katsimbas, were confronted with alien codes comments that ‗you sort of felt a bit funny‘ about being called an ‗Aussie.‘ This emotion 52 was ultimately connected with his sense of self Faye‘s social network rarely extended beyond back home in Melbourne, rather than Greece. the office and her work colleagues. They, like What he finds ‗funny‘ is that in Melbourne he her, were also expatriates, kseni to the Greeks, was ‗a Greek or a wog, not an Aussie.‘ The which literally translates to ‗stranger.‘ Faye issue was not that he felt strange or concludes that she never felt ‗Greek-Greek‘ in uncomfortable about being labelled an Aussie Greece; during her time there, she felt herself in his ancestral homeland. Significantly, he to be ‗Greek-Australian.‘ confesses that he had ‗no issues‘ with being called an Aussie by Greeks. It was his lack of Aussieness in Australia that was the issue and COMING BACK that caused him so much contention. Indeed, his recollections focus at length on clarifying this issue. His return trip ignited his desire to Turning points understand his hybridity, his status as a ‗wog‘, a confusing and specifically Australian version The act of going back incurs a re-evaluation of of Greekness. the narrative of homeland. It was for many of my interviewees something that had Homesickness accompanied them from the moment of their displacement and has been negotiated, The word ‗homesickness‘ was not used retranslated, and elaborated through personal explicitly by any interviewee. However, their and collective discourses throughout their frequent references to their respective development into adulthood. Melbourne communities when describing their activities in Greece might easily be Some explicitly identified the experience as a encapsulated by this term. This was especially turning point. Barbara, who always thought so for two of my interviewees: Sophia she belonged in Greece, changed her opinions Toutoglou and Faye Merkouris, who returned upon her return. She has not been back since. to Greece for an extended stay. Sophia, who Throughout her youth there was always the lived in Greece for two years, remembers how expectation that she would return; unlike Peter she felt in public places in Athens: and Helen Koryfas, the possibility was never firmly repudiated. Feeling like a stranger in I always knew that I‘d be a total Greece confirmed that she had lost a home. stranger in a strange land. You‘d go to places or parties or even restaurants I Anna similarly saw her first trip back as a knew there was no chance I‘d see turning point, and was able to articulate it as anyone like a family friend or a cousin. such. However, her sense of loss is tempered I felt a sense of sadness... I just felt I with a note of surprise: particularly in regards was on my own (2010 pers. comm., 11 to her fondness for Australia. After her first April). trip she concludes that Greece became a holiday destination, and without the weight of Her return trip to Greece was a test; a personal expectation she is able to enjoy her time there. experiment in finding belonging. She does not She has been back three times since. divulge whether she returned with the intention of staying; instead she tells me she Pride and Place ‗always knew‘ she would be a stranger. It seems two years was not enough to eradicate However, Anna is eager to qualify: ‗but I will her feelings of alienation and her longing for a always be Greek‘ (2010 pers. comm., 10 familiar face, for the feeling of community she April). All my interviewees adamantly left behind. Ultimately, her mythic homeland asserted pride in ‗being Greek‘, despite their was not matched by the reality. Sophia confused efforts to offer definitions. What is remained a ‗stranger‘ until her return to clear is that their sense of ethnic pride is Melbourne and the community networks disconnected from an attachment to place. As (family friends and cousins) she had migrants, a sense of the ‗fragility of place‘ established in and around Oakleigh. She still (Nguyen 2009: 142) is not in itself a pressing lives there. issue. For my interviewees, belonging is mobile in that it depends on community, not Faye Merkouris‘ extended time in Athens was on place. Greece has become a place to visit, similar. Like Sophia, she too married a man never to live. Arthur Strangos makes this born and raised solely in Greece. Taking her clear: marriage as a universal experience among Greek women of her generation, Sophia I still consider myself Greek... I think: I described it as ‗a desire to attach yourself to was born in Greece, my parents are something Greek‘ (2010 pers. comm., 11 both Greek. I still see myself as Greek. April). Interestingly, however, in Greece, A piece of paper doesn‘t change it. I 53 mean, I love Australia and I wouldn‘t guidance, and Andrea Simpson for her live anywhere else. I couldn‘t go back encouragement. to Greece and live... I‘m comfortable with what we‘ve got here. But I still References don‘t consider myself anything else than Greek (2010 pers. comm., 31 Allimonos, C 2001, ‗The Greeks of January). Melbourne,‘ in J Jupp (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopaedia of the Nation, its In regards to his Greekness, Chris is less People and their Origins, Cambridge definite, and while proud of his ‗heritage and University Press, Melbourne. roots‘ he attempts to define his identity as
‗twenty percent Greek and eighty per cent Amanatides, D 1987, ‗Return,‘ in G Kanarakis Australian‘(2010 pers. comm., 11 April). (ed.), Greek Voices in Australia: a tradition Helen Strangos and Helen Koryfas see it more of prose, poetry and drama, Australian as a give-and-take; they believe they are able National University Press, Sydney. to take ‗the best of both worlds‘ (2010 pers. comm., 31 January & 10 April). None of these Castan, C 1986, Conflicts of Love, Phoenix statements should be taken at face-value or as Publications, Brisbane. all-encompassing conclusions about the ethnicity of these individuals. Our articulation DeStoop, D F 1996, The Greeks of Melbourne, of identity is often inconsistent. Feelings of Transnational Publishing Company Pty belonging can change according to the Limited, Melbourne. situation or mood of the individual. Yet despite variations, all interviewees no longer Donkin, N 1983, The Greek-Australian reserve any sentimentality for the landscapes Experience: Stranger and Friend, Dove of their homeland, and this is significant. Pride Communications, Melbourne. and place are kept separate. One can be Greek outside the homeland—all are adamant that General Studies Department Swinburne this is so. Indeed, a few go towards claiming a College of Technology 1973, Greek Families separate Greek-Australian identity. in Hawthorn and Clifton Hill, General
Studies Department Swinburne College of Melbourne, then, becomes the physical Technology, Melbourne. home—or, if not Melbourne, then the communities in which they have built and Gogas, L 1994, ‗Homeland, you are wounding maintained connections. Those who settled in me‘, in H Nickas and K Dounis (eds), Re- the Oakleigh area have remained there. Those telling the Tale, Owl Publishing, Melbourne. who, like a great deal of Greek post-war migrants, originally settled in the inner-city Isaacs, E 1976, Greek Children in Sydney, suburbs of Richmond, Fitzroy, South Australian National University Press, Melbourne or Port Melbourne have moved to Canberra. other areas and have re-established or maintained their Greek community networks. Kennedy, P and V Roudometof (eds) 2002, It is often an important part of their cultural Communities across Borders: New existence in Melbourne, offering them the immigrations and transnational cultures, familiarity and comfort that the country of Routledge, London. their birth unexpectedly seemed to deny. King, N 2000, Memory, Narrative, Identity: The ancestral homeland still exists for the Remembering the Self, Edinburgh University interviewees, holding symbolic significance as Press, Edinburgh. a narrative of a lost past, but it is not a place they need to retrieve. It is no longer a place of Liakkos, J 1994, ‗The Immigrants‘, in H belonging. Nickas and K Dounis (eds), Re-telling the Tale, Owl Publishing, Melbourne. Acknowledgements Logus, H 1987, ‗Memories,‘ in G Kanarakis I would like to thank my interviewees: Anna (ed.), Greek Voices in Australia: a tradition Sfitskis, Ari Papadopoulos, Arthur Strangos, of prose, poetry and drama, Australian Barabara Katsimbas, Chris Toutoglou, Faye National University Press, Sydney. Merkouris, Helen Koryfas, Helen Strangos, Peter Koryfas, Sophia Toutoglou, and Tom Loukakis, A 2006, The Memory of Tides, Katsimbas. They often surprised me with their HarperCollins, Sydney. openness, and I am grateful to them for sharing their personal pasts. I would also like Nguyen, N H C 2009, Memory is Another to thank my supervisor, Professor Peter Country: Women of the Vietnamese Spearritt, for his assistance and intuitive Diaspora, Praeger, Santa Babara. 54 Papellinas, G (ed.) 1991, Homeland, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Victorian Ethnic Affairs Commission 1988, ‗Greeks in Victoria: Policies, Directions, and Initiatives,‘ in A Kapardis and AM Tamis (eds), Afstraliotes Hellenes: Greeks in Australia, River Seine Press, Melbourne.
Interviews
Katsimbas, Barbara 2010, Lalor, 8 April.
Katsimbas, Tom 2010, Lalor, 8 April.
Koryfas, Peter 2010, Mulgrave, 10 April.
Koryfas, Helen 2010, Mulgrave, 10 April.
Merkouris, Faye 2010, Clayton South, 12 April.
Papadopoulos, Aritsides 2010, Elsternwick, 1 February.
Sfitskis, Anna 2010, Mulgrave, 10 April.
Strangos, Arthur 2010, Camberwell, 31 January.
Strangos, Helen 2010, Camberwell, 31 January.
Toutoglou, Chris 2010, Oakleigh, 11 April.
Toutoglou, Sophia 2010, Oakleigh, 11 April.
55 Proactive communication management beats hostile media exposure: training for multi-cultural community leaders in living with mass media.
Lee Duffield & Shilpa Bannerjee Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, 4000, Australia. Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, 4101, Australia.
Corresponding author: Lee Duffield ([email protected])
Abstract informed about mass media organisations and practitioners, and their practices; informed of Proactive communication management instead of their own options as spokespersons, and mortification in the glare of hostile media attention practiced in ways whereby they might work became the theme of a four-day training program effectively with media. It took the approach for multicultural community leaders. The program that the spokespersons would profit from in Brisbane from December 2009 through to obtaining an insider view, with the training February 2010 was conducted under the auspices of sessions conducted by Journalism academics a Community Media Link grant program shared by Griffith University and the Queensland Ethnic and engaging practitioners as resource Communities Council, together with Journalism persons. The project was designed with academics from the Queensland University of reference to literature on relations between Technology. Twenty-eight participants from 23 ethnic or multicultural communities and mass organisations took part, with a team of nine media. This identified both friction between facilitators from the host organisations, and guest ethnic leaders and media, and options for presenters from the news media. This paper reviews achieving good communications through use the process, taking into account: its objectives, to of media. empower participants by showing how Australian media operate and introducing participants to journalists; pedagogical thrust, where overview The training was in four, four-hour sessions, talks, accompanied by role play seminars with guest weeks apart, devised to take participants presenters from the media, were combined with through a short journey: from obtaining and practice in interviews and writing for media; and testing understandings of mass media, through outcomes, assessed on the basis of participants‘ to role-play and other practical exercises responses. The research methodology is qualitative, permitting a forensic review of certain issues in that the study is based on discussions to review in the news (and how and why they might be the planning and experience of sessions, as well as managed, respectively, by journalists and by anonymous, informal feed-back questionnaires community leaders); and then on to practice in distributed to the participants. The findings indicate positive outcomes for participants from this ―doing media‖. The latter would entail, for approach to protection of persons unversed in living example, recording interviews and writing for in the Australian ―mediatised‖ environment. Most news outlets; with replays, reflection and affirmed that the ―production side‖ perspective of review. The instructional model was the exercise had informed and motivated them conventional, using small-group discussions, effectively, such that henceforth they would venture drawing on the resources and far more into media management, in their knowledgeableness of the participants. community leadership roles. As an opportunity for research, the process Keywords was studied on an observational basis and Ethnic communities, media, training records made at each session. The problem for
research was to assess the state of relations between mass media and the multicultural INTRODUCTION leaders, and their mutual proficiency in producing fruitful media content; and the This article reports on a media training potential for developing those relations. A program for spokespersons from multicultural research question was devised: in the case of organisations in South-east Queensland. The the multicultural community representatives objective of the training was to empower the seen in Brisbane, did their media competence participants, such that they might be well and understanding advance through training,
such that their relations with mass media multicultural communities and mass media. would develop towards more satisfactory The first is that mainstream mass media production of media content, from the (commercial and national broadcasting; and viewpoint of both parties? For definitions: the daily press) fail to provide adequate Content embraced all news products and other representation of communities or service to media products on public affairs topics. The them. The second is that being able to quality or fruitfulness of content was firstly participate more in media making would help definable in terms of orthodox news values, to meet many of their needs, (and may provide e.g. was the relationship producing fresh valuable personal stimulus and uplift too many content for media audiences that was new, individual community members). A third interesting, important and informative? assumption or observation is that members of Further, a test could be applied as to whether these communities are locked out from communication between community leaders as participation in many aspects of ‗mainstream‘, informants, and journalists as seekers after general community life, with poor access to information, was effective enough to provide a mass media being one of these aspects. A flow of information that met the needs and fourth, however, is that avenues are open to interests of the two parties. individuals and groups to change this situation, in a process of empowerment, with again a The methodology for this inquiry was media dimension - finding ways to qualitative and interpretative, in that recorded successfully participate in mass media is observations, and commentary on the course possible. of training provided by the participants would be evaluated in light of the values outlined The theme of dissatisfaction with the breadth above. Methods of inquiry were: To consult and quality of mass media is common in existing research literature for information on media research. For instance Meadows et al. the context of relations among multicultural or (2009:36) cite Downing and Husband (2005) ethnic communities and mass media. A further identifying ‗continuing failures on the part of method of inquiry was to make participant mainstream media, globally, to fulfil their observations, on their responses to the learning potential to inform, enlighten, question, stimuli and messages provided to them, and to imagine and explain ...‘ Part of that problem is question whether these responses indicated seen as expanding commericalisation hence change towards more effective and productive increasing treatment of citizens as consumers media making. Feed-back provided by leads media services to address large and participants was reviewed in the form of homogenous demographic groups, leaving out questionnaires, being a standard questionnaire minorities. Meadows et al refer to a 2004 on course experience, filled out virtually by all Foundation for Development report endorsing participants each time; and also an extended the work of local broadcasting services which questionnaire filled out by a small number of were helping to make up for a perceived participants. The was to probe their deficiency by ‗getting close to the creators of background attitudes towards dealing with culture ... Citizens who feel they are being mass media, and seek more elaborated listened to are likely to participate with more explanations on any change that may have vigour and enthusiasm in society than those occurred. who have been treated primarily as a consumer …‘ (Meadows et al. 2009:38-39). In the outcome, respondents overwhelmingly assessed the training as valuable to them in An example was given of indigenous their community work, both in providing new community broadcasting, providing audiences and often unexpected information about mass with a primary level of service across many media, and in invoking some change in their areas – social cohesion, maintenance of outlook and behaviour. The responses of the language and cultures, boosting self-esteem, participants showed an informed awareness of education, or providing a source of news and the teaching and learning plan that was in use, information (Meadows et al. 2009:98). In the and assent towards it. They said that overall, same discussion Ien Ang speaks of exclusion progress had been made towards getting more as part of ‗everyday awareness‘: ‗For example media content published, and towards, in the as a foreigner you are constantly prevented process meeting the interests and needs of all from having a sense of belonging … it has a parties. lot to do with the indifference of the dominant culture … [members of which] have the LITERATURE AND privilege of not having to question their own ethnicity, identities and cultural specificities‘ BACKGROUND TO THE (1999:101). TRAINING PROJECT A treatment of difficulties experienced by Certain common assumptions and multicultural communities with the new media observations surround the question of of digitised mass communications in all forms, 57 by Jakubowicz (2003:207), offers a useful audiences and producers (Meadows et al. definition: 2009:132, 38). It was found that the social isolation being countered by such ―Multicultural‖ can be taken to refer to involvements was strongest, as expected, a statement about demographic among refugee communities (Meadows et al. differences among groups, based on 2009:146). some idea of culture distinctiveness (national history, country or region of The above observations and arguments are origin, shared family history, language, usual for a discussion of communities and religion, cultural practices, etc.). Yet to mass media. The leadership of ethnic and speak of a multicultural world is to take other minority organisations will commonly a further step, to require an equivalence declare they must contend with an outsider of the respect for different cultures as a status and work towards empowerment. political ideal. This may entail an Representation in the mass media is an aspect implicit challenge to hierarchies […]. of the outsider status, for instance with displays of lack of knowledge on the part of That statement draws attention to the key point journalists and others in mass media, or very that groups will often be very diverse, but harrowing, hostile treatment of problem issues, share a prime identity. It draws attention also like ‗ethnic‘ crime or illegal immigration. One to the question of respect, which arises in all key option for empowerment is in the field of countries where rights are protected under law local or community media, as mentioned and democratic practice, whereby all have a previously. Another option is to seek to wholly legitimate claim to the means of full influence change in the larger mainstream participation in public life. media systems towards more inclusiveness.
Jakubowicz sets out to demonstrate how the To take this a little further; it should be noted general situation is problematic for that throughout the above discussion a theme ‗multicultural‘ participants, by exploring such emerges of communities taking action, freely developments as the entry of global associating, and forming alliances to assert corporations into new media, looking to cultural identities and advance their interests, standardise products for bulk markets, leaving such as working through political lobbying. out minorities; or the hegemony of English Often the situation is framed in terms of language in writing of software (2003:217). victim-hood and domination, but the argument that has been traversed here does not lend Inequality of access to cyber media is itself to a simple paradigm of victim and confirmed in the results of several dominator groups in society. The situation is investigations: US Dept of Commerce reports, dynamic with much effective action going on in harmony with other studies, in 1999 found to continue changing it. For example it is that African American households were shown in the work done by Meadows et al. starkly lacking in new technology resources that the community broadcasting movement is compared with other groups. A contemporary successful, attracting very substantial and survey of 54,000 Australian media users loyal audiences which aver that the services indicated that Internet access figures could be meet many of their needs. Notions of usefully differentiated along ethnic grounds, victimhood are thereby weakened through this with highest usage among groups born in the ability to act, assert the right to make changes, United States and Canada, the lowest among and achieve successes in that. those born in Italy and Greece (Jakubowicz 2003:218-9). Secondly, in mass media dealings with publics, there is a well-known concept of the The argument drawn from these facts was active audience. Even ostensibly passive concerned with ‗pyramids of power reinforced choice can be construed as action, in many by cultural hierarchies‘ (Jakubowicz ways. For example watching television may 2003:206), and in response groups at lower not relate to advertising (against which sales- points in the power structure may be seen pitching viewers might or might not have their empowering themselves through media use. own psychological defences), but to studying Meadows et al. (2009:118) report on a large local vernacular language, as a life skill in a field study of users of indigenous and new country. Understanding of media use as multicultural broadcasting, which found the social action is taken further in the work of broadcasting experience was ‗improving the Renckstorf and others (1996, 2001). emotional and social wellbeing of many ethnic community group members‘ – an outcome, The concerns of multicultural community and precondition of full engagement in the life leaders and spokespersons are well articulated of society. A particular strength of the local in declarations of principles and purpose, for community media services reported on in that instance by one of the sponsoring bodies of study was the blurring of distinctions between this training project, the Ethnic Communities 58 Council of Queensland (ECCQ). However, as in hand was to provide education and training is commonly found with advocacy on behalf that would enable spokespersons to of communities‘ interests, mass communicate effectively with and through the communication issues, and mass media are not mass media. a central concern. For example the declaration of the 2009 Multicultural Summit hosted by CONCEPTUALISATION AND the ECCQ (ECCQ 2009) set out 10 values and CONDUCT OF THE TRAINING principles, stressing the entitlement of persons to equal rights, freedom, toleration and EXERCISE participation in the life of society. There were statements pressing for recognition of such The media training project for community principles in government programs and spokespersons arose from a perception policies. Possible applications to mass media, (consistent with the findings reported in the though, were only indirect. literature, above), that while the array of organisations in the multicultural field had A set of objectives under the same declaration definite strengths in political lobbying, welfare again emphasises government services, and community building, they could profit specifically listing housing, health care, access from an application of expertise in mass to transport, interpreter services, education communication through media. The project including teaching of English. It included just launched by the ECCQ and Griffith University three, though certainly well-targeted, express under a Community Media Link Queensland references to mass media. grant included a scheme for introducing working journalists to multicultural concepts, One of those number 23, supported and multicultural leaders. It adopted into that, provision of ―accurate information to a proposal from Journalism educators at the media and government and to combat Queensland University of Technology (QUT) misinformation provided to the to also prepare community spokespersons for community…‖, and urged the dealing with the media. encouragement of media with a multicultural focus such as SBS and Consequently a set of resources was ethnic broadcasting (ECCQ 2009). assembled suitable for running a pilot training scheme: namely, experienced journalists and The leaders‘ manual published by the ECCQ media academics; the membership rolls, policy (ECCQ, undated:69-70), similarly indicates maps, good will and administrative resources acute concern with mass media, seeing it as a of the ECCQ; and access to media facilities problem area, and deals with it briefly and notably the QUT radio studios and computer defensively: laboratories, and those of the multicultural broadcaster 4EB-FM associated with that Using the media can be a double-edged university. This base of knowledge would also sword – it can be good to promote your include, of course, advanced cultural and project or activities but it can also social knowledge on the part of prospective backfire and bring bad publicity. course participants from the multicultural community organisations. Nine staff members You should therefore think very and advanced-level students from the host carefully before you approach or speak organisations acted as facilitators, with five to the media. visiting resource persons from media Here are some hints for using the industries. media: Planning for the course was done through Local media are usually ‗friendlier‘ meetings of the Advisory Committee under the than mainstream […] Community Media Link grant. It opted for half-day week-end programs suitable for a If you are approached by the media, clientele of busy people, with four sessions make sure you ask them exactly what normally spaced at least a fortnight apart, to the story is about […]. If you are not cover the projected volume of teaching. comfortable […] it is quite alright to Taking into account the holiday period the say ―no‖. You should also say ―no‖ if classes were set for Saturdays 14 and you think they are unsympathetic […]. 28.11.09, and 6 and 13.2.10. Invitations to participate were sent out through the mailing lists of the ECCQ. Doubtlessly due to experience with negative publicity, mass media is seen as peripheral but The curriculum was designed as a two-level dangerous. However there are also many process, entailing: (i) An introduction to the precedents for success with media in mass media (its composition, business conveying community messages, and the task orientations and general prerogatives in a free 59 society; the professional outlook and mentality misadventures of some of their community of media workers, and their operating members. ‗Real-life‘ aids were also used, such procedures); in short, to show media are like as a guide to depositing complaints about mass and how they can be dealt with. (ii) Media media coverage with relevant regulatory or practice, with the learners bearing in mind the professional agencies (ACMA, Press Council, messages obtained from the introduction to MEAA – Australian Journalists‘ Association); mass media, such that participants would also the Social Media Change organisation‘s practice making telephone calls to media guide, ‗Achieving Media Coverage …‘, offices, prepare media releases, reports or viewed 22nd October 2010, speeches, make reports for own-media (e.g.
A longer questionnaire was sent to participants Accurate, considerate, creative (+2 additional after the end of the program inviting them to mentions), entertaining (+2), hard-working elaborate on comments made in the initial (+1), highly-skilled (+1), intelligent, feed-back documents. Only eight were interesting, reasonable, well-expressed returned, but provided sufficient commentary to be useful as a supplement. Arrogant (+ 3), biased (+2), cynical, dull, inflammatory (+1), ignorant, ill-conceived, The first section of the questionnaire asked the intrusive (+1), lazy, provocative (+1), respondents about the extent of their prior sensationalist (+1), silly, stupid, unfair, contacts with mass media, and their view of untrustworthy (+1), untruthful, the treatment of ethnic and multicultural issues, generally, in the news media. One had While drawing on only eight respondents the never previously been in contact with mass outcome of this exercise suggests that such a media; the rest had sometimes had contact; no test with a large group might produce a respondent had often had contact. Of the seven definite indicator of attitudes or at least who had made contact, one had found the opinion. In this case, the overall response is experience very rewarding; the rest rewarding tending towards a negative bias. Ten positive enough; none said disappointing or terrible. As words were chosen and 16 positive indications for the respondents‘ view of the treatment of in total (four words being mentioned by more ethnic / multicultural groups and issues in both than one respondent). On the pejorative side, news coverage, and general sections of the 16 words were chosen, with 26 pejorative mass media; five considered this treatment to indications overall. Three of the respondents 62 chose only pejorative words, two others chose as peripheral to the ‗real‘ affairs of life – like positive words but for one pejorative word in jobs, housing, health, legal protection or their list, and the remainder gave a more education – or forming part of the centre; the balanced selection. They all chose only responses received would indicate it was being between four and ten words each. moved more towards centre stage, in the view of those taking part. With practice in use of The outcome of this test is consistent with the media, the idea of mass media as part of the assumption that community spokespersons, as social cement of communication becomes a background attitude, are discontented with more persuasive. mass media, and it therefore highlights an obstacle to achieving working relationships These contributors can be seen as a group with journalists. wanting to tackle the reality of victim-hood in the experience of mass media by multicultural These respondents, when questioned on the communities, through developing an informed impacts on them of the training in media assertiveness on their own part as community relations, said they could adjust such negative leaders; through learning rules of the media feelings. Six responded that they had learned game. At the same time, such action on their new things which changed their opinion in an part, based on knowledge, to change relations important way; two chose the less affirmative among media and publics, might contribute to statement that they had learned some things the ‗implicit challenge to hierarchies‘ which might influence a change of opinion; identified in the literature review (Jacubowicz, none took the option of saying they had not 2003). learned anything particularly new affecting outlook, or had learned nothing and would not The approach to teaching and learning was be changing their mind. Similarly, six agreed endorsed, beginning with an introduction to with the statement: ‗I am much better mass media, seen as both media organisations equipped to deal with mass media as part of and media practitioners, and moving into skills my work for my community organisation‘ training for doing media. It included (2010, pers. comm.). Two took the more engagement of practitioners in the training, as reserved option: ‗I have learned something informants and leaders; and conducting classes which should help with my work […]‘ (2010, mostly as interactive small group sessions or pers. comm.). None averred that they had workshops, able to draw on existing learned very little, or that they had come away knowledge and resourcefulness of the with a more negative feeling than before about practitioners themselves. The review of this their ability to deal with mass media. The media training program for community usefulness of this limited set of reports, to the spokespersons has led to an assertion that researchers, is that it signals the possibility, multicultural interests may develop effective that through acquiring knowledge of mass access to use of mainstream media, especially media and training in media relations, where leaders in the field study these media spokespersons may be equipped to suspend or and have preparation for becoming engaged. It side-step obstructive, negative impressions of has demonstrated by reference to participants‘ mass media which they have. feedback from an intensive course in media management, that representatives of DISCUSSION OF THE community organisations will develop a strong RESPONSES AND CONCLUSION disposition to take action, in using media. The same persons will agree that relations between mass media and the multicultural community The respondent group, if not all professionals are fraught with difficulties, over in the multicultural sector, presented as an able misunderstandings, journalists‘ lack of leadership cadre prepared to work proactively knowledge, and often enough to take advantage of opportunities with mass disingenuousness on the part of journalists media. The phenomenon of dissatisfaction looking for a contentious story. (In a final with media obstructs efforts of community discussion to review the training course, it was organisations to engage with journalists, and a proposed, with some consensus of support, significant amount of this background that the participants might act as mentors or dissatisfaction was evident in the responses. At tutors in a future project, where journalists in the same time the participants overall their turn would be the learners, to find out indicated little animosity in regard to their own about perspectives of the multicultural direct experience with media, and were communities). interested to learn from practitioners. Most members of this group judged that the training In a few cases in discussions within the was directly applicable to actual work they training exercise, individuals, out of planned to do with news media; it had in fact exasperation would raise the idea of having provoked most to want to proceed with such strong guidelines or strengthened regulation of work. As for whether mass media is to be seen media, to prevent unfair reporting being done 63 with impunity. More pronouncedly though, the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland participants took a managerial approach, (ECCQ) 2009. ECCQ‟s Multicultural seeing media management in terms of problem Summit ‟09 - Declaration, Brisbane. solving. They appreciated and identified with the course coordinators‘ choice of method, to Jakubowicz, A 2003, ‗Ethnic Diversity, work through a series of hypothesised problem ―Race‖, and the Cultural Political Economy situations. of Cyberspace‘, in H Jenkins & D Thorburn (eds.), B Seawell (assoc. ed.), Democracy A key question remains: will this approach and New Media, MIT Press, Cambridge, work? While the training program did include Mass. treatments of the anatomy of issues in the news, to better understand the reportage that Meadows M, Forde S, & Foxwell K 2009, went on, participants had to take it on trust Developing Dialogues: Indigenous and from the facilitators that informed media Ethnic Community Broadcasting in management would bring results; that Australia, Intellect, Bristol. problems, and certain ‗problem‘ people they encountered in media organisations, would not Renckstorf, K & Webster F 2001, ‗The prove intractable. The participants said they ―Media Use as Social Action‖ Approach: had obtained for the first time, essential Theory, Methodology, and Research knowledge about media systems, and would Evidence So Far‘, Communication, set out to apply it. Mass media concerns had 28(4):389-419. moved from the periphery of mind and experience, to being seen as more central to Renckstorf K, McQuail D & Jakowski N (eds.) the work people were doing. They accepted 1996, Media Use as Social Action: A advice to develop, and build expertise using European Approach to Audience Studies, ‗own‘ media, which is to say their own online Academia Research Monograph 15, John services, and extend their engagements with Libby, London. local and community media – seen from the literature as a zone of high-impact Appendix communication for communities. Choices for the ‗word test‘. In regard to mainstream media it can be argued that a ‗production side‘ training ‗Would you mark whichever of these words approach has generated awareness and pointed would describe what you think of the mass the way to action, except that outcomes cannot media and mass media products, such as the be assumed. Whether change is to occur in daily news? You might circle none at all, some media treatment of multicultural issues as a of them, or all of them. result of the training exercise will depend to a large extent on the application of the Accurate, Arrogant, Attractive, Biased, individual spokespersons, working by trial and Bigoted, Boorish, Boring, Conscientious, error. The experience of this course may have Considerate, Creative, Cynical, Discreet, Dull, demonstrated practical options for Entertaining, Fair-minded, Generous, Good- multicultural communities to begin work humoured, Greedy, Hard-working, Highly- towards an actually transformed situation. This skilled, Incompetent, Inflammatory, Ill- may contribute to strategic change, from an conceived, Ignorant, Insightful, Intelligent, enforced passivity often in the face of Interesting, Intrusive, Kind, Lazy, Loud- mortifying treatment in mass media, to mouthed, Mean, Nasty, Offensive, Pleasant, effective intervention as principals and rights- Polite, Practical, Provocative, Responsible, holders in public debate. Reasonable, Right, Sensationalist, Sensitive, Silly, Stupid, Talented, Tiresome, Tolerant, References Unfair, Unintelligible, Untrustworthy, Untruthful, Well-expressed, Well-informed, Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland Wise, Wrong.‘ (ECCQ), An Easy-to-Use Working Manual for Committee Members of Ethnic th Community Associations, viewed 29 June 2009,
64 Behind the ‘Big Man’: Uncovering hidden migrant networks within Scandinavian-Australian sources
Mark Emmerson ([email protected]) University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia.
Abstract possible, one issue continues to blur the lense of history – that of the ‗Big Men.‘ In most This paper is a reflective piece discussing several available source material, the preponderance issues that have arisen during historical research of key individuals in the historical record has regarding Scandinavian migration to Australia. The led to an exaggeration of their exploits and, in paper discusses some of the issues that historical turn, their assumed heightened significance to sources have thrown up while researching community building processes amongst other Scandinavian Diasporic communities, namely the Scandinavian migrants. Many of these way in which networks of belonging and positivistic accounts fail to interact with other community have remained hidden behind sources controlled and produced by elite members of elements of the community, especially women, migrant groups and the figureheads of Scandinavian who have been left out of much of the history Australia – the ‗Big Men‘.1 of Scandinavia Australia. As Miriam Dixson has writtenabout the male dominated state of The ‗Big Men‘ phenomena and associated problems the period and later histories of Australia, of source bias and record incompleteness are when it comes to creating community or examined, to point out reasons for a past historical national heroes ‗Australian gods were and are focus that has been built upon exaggerated and largely misogynistic‘ (Dixson 1994:12). contributionary material and, as such, fails to give Source material, especially early historic proper credit to other community members that were often involved in the creation of stronger and accounts by migrant authors such as Jens lasting social networks than these figureheads Lyng, are steeped in a male-centric world view themselves. In particular, the role of Scandinavian where the few larger than life characters women and their networks will be examined to remain the centre of the average Scandinavian- point out alternatives to previous positivistic Australian‘s vision, and this has been passed approaches to the impact of Scandinavians in onto modern readers. However, such sources Australia. The paper argues that for a more and past histories are still useful, and this complete understanding of those involved in the paper argues that the real challenge is in re- creation of ethnic migrant communities, scholars reading sources in order to reveal information must view all historical material in a way that focuses on not only the ‗Big Men‘ that are fixed in that was hidden - or of no interest - to the the foreground of the sources, but those figures and original author. In this way, can a more groups that have until now remained in the complete and inclusive picture of late peripheral vision, unexamined and uncelebrated. 19thCentury Scandinavian-Australian communities be realised, by looking in the Keywords shadow of the ‗Big Men‘. Australia, Big Men, Community building, Migration, Networks, Scandinavia, Sources, This paper derives from an historical enquiry Women into Scandinavian migration to Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the purpose of which is to ascertain the extent and A BLURRED IMAGE OF THE significance of community building and ethnic PAST identity construction within a white minority population under the growing umbrella of In order to construct as full and accurate Australian nationalism. This study is picture of the Scandinavian-Australian particularly interested in how Scandinavians community at the turn of the 20th Century as is attempted to establish both national and transnational identities within a migrant context, at a time when political and cultural 1 The term ‗Big Men‘ is used here to categorise a change in both the originating and host nations group of successful and influential metropolitan were affecting how these people viewed migrants who, due to their high status within the themselves, what they took to be important Scandinavian migrant community, have historically identifying markers of their ethnicity – such as overshadowed the contributions of others, such as women‘s groups and rural or more communal the re-invention of the Fugleskydning (bird associations.
shoot),2 – and how they related to others Cairns, consular officials, ships captains, as during the period. The physical and imagined well as countless other members of rural networks that linked migrants into a larger Scandinavian migrant families. It even ethnic community are also important in tracing contained an original watercolour by and understanding the need for Scandinavians Scandinavian artist Edward Friström, who was to still group upon past cultural and largely based in Brisbane at the time. While the national similarities despite limited numbers, information within was largely anecdotes and vast distances and an assumed ease of bad jokes, as a whole this book appeared to be assimilation. The study hopes that the findings a representative depiction of the web of will be important for research of other networking and social relations to which minority groups during a period marked by the certain Scandinavian migrants were privy. move away from cosmopolitanism towards a homogenous Australia, both racially white and Its pages traced the journey of a young girl and culturally Anglo-Celtic Australian. However, the migrants and officials she met with; how for this study to be a success, it is important to she kept in contact with others in a physical uncover more about those actually involved in migrant network. It was also one of the first the creation of networks and fostering ethnic sources that had shown the small scale links activities. While this was sometimes carried between migrant communities – notes by other out by ‗Big Men‘ such as church leaders, the young girls with Scandinavian surnames, in hidden networks of those tributary characters – areas such as Warwick, Kingaroy, Coolabunia, those behind the scenes working tirelessly to and Mt Morgan all showing the lower levels of promote community ties – can also yield migrant networking, and was clearly impressive results and flesh out differentiated from the more usual information understandings of Scandinavian needs for surrounding the elite metropolitan belonging, identity and cultural camaraderie Scandinavians. It was unclear why a young while living in a new land. In order to do this, girl would be meeting with Scandinavian we must escape the ‗Big Men‘ focus and look consular officials in Sydney, or prominent for others intent on this worthwhile goal. pastoral figures on the Darling Downs, until her identity became clear. Marie Ries, the An example of the frustrating inability to daughter of Hans Madsen Ries of Dannevirke escape these figureheads occurred several New Zealand, Mayor, businessman, months ago while conducting archival work in pastoralist, Lutheran Priest and possibly the Brisbane. The majority of material most influential Dane in early 20th century surrounding the Scandinavian community had Australasia. After hunting for a unique source followed a pattern related to middle-aged, of cultural networks by someone other than an affluent Scandinavian men and their exploits elite Scandinavian, the ‗Big Men‘ stumbling in an Australian business or social block remained. environment. This was unsurprising, but presented a biassed portrayal of the The thesis‘ research has primarily examined community and it was difficult to see whether the cultural records of the few Scandinavians groups had contact with one another regularly. who left a discernible footprint in the Australian historical landscape. Beginning This perception was radically altered by the with an analysis of the Scandinavian foreign discovery a dilapidated book labelled language press Norden which operated from ‗Autographs‘ in a pile of Scandinavian 1897-1945, Church paper Kirketidende from ephemera. It initially appeared to be nothing about 1896-1900, as well as later sources such more than a young girl‘s collection of people as the Scandinavian Courier of the 1970s, a that she had ran into from about 1905-1911 as strong picture of a vibrant yet small she voyaged around Australia. Most of the Scandinavian community at the turn of the 20th diary was in English, but there was a century can be created. This view has been smattering of Danish and Swedish within the strengthened through the various small pages, and it became clear that this girl periodicals linked to clubs and church groups, (clearly a Dane or second-generation migrant) such as the Danish Church‘s The Messenger of was meeting with and had collected the the 1930s-1960s, and the newsletters and signatures of most of the recognisably records of long lived clubs such as important Scandinavians of the time, not to Melbourne‘s Dannebrog and Brisbane‘s mention the mayors of Sydney, Bundaberg and Heimdall. In May 2010 a research trip to archival centres in Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide also found much new material to 2 The Fugleskydning or birdshoot is a Danish complement this in the form of more traditional shooting sport that became a very newspaper articles, family records, migrant popular social sport amongst Scandinavian clubs in diaries, memoirs, and photograph albums. Australia. Competitors take turns to shoot at a Throughout these records, particularly the wooden bird on a long pole, and dismember it shot by shot. The competitor to hit the last piece, the voluminous photo collections, were images of breastplate, becomes Fuglekong (birdking). small Scandinavian groups scattered in rural 66 areas, united behind national flags, and then have retained a ‗Big Men‘ approach to the others portraying vibrant and energetic study of important migrants. The same names metropolitan groups such as the men‘s clubs of were present in almost every source, the same Brisbane and Melbourne. These images hint at few people with their hands on the jugular of the extent and importance of migrant the Scandinavian community. Viewed by networking and a sense of imagined themselves, it would be easy to think that the community that was felt by both groups of entire community was built upon the backs of migrants, and the interrelations between the less than 20 ‗Big Men‘, rather than the some rural and metropolitan. 16000 that identified as Scandinavians in the 1901 census (Jupp & York 1995:10, 25). The records indicate that the Scandinavian community was an extensive network of There are several reasons for this ‗Big Men smaller family groups operating throughout focus‘ in the records and later histories, and it Australia mainly in a rural setting, but linked is easy to be drawn to the exploits of the few by elite metropolitan centres with the ability to Scandinavians who indeed seem to have produce specifically Scandinavian ethnic accomplished so much during their lifetimes. material such as Norden and to use religious Firstly, it is important to understand that of the and social congregations to communicate and full Scandinavian community of the late foster feelings of similar cultural heritage and nineteenth century, records only exist the idea of an extended immigrant family over concerning a handful of them, and these, to be vast distances. However, the trail of expected, are the elite members whose records information upon these smaller rural have survived in metropolitan centres. Only communities, or the majority of figures in the small number of successful members of the group photographs, is largely unattainable. community are ever discussed in detail in Instead, the sources continually focus upon the written surviving records, even newspapers set few ‗Big Men‘ figures of the migrant up to survey and communicate across the community. Even the community press, with entire Scandinavian-Australian readership, and articles and information concerning the for the majority of the rural migrant majority of this population, is swamped with communities nothing bar the photographs or stories promoting these figures. autographs gathered by travelling elites exist to illuminate the majority of the Scandinavian Norden for example, continually focuses its community. Some of these men, too, did attention upon the ‗Big Men‘. The front page deserve this pedestal, for the sheer number of story is often dedicated to the contributions of achievements and qualifications that some of notable Scandinavian men to the development these migrants managed to accomplish is of Australia – establishing, in a way, a pride in amazing. Several careers, long hours and a lot success and validating their move to the new of hard work meant that many did amazing land through ‗Big Men‘. Full page spreads of things and continually reappear in the record the successes of people such as goldminer for this reason alone, such as Danish Consul, Claus Grönn, or photographer, business chemist, dentist, sugar scientist and teacher entrepreneur and Brisbane‘s Danish Consul Jakob Christensen and blacksmith, engineer, Poul Poulsen, continually call for attention and and long serving Pastor PC Ligaard, not to hide more subtle links to the larger mention the achievements of Hans Madsen Scandinavian community that is scattered Ries. through women‘s pages, correspondence, or club news (see Norden 22 December 1900: 1; It is also important to note the purpose of the Norden 16 October 1909:1). foreign language press, and while it is the greatest source for demonstrating the full This is one issue that plagues past histories of nature of the community through the Scandinavians in Australiasia, and in the correspondence and interaction, can be primary source material the notable focus misleading in its agenda of celebration and upon exaggerated accounts of a few leading exaggeration. Norden and its editor Jens figures is clouding perceptions of the full Sorensen Lyng, for example, was a main community. The few secondary sources proponent in writing an exaggerated history of available, such as the work of Olavi Scandinavians to further hopes for migration Koivukangas and John Martin, have mostly from Europe and allow a greater chance of been produced as part of celebratory programs ethnic communities to develop, such as his around the bicentennial in 1988, and as such own failed Scandinavian settlement in have motives strongly influenced by the need Kinglake, Victoria. His early histories, which to put forward a positivistic and were written simultaneously with the contributionary history of minority ethnic newspaper, show the need to promote groups (See Koivukangas 1974; Koivukangas Scandinavian contributions for his own & Martin 1986; Beijbom & Martin 1988). As success, as a larger community meant a larger they too have been built largely upon sources readership and an increase in subscriptions for such as Norden, it is clear to see how they not only his paper but his literary endeavours 67 (See Lyng 1927; Lyng 1933). His news itself with the men‘s social clubs – as she writes, follows a ‗Big Men‘ ideal, as its main purpose ‗the time is ripe for the realisation of some was to inform the community of the scheme for bringing the ladies together pioneering exploits of the few successful men unhampered by the presence of the other sex‘ and pushed a message of success and hope in (Norden 7 August 1909: 13). Notes of thanks the Scandinavian-Australian community. for aid from new migrant women appear, and the variedness of women‘s surnames suggests For the historian, this creates a problem, and a more thorough integration and relationship diverts attention away from other contributors with women from outside the Scandinavian to community building practices. Instead of community than before. Similarly, in the pages focussing upon these figures who have of Norden and even the later Scandinavian dominated the front pages of the news and Courier, the most community orientated pages been written about so completely, we need to are most often the cooking pages, where look behind their exploits and find other recipes are exchanged regardless of nationality migrants that were investing in community (Norden 12 December 1910:10; Scandinavian building enterprises and often doing much Courier March 1979:7). It is these areas, like more for inclusive group building and the the English page introduced by Claussen, that maintenance of Scandinavian ethnicity. Within echo the strongest sentiments of inclusive the records, there are often hints to the larger community building and promote a much community, one made viable through the more hybrid migrant environment than networking efforts of the people around the proposed by elitist and inward looking ‗Big ‗Big Men‘. There were also many other Men‘ such as Jens Lyng. Eventually, the people, often women who supported and pressure of running the paper proved too much facilitated these networks however. and Olga resigned in 1911, but by this time her mark had been left on the paper. Olga Claussen, for example, is one such person in the background contributing much to Similarly, other notable Scandinavians relied the continuation and improvement of imagined on the help of others around them and their communities though her role as second editor contributions must be noted. Even ‗Big Men‘ of Norden. Under Jens Lyng, Norden followed such as Pastor Ligaard, who supposedly single a strongly contributionary history for the first handedly was the Danish Church in 7 or 8 years, where he steered the paper from Queensland between 1925-1961 (Koivukangas strength to strength promoting a united & Martin 1986: 143) also had much help in Scandinavian community in Australia through promoting the Danish church through the aid columns focussing on important of his five daughters, who wrote and prepared Scandinavians, events, and associations much of his newsletter The Messenger, and designed to create a strong Scandinavian without such help would not have been able to readership. However, in 1906 Lyng moved to reach so many of his congregations across his community in Kinglake and left the paper Queensland. in the hands of an unlikely heir – a young, unmarried Danish woman by the name of Olga An analysis of these other circles of Claussen, (Norden 1 April 1911:1) who was community building demonstrates another assisted by her family in carrying on Lyng‘s interesting idea for further study. It is the work (Koivukangas & Martin 1986:137). women‘s role in the sources that seem to show stronger connection to Australian society as a Olga was instrumental in changing the paper whole, rather than the elitist men who are from a propaganda-driven vehicle into a focussed on nationalist concerns in their community noticeboard, taking some of the walled-in clubs, or the spiritual salvation of edge off the elitist and metropolitan focus of fellow countrymen. Men, through these Lyng‘s previous period. It is during Olga‘s records, seem to live in an impervious bubble reign that the first ‗Big Woman‘ is promoted of Scandinavianism, intent on remaining through a page concerning concert singer separate from a growing dominance of Madam Agnes Jansen (Norden 7 July 1906: ‗Australianism‘. Women, on the other hand, 3), and by 1909 Clausen had introduced an show a greater regard for the connections in English page to include the families of the here and now, and a ‗bottom-up‘ style of Scandinavians who through marriage were migrant community building is prevalent here. unable to read the majority of the paper There are also many sources detailing the role (Norden 21 August 1909: 13). Recipes begin of women and families in rural centres who to appear, written by other women were important in holding onto or recreating contributors, and the paper shows signs of a ethnic tradition, such as the preparation of more laid back and more welcoming tone. A social events and fundraisers. Ethnic identity strong sense of women‘s networking also and national pride was further promoted by becomes apparent, and in 1907 women such as women‘s groups through later events such as Madam Waerne were using the paper to the Swedish Evening in Melbourne in 1937, organise women‘s events and groups on par and the King Haakon Norwegian Relief 68 Pageant of 1940. The ways in which women‘s figures who dominate the records for the social groups contributed to this sense of identity has networks that really allowed those who been overlooked due to the focus upon idolised the ‗Big Men‘ to feel as if they were a successful ‗Big Men‘, but it must be made part of the community. The hints and traces of clear that such group activities were often migrant networking currently being located in more vital for the promotion of an inclusive this study have shown that the least celebrated migrant community than the individual of these people may have actually been the achievements of the few role models afforded greatest proponents of inclusivity and given by the ‗Big Men‘ epithet. This distinction the most to the encouragement of new between male and female, should not suggest a members of the community – migrant or universal phenomenon – certainly, many otherwise. Through a focus upon such hidden sources are heavily biassed towards groups and activities, the image of positivistic historical importance and the point Scandinavian communities and networks of of this paper has been to argue for some sort of identity can become sharper and more detailed balance. In order to reach an equilibrium in as more people‘s smaller contributions to the understanding the true significance and extent group begin to balance the great successes of of Scandinavian ethnicisation and community the few. building in Australia, we must deflate some of these big figures and instead promote those References that have remained hidden yet were still just as valuable in promoting migrant community. Beijbom, U & Martin, JS 1988, Vikings in the South.Volume 1, Colonial Australia, 1788- Thus, Marie Ries and her diary can be 1900: The Swedes in Australia, River perceived as even more important than their Seine Press, Carlton. ‗Big Men‘ links. Although relying on her father to enable her to connect with the Dixson, M 1994, The Real Matilda: Woman community on such a scale, she is far more and Identity in Australia 1788 to the influential than her father in plotting the extent Present, 3rd edn, Penguin, Ringwood. of these migrant networks. Much like Jens Lyng, Marie acts as a contemporary historian, Jupp, J & York, B (eds) 1995, Birthplaces of chronicling in however little detail, the the Australian People: Colonial & important relationships she as a member of the Commonwealth Censuses, 1828-1991, Scandinavian-Australian community had Australian National University, during the period. She is vital in showing the Canberra. connections that women, and second generation Scandinavians, were making within Koivukangas, O 1974, Scandinavian the Pacific landscape. Similarly, the groups of Immigration and Settlement in Australia women and men who formed organisations before World War II, Institute for away from the elite men‘s clubs did much for Migration, Turku. the creation of ethnic tradition and the continuation of their heritage, and these too Koivukangas, O, & Martin, JS 1986, The require study on a level with their ‗Big Men‘ Scandinavians in Australia, AE Press, counterparts. Melbourne.
The ‗Big Men‘ phenomenon is certainly an Lyng, J 1927, Non-Britishers in Australia; issue in the historical study of migrant Influence on Population and Progress, communities in which limited sources survive Macmillan, Melbourne. to give a full picture of not only elite migrant society, but the entire range of community Lyng, J 1939, The Scandinavians in Australia, involvement. To see the ties between migrants, New Zealand and the Western Pacific, their communities, and the society in which Melbourne University Press, Melbourne. they lived, it is important to look behind these
69 Migrants Between Worlds: Inclusion, Identity and Australian Intercountry Adoption
Richard Gehrmann ([email protected]) University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia.
Abstract from Vietnam to South Korea, and from China to Ethiopia. There are multiple dimensions to When migrant issues of identity, citizenship and intercountry adoption research, but the marginalization are considered, research has dominant perspectives represent it as part of traditionally focused on those who have arrived as the adoption realm rather than as a form of adults or as complete family groups. While there migration, and intercountry adoptees are not has been considerable research on child migration usually represented as an immigrant to Australia, intercountry adoption remains a small yet significant area of research. However, past community in their own right. Intercountry adoption research has usually considered adoptees are undeniably adoptees as the intercountry adoptees through the paradigm of conventional discourse claims, but their adoptees facing challenges of identity and family multiple identities need to be acknowledged. integration, rather than as migrants in their own They must be examined from a migrant- right. As migrants, intercountry adoptees usually centric framework and as a migrant consist of children from non-European, non-English community, and studies of migrants in speaking backgrounds living with English speaking Australia should be inclusive of intercountry European Australian families. This provides such adoptees. Intercountry adoptees are child migrants with both advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, they are raised as part of the migrants, rather than just being adoptees with dominant cultural group and share this privileged different physical characteristics to be status and identity, having access to cultural capital observed through an adoption centric and social benefits that derive from membership of paradigm. Once they are re-presented as this group. On the negative side, they have the migrants, new opportunities for exciting physical attributes of the outsiders/others, can be hybrid identities become apparent. perceived by those who do not know them as outsiders/others, and often have limited opportunity The intercountry adoption community is to share in their birth culture. Repositioning characterised by their small numbers, and their intercountry adoptees as migrants rather than adoptees provides new opportunities to address the division into discrete national based groups. In challenges faced by them, their families and their 2009 it is probable that intercountry adoptees Australian host society. in Australia numbered around 8,200 individuals, most aged under 40. The numbers entering Australia in any given year fluctuate, Keywords with arrivals over the past decade usually being in the high 300s, and with 349 arriving Ethnicity, hybrid identity, inter-country in Australia in 2008-2009 (AICAN 2010).1 adoption, migrant community, multicultural, Although this is a small community within the social and cultural capital, white privilege. Australian population, the community itself
becomes considerably larger when the total
number of adoptees, their adoptive families2 MIGRANTS BETWEEN both nuclear and extended, and their partners WORLDS: INCLUSION, and children are included. When debating IDENTITY AND AUSTRALIAN INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION 1 Unless otherwise stated, statistics are taken from The research on migrant issues of identity, the Australian intercountry adoption network database
whether intercountry adoptees can be The end of the White Australia policy and the legitimately seen as a community in their own relaxing of racist community attitudes created right, it might be argued that their primary the conditions to allow non European definition is one of national based groups such migration, and thus changed the demographic as Australian-Chinese adoptees, Australian- composition of Australia. However, it needs to Filipino adoptees or Australian-Taiwanese be acknowledged that these changes also adoptees. They may have such identities, yet contributed to the acceptance of the concept of they also have multiple identities and are non-European intercountry adoption. The identified as an intercountry adoptee increase in non-European intercountry community by government departments. All adoption to Australia is usually associated this indicates that despite their small numbers primarily with the decline in local adoptions there is a case for intercountry adoptees to be but there is also a link between decline in recognised by researchers as a migrant racist attitudes and the liberalising of community in their own right. migration.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF Small numbers of Vietnamese war orphans INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION IN were adopted by Australian families in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and one highly AUSTRALIA publicised group arrived as the war reached its closing stages. Intercountry adoption was Internationally, the practice of intercountry limited before the 1980s, and statistically adoption began in the 1940s with the arrival of significant intercountry adoption to Australia post-war European orphans to the United began in 1979-80 when 66 children arrived States of America, and in the 1950s (Armstrong & Slaytor 2001:189). Intercountry intercountry adoption became transracial after adoption increased as local adoptions declined. 3 the Korean War. Although the Korean Several factors were responsible for the adoption program was initially focused on decline in local adoptions including more abandoned children of mixed Korean- progressive attitudes and support to women American parentage and on war orphans, the choosing to become single mothers, and the program soon focused on ethnic Korean increased availability of contraception and adoptees, and more than 100,000 children abortion (House of Representatives, Standing settled in the United States in the succeeding Committee on Family and Human Services sixty years. Intercountry adoption across 2005:1-4). ethnic and national boundaries developed beyond Korea, and the United States model of Intercountry adoption had stabilised to a rate intercountry adoption was to be followed by of slightly less than 400 per year by 2008,4 and western European states as fertility rates the majority of children coming to Australia declined in the 1970s. were not adopted to known relatives. The
In the immediate post-war period, intercountry adoption to Australia based on the United 4 The Australian intercountry adoption rate is States model was impossible because of the substantially lower than in comparable affluent racist White Australia Policy. This was an era western democracies. The sometimes problematic when both Labor and Liberal parties supported adoption system in the United States is publicised in the expulsion of temporary wartime arrivals of Australia, and references in Australian popular non-European descent, and community culture frequently emphasise adoptions by celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Madonna. attitudes were opposed to the migration of Celebrity adoption is atypical of any intercountry non-European or partly European children, adoption experience. In 2004 United States regardless of their parentage. This included the intercountry adoption reached its highest with small group of Australian-Japanese children 22,900 intercountry adoptions, a peak that declined living in southern Japan in the late 1950s. to 12,700 in 2009, and virtually none of these While there was sympathy regarding the poor involved celebrities. Another difference between living conditions of these children who had the Australian and United States experiences is the been fathered and abandoned by Australian strong domestic adoption culture of the United soldiers stationed in Japan during the States. Despite its high profile in Australia, United States intercountry adoption is relatively low in Occupation and the Korean War, the official proportion to population. Affluent democratic attitude was that it was inappropriate for them European states such as Sweden, Ireland, Spain, to settle in Australia (Elder 2007). Denmark, Italy and Norway have higher rates of intercountry adoption in proportion to their populations than the United States, with the United 3 The term transracial is frequently used to States falling between them and Australia. The distinguish between adoptees and adopters who current low rate of intercountry adoption within share the same cultural background and ethnic Australia can be explained by government policies, heritage, and those that do not. For a British account legacies of injustice and poor practices of the past. of the baby boomer and Generation Y experiences, For further information see Gehrmann (2005). see Gill and Jackson (1983). 71 overall numbers of intercountry adoptions in value it during the upbringing of their adoptive Australia is relatively stable, but rates are children. declining slightly as a proportion of the national population. Children have primarily SOCIAL AND CULTURAL come from non-European countries, and in the CAPITAL past decade the most significant countries of origin have been China, South Korea, Ethiopia, the Philippines, India, Thailand, When compared to other migrants, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Columbia. intercountry adoptees have access to a very high quantity of Australia-specific social and As migrants, intercountry adoptees are cultural capital because of their close affinity typically children from non-European, non- with the Australian culture of their adoptive English speaking backgrounds living with parents. Despite their origins in the developing English-speaking European-Australian world they inherit the social and cultural families. There are exceptions however, as capital that is comparable to, and in some some state jurisdictions place a high priority instances higher than that of relatively on would-be adoptive parents with links to the privileged migrants from Anglosphere country of origin. Countries of origin such as countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, the India and Sri Lanka follow a similar system United Kingdom and New Zealand. While placing the highest priority on the adoption of having a physical appearance that might lead children who can be placed with Australian the white Australian observer to see them as families who share the cultural origins of the an outsider from Asia or Africa, the child. In the 1960s and 1970s poor adoption intercountry adoptee has had the upbringing, practices resulted in negative consequences for education and affluence that gives them some adoptees. The poor practices included opportunity to select the identity of the insider low levels of cultural awareness by from middle Australia. prospective parents and limited pre-placement education by government departments. This Their culture is that of contemporary compounded the challenges for some multicultural Australia, an Australia that is intercountry adoptees who experienced increasingly influenced by globalising trends. difficulties based on having been adopted into Their own household cultures are multiracial, a predominantly Anglo-Australian world and this is significantly different from old- where a child with brown skin was a rarity, style mainstream Australian culture as and where the dominant cultural representation Australia, like Canada and the United States, of an Australian did not include them. has become increasingly multicultural since Armstrong and Slaytor (2001) record accounts the 1960s. While on the surface intercountry of such poor practice, and the cultural isolation adoption narrative often appears in the mass and the suffering that eventuated. As media as a story where the affluent whites intercountry adoption increased, adoption from the developed world adopt a brown poor practices were reformed to ensure far greater child, contemporary Western society is of cultural sensitivity and support for adoptees. course far more diverse than the above At the same time the predominantly Anglo- proposition suggests. To take a Canadian Australian society of the 1960s and 1970s was example, adoptive mother Jasmine Akbarali‘s also going fundamental changes. Pakistani-Finnish biological heritage, and her Japanese Italian French-Canadian aboriginal In contrast to adoption practice in previous and Jewish extended family linkages are not so eras, prospective adoptive parents now remarkable in a 21st-century adoption story. undergo extensive pre-adoption education, Such diversity would have been unusual in an testing and assessment before they can be adoption story of the 1950s (Akbarali 2008). considered for adoption. They are educated on Indeed, the ethnic diversity of Akbarali‘s own the significance of cultural awareness, and part family background makes the ethnicity of her of their assessment examines their knowledge Chinese-born daughters unexceptional. In an of their prospective child's birth culture. ever more diverse Australia, the proposition Prospective parents are assessed on their that culturally isolated white middle-class commitment to maintaining cultural links to adoptive parents might raise an intercountry their child‘s country of origin, and are adoptee in an Anglo Australian monocultural encouraged to join local intercountry adoption environment is increasingly implausible. support groups. While some adoptive parents might eventually reduce their commitment to Examination of the background of adopting maintaining cultural heritage and cultural families indicates that they are likely to links, many parents passionately embrace possess the liberal, socially progressive those aspects of their child‘s birth culture that educated middle class values that support they are able to access. It is impossible for multiculturalism. Intercountry adoption is a adoptive parents to replicate the upbringing of challenging process. The cost of adoption can the birth culture, but they can privilege and appear prohibitive, and in Australia the costs 72 of adoption vary. For example, fees for which can be an emotional link, and can also adoption from the Philippines are currently be something more tangible. In some instances US$3,500 while adoption fees for Taiwan are they communicate regularly via email and US$10,000. These costs exclude government telephone with members of their extended and legal administrative charges within birth family. For those intercountry adoption Australia, airfares, and hotel accommodation programs where older children are adopted to within the country of adoption. The Australia after the loss of their birth parents, it bureaucratic process of adoption itself can is more likely that there may be continued often discourage less affluent or less educated contact with extended family members. In the prospective parents who may feel they lack case of the intercountry adoption program to familiarity and skills to negotiate the arcane Ethiopia there has been some chain migration, and complex world of white-collar in the first instance with the adoption of other bureaucracy. Furthermore, authorities in the siblings through the intercountry adoption countries of origin often base their decision to program, and it is possible that further chain allow international adoption on education and migration of extended family members may class-based criteria, and on a commitment by occur in the future. It is a common the adopting parents to adhere to specified characteristic of migration that immigrants values, such as maintaining the host culture who are more affluent provide remittances to where possible. In some instances this class- support those less affluent members who based criteria mandates the possession of high remained behind in the country of origin. The levels of secondary education, trade skills or Ethiopian intercountry adoption program has university degrees and having a proven high resulted in well-established aid programs, income. Countries of origin want their children orphanage aid projects, business investment, to go to more affluent and culturally literate and a travel company, while individual families, which maximises the resources Australian families send remittances to support available to the child, thus increasing the their new extended Ethiopian family members, opportunity for the child to have all their needs and other members in their child's country of met. origin.
A comparison can be made between Intercountry adoptive families are also intercountry adoptees and other migrants who increasingly likely to have return visits or lack their extensive host community support reunions to their country of origin. Return networks. On the positive side, intercountry visits occur for a number of reasons that adoptees are raised as part of the dominant include the relative affluence of many cultural group and share this privileged status Australian adoptive families, as well as the and identity, having access to social and deeply embedded value that maintaining links cultural capital and the benefits that derive to the country of origin is a critical component from membership of this group. They have the of best practice in intercountry adoption. level of social and cultural capital comparable Indeed, in the United States an industry has to migrants from the Anglosphere, or middle developed based on return to the country of class non-white professionals. The non- birth for a visit to re-establish linkages and adopted children of other immigrants from develop a sense of place. Governments such as non-English-speaking backgrounds may of Korea actively promote ‗motherland‘ visits. course acquire such social and cultural capital, This is not a universal experience for all but it is harder for them to acquire this. To intercountry adoptees. Due to the punitive some extent intercountry adoptees also share nature of the One Child Policy, bureaucratic white privilege in defined institutional secrecy and the nature of Chinese values settings. This is strongest in communities such regarding secrecy in adoption, Chinese as schools, work place settings, and small intercountry adoptees are likely to experience residential communities where intercountry very different association with their birth adoptive parents have an established place. As country (Rojewski & Rojewski 2001). the ethnic composition of the Australian population alters, white privilege may well HYBRIDITY OF THE ADOPTION become less significant, but the assumption of COMMUNITY white privilege by technically non-white people presents some interesting avenues for further research. Through the intercountry adoption process, Australian parents and families of intercountry adoptees become members of a hybrid LINKS WITH THE COUNTRY OF adoption community, a community with a ORIGIN ‗transracial‘ focus. This intercountry adoption community conducts a wide range of activities There is an obvious attachment between designed to support the adoptive parents, their intercountry adoptees and their adoptive extended family, and their adopted children. families, and the child‘s country of origin, These activities can include language classes, 73 cooking and dance classes, intercountry The pain revealed by intercountry adoptees in adoption camps, playgroups, and gender the The Colour of Difference reaffirms the specific weekend activities. By developing need to support adoptees and make them such linkages and by taking part in these aware that they have the right to choose their activities new communities are formed. These own identity. Having multiple identities does communities might have an affinity with a not need to be problematic, but is something particular non-Australian country such as that can enrich and empower. Taiwan or Thailand, but even though these communities might engage in regular Generation Y and Generation Z intercountry interaction with the immigrant communities in adoptees in contemporary Australia are raised Australia who come from Taiwan or with a high sense of multicultural awareness, Thailand,5 they are not Taiwanese or Thai. The and an openness to multi-ethnic associations. children have developed a hybridised identity, This is developed through intercountry as children who are physically different from adoption support groups and the establishment their parents and are culturally different from of their identity as brown Australians, black other immigrants from their birth country. The Australians, or Asian Australians. This means Australian parents have become hybridised that they are not just Thai-Australians or and have adopted a new identity, that of being Chinese-Australians, but that they have an the parents of children who look different from identity that is associated with their physical them. For both sets of group members, there is appearance in a positive rather than a negative a highly developed interest in the culture of way. Some racist confrontations will the children‘s country or origin. To them this inevitably occur, but for an Australian host culture is both foreign and yet part of their society that has been subjected to the identity as Australians. globalising influences of Oprah Winfrey and the United Colours of Benetton While the parents and extended family of advertisements, an intercountry adoptee‘s intercountry adoptees have a high affinity with physical appearance is not the liability it once their child‘s country of origin, in the eyes of was. International authority figures of the last nationals of that culture intercountry adoptees decade such as Condolezza Rice, Kofi Annan are unlikely to ever bridge this gap and and Ban Ki-moon are just as likely to be become Korean or Columbian, Filipino or brown as white. In a world accustomed to Indian. However, for themselves intercountry accepting the legitimacy of the hybrid identity adoptees have become members of a hybrid of Tiger Woods as an advertising and sporting community by adoption, and have the options icon, the daily moralising authority of a of choosing their own situational ethnic televised Oprah Winfrey, and Beyonce or Ice identities. For example an Ethiopian adoptee Cube as idols in popular youth culture, can be Australian or an Ethiopian-Australian exciting new role models appear. These, and depending on their choice in a given situation. the ascent to superpower presidency by a Because of the increasing ethnic diversity of commodified Barack Obama,7 provide Australia an Ethiopian adoptee can also exponentially different role models of non- position themselves within a range of black white success when contrasted to those Australian or brown Australian identities, as available to intercountry adoptees who were an African or as somebody having affinities adopted in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. based on shared sense of identity that links them to indigenous Australians, Pacific The new group of hybridised intercountry Islanders, and African-Americans. These adoptees who are growing up as members of children can be whatever they choose to be.6
detail on other African Australians see Pybus (2005). 5 Close associations are often formed with national 7 Obama remains a contested figure, subject to immigrant communities to allow for the racial and religious slurs. Concerns regarding his development of linkages between adopted children representation of his ethnic heritage are not and the migrant adults and children from the confined to conservative white opponents. When country of origin. While this is not a problem free Barack Obama began his presidential campaign his process, it is desirable for adopted children to have identity as a biracial individual raised by a white birth country role models. mother and Indonesian step father, and by his white 6 Australian cases of individuals with African- grandparents in a nonracist environment became his American and European Australian biological defining characteristics. His Kenyan biological heritage who had been given or who had assumed heritage had contributed significantly to his an indigenous identity include Roberta Sykes and physical identity in a racially attuned United States, Mudrooroo. Both individuals experienced racism in yet his upbringing was far removed from that of a society that discriminated against brown or black black America. His claimed identity as black rather skinned indigenous peoples, and had been given an than African-American was controversially indigenous identity by others that may not have challenged by black commentator Debra Dickerson, matched their biological identity, but was an who argued that his lack of slave heritage excluded identity wholly appropriate to them. For further him from blackness. 74 Generation Y and Generation Z in 21st- the viewer‘s eyes focus on. However, they are century Australia are vastly different to their actually well-established migrants with native predecessors growing up in the 1970s and fluency in Australian English, and mannerisms 1980s. They are in Hohmi Bhabba's third and a sense of identity drawn from their space and are a transnational and hybrid immersion in mainstream Australian culture. group, who unlike their predecessors are well- For the intercountry adoptee, there can be positioned to shape their own identity in a daily challenges and questions. Culturally society that on a global and national basis is articulate and well meaning individuals can far more open and far more accepting of the intrusively question an adopted person about diversity that they embody. their country of birth which may be a place that they remember little or nothing of, or NEGATIVES FOR somewhere that they have little desire to relate INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTED to. The fascination with other cultures felt by a well-travelled culturally literate middle-class MIGRANTS Australian can result in socially insensitive rudeness when questioning of a small child While intercountry adoptees can enjoy the who finds the strange adults‘ interest in their hybrid identities identified by Gray (2009), the unremembered country of origin puzzling. process of intercountry adoption is not easy for all children who experience it, and different experiences can be felt by any one individual CONCLUSION at different stages of their own life. Many intercountry adoptees have significant feelings of grief and loss based on both loss of their The focus of intercountry adoption has long specific birth family culture, and of loss of a been on adoption at the expense of migration, wider ethnic/birth country culture.8 These as intercountry adoption researchers tried to feelings are often manifested in the stages of find the solutions to immediate problems adolescence. Local adoption focuses on the formed around an adoption triangle of adoptee, aspect of loss in relation to biological family birth family and adoptive family, rather than members and the birth family culture, while developing a perspective that addressed the intercountry adoption often focuses on the loss broader picture of the intercountry adoptee as of ethnic and birth country culture. These two a migrant member of the national society. areas of loss are significantly different, and Intercountry adoption was seen through the can be surprisingly complex. For example, prism of the adoption discourse – of unmarried ethnic or birth family culture might reflect the mothers unfairly compelled to surrender their national culture of a country such as Ethiopia, children, of members of a stolen generation, but it might also reflect a subnational culture and the associated grief and loss. All of these such as that of the Oromo people, Ethiopia‘s have their place at differing levels of most significant minority. Then again, an significance for different intercountry individual child might have a biological adoptees, but the focus of intercountry heritage that reflects a mixture of the ethnic adoption research must be broadened to groups that make up the Ethiopian population. include the migrant paradigm. So if that child wishes to identify with another culture from their country of origin, should The numbers of local adoptions have been they identify with Oromo culture or should declining consistently since the early 1970s, they identify with the majority Amharic and intercountry adoption has grown. Despite national culture? Should the child try and informal government restrictions, numbers are define themselves with the little or local likely to increase to levels consistent with traditions of village culture, or with the great other western democracies as childless or national traditions of the official culture? Australians seek to complete their families Which sort and which type of imagined through intercountry adoption. This community should they make their own? generational change in the composition of the adoption community as baby boomers age and There are many challenges facing intercountry memories of White Australia fade will allow adoptees on a daily basis. In the shopping mall the contemporary Generation Y and or on the street, non-European intercountry Generation Z intercountry adoption adoptees are potentially the Other, and might community to transition from their current appear to observers as outsiders and recent marginal position in the domestically focused migrants, due to the physical identifiers that adoption community. This will allow them to adopt a new sense of community as they reposition themselves as both migrants and 8 Many non-adopted migrants experience loss and adoptees. If this can occur, it offers the grief at different stages of life, but intercountry opportunity to locate more identity choices, adoptees lack the strong support networks of family and more security. who have migrated together.
75 References
Akbarali, J 2008, ‗This baby‘s going to fly‘, in Marshall, A & McDonald, M 2001, The many A Rauhala (ed), The lucky ones: Our sided triangle: Adoption in Australia, stories of adopting children from China, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne. ECW Press, Toronto. Pavao, J 2005, The family of adoption, Beacon Armstrong, S & Slaytor, P (eds) 2001, The Press, Boston. colour of difference: Journeys in transracial adoption, The Federation Press, Pybus, C 2006, Black founders: The unknown Sydney. story of Australia's first black settlers, University of New South Wales Press, Elder, C 2007, ‗Diggers‘ Waifs‘: Desire, Sydney. anxiety and immigration in Post-1945 Australia‘, Australian Historical Studies, Rauhala, A (ed) 2008, The lucky ones: Our 38(130):261 –78. stories of adopting children from China, ECW Press, Toronto. Gehrmann, R 2005, ‗Promoting a multi-racial Australia: Population policy and inter- Rojewski, J and Rojewski, J 2001, country adoption‘, The Australian Intercountry adoption from China: Quarterly, 77( 4):13-18. Examining cultural heritage and other post adoption issues, Bergin & Garvey, Gill, O and Jackson, B 1983, Adoption and London. race, St Martin‘s Press, London. Simon, R and Alstein, H 2002, Adoption race Goldsmith, J (ed) 2007, Adopting: Parents and identity from infant to young stories, Wakefield Press, Kent Town. adulthood, Transaction Publishers, Gray, KM 2009, „Bananas, bastards and London. victims”? Australian intercountry adoptees and cultural belonging, VDM Verlag, AICAN 2010, ‗International Adoption Statistics‘, Australian intercountry Saarbrucken. th adoption network, viewed 15 June 2010, House of Representatives, Standing
76 Framing a research project to explore the experiences of international staff in an Australian university
Sara Hammer, Gillian Colclough & Henk Huijser University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia. University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia. Bahrain Polytechnic, Isa Town, Kingdom of Bahrain
Corresponding author: Sara Hammer ([email protected])
Abstract been written about international academic staff, despite one notable recent exception Overlapping concepts of globalisation and (Saltmarsh & Swirski 2010) which will be internationalisation are now firmly interwoven into supported by one forthcoming (Maadad & the institutional fabric of universities, both here and Melkoumian 2010). abroad. Australian universities now enrol a significant number of international students and The aim of this paper is to establish the employ increasing numbers of international staff as academic teachers and researchers. Much has been parameters of a research project to investigate written about the experiences of international the experiences of international staff at the students, particularly as they relate to their University of Southern Queensland. Because transition and adaptation to universities in Australia. there appears to be little existing literature However, there is less corresponding research about about the experiences and needs of the experiences of international academic international staff outside of Saltmarsh and employees in Australian universities. This paper Swirski, and because (as the Bradley Report reviews existing and associated literature, including suggests) institutional desires to attract more research that explores the experience of overseas students mean that institutions need international students or transnational professionals. It uses this literature to establish the parameters of a to keep more overseas staff to meet the research project to examine the experience of expected shortfall in home-grown academics, international academic staff at the University of this paper will initially reference the work of Southern Queensland (USQ). Specific issues of Geert Hofstede. It will then proceed to a transnational identity, academic cultures, cultural discussion on related literature in the areas of literacy and a sense of belonging will be examined. management and business communication, the international student experience, the Keywords experience of international pre-service teachers, and any literature directly related to Academic cultures, cultural literacy, globalisation, the international staff experience. Those international academic staff, internationalisation, professional development programmes that sense of belonging, transnational identity exist for international staff within Australian universities focus on the development of language and communication skills. However, INTRODUCTION as the literature reviewed indicates, other key factors of any research framework for Australian universities operate more and more investigating the experience of international within a globalised context, with increasingly academic staff at the University of Southern international student cohorts, and a Queensland should include: the possible progressively more international staff profile. mismatch of expectations between This is a logical outcome of knowledge international, academic staff and those of their becoming a globalised commodity. In line Australian institution; barriers to professional with Castells‘ (1996) arguments about ‗the success and participation generated by cultural network society‘, universities are ‗naturally‘ and linguistic differences; a lack of knowledge institutions so they increasingly institutional support for new international compete for staff in a global context, rather academic staff; a devaluing of the than being confined to national borders. This contributions of international staff by their remains the case: but the competition has peers and their students; and a sense of become even more intense in the past fourteen exclusion rather than belonging. We argue that years. Whilst there has been a considerable answers to these questions should inform any amount of higher education research about the truly equitable professional development experiences of international students, little has programme for international, academic staff.
THE HIGHER EDUCATION implications for the sustainability of the CONTEXT international academic workforce (2010:299)
The Bradley Report (2008:24) on Higher The last line is particularly relevant. Studies Education found that ‗[I]n 2006, 40.5 per cent such as this and Maadad and Melkoumian‘s of Australian academic staff had a country of (2010) present research on experiences of birth other than Australia, compared with 25.7 international staff have taken place in the per cent of the total workforce and 23.9 per context of the aforementioned rising shortage cent of the total Australian population‘. Hugo of academic staff and predicted international (2008, in Bradley et al. 2008:22) noted that competition to employ talented professionals. ‗universities are among the highest users‘ of Such competition goes hand-in-hand with temporary business migration visas, which increasing competition in the overseas student allow recipients to work in Australia for up to market. While the numbers of students four years. This trend may well be exacerbated engaging in postgraduate studies is predicted by the existence of an increasingly ageing to continue to decline, the numbers of students workforce, with more staff aged 45 years or studying overseas is set to increase, placing older (Bradley et al. 2008): a trend that is the further pressure on institutions to attract and same for all OECD countries (Hugo, in retain good teachers (Access Economics, in Bradley et al. 2008). Bradley et al. 2008). Australian institutions will compete more for students: recent figures Within a global context where universities show that 44 per cent of Central Queensland may be competing for international staff there University‘s students, for example, are from have been calls for Australian universities to overseas (Bradley et al. 2008: 92). Overall, 15 prioritise improvement of academic working per cent of Australian university revenue conditions. Coates, Dobson, Edwards, comes from overseas students. Universities Friedman, Goedegebuure and Meek (2007: 30, must continue to attract and retain 31) argue that ‗radical change is needed in the international staff to teach increased numbers institutional climate within which academics of both international and domestic students. operate‘; at an Australian level, they claim, the However, the student experience at any level priority is not so much increased salaries but will be enhanced when all academic staff feel ‗more hands on deck‘ - there needs to be a professionally and personally rewarded by significant cultural change by institutional working in a context where they are supported employers. However, at this point in time it and respected by the institution, their peers, seems that there have been few institutional and by the students themselves. changes to accommodate the needs of international staff. In other words, there may be a ‗disconnect‘ between the recruitment of FRAMING THE PROJECT international staff and potential changes needed to create an environment that would The work of Geert Hofstede serves as an allow them to thrive. In the meantime, anchor point for our framework because it international staff employed by Australian emphasises the importance of both language institutions may be being denied the and culture for the success of the student- opportunity to function at their professional teacher relationship. This is a relationship that best, as equals among equals. lies at the heart of higher education, and at the heart of professional practice for academic Indeed, Saltmarsh and Swirski (2010: 295) staff. Hofstede (1986:303) argues that ‗as indicate significant institutional shortfalls in teacher/student interaction is such an meeting both the professional and personal archetypal human phenomenon, and so deeply needs of incoming international staff. In rooted in the culture of a society, cross- particular, Saltmarsh and Swirski were cultural learning situations are fundamentally motivated to conduct their study because there problematic for both parties‘. Based on his is: research, Hofstede (1986:307-308) proposed four dimensions of cultural variation (the 4 D insufficient empirical data about the Model): individualism/collectivism; power experiences of international academics distance; uncertainty avoidance; and to make effective comparisons across masculinity. cultural or linguistic groups, opening the way for further research that maps Individualism/collectivism refers to how much the specificities of transitional issues importance is given to the individual relative among and between groups on a much to the community in a given society. Power larger scale. Little is understood about distance defines the extent to which the impact of such transitions on individuals in a society accept inequalities of personal, family and professional lives power between individuals. This potentially and about their longer-term has very large implications for the student- 78 teacher relationship, as well as for wider participants, including a higher tolerance of relationships of international staff within the individual expression, a smaller power university context, many of which are based distance between employees and supervisors, a on certain assumptions about institutional more relaxed work ethic, and a more hierarchies of power. Uncertainty avoidance collaborative, participatory communication describes the extent to which individuals in a style between employees (Mak 1998:113). The society tolerate unstructured, unpredictable or value of intercultural communication for unclear situations. Again, this works employees is echoed in business education potentially on different levels. For example, literature (Arthur 2002; Bargiela-Chiappini & for ‗local‘ students, it may be expressed in the Nickerson 2003; Cheney 2001; Woods & form of avoidance of (or negative responses Barker 2003). However, with the exception of to) teachers with ‗foreign‘ accents, while for Mak the emphasis is on the needs of local or international staff it may result in avoidance of future local employees who are working everyday situations that are unfamiliar to overseas them, which may lead to isolation in a social sense. The masculine dimension (which infers This might explain why the focus in these its opposite, femininity) describes the extent of kinds of studies is explicitly on the functional the distinction between masculine and elements of cultural competence, with a direct feminine roles and characteristics within a and tangible measurable component of given culture. These dimensions were based increasing or decreasing business success. on Hofstede‘s (1986:306) research about These functional elements are also those that employees within one multinational business, lend themselves to discreet professional which had a presence in 40 different countries. development modules that will train local employees to manage their ‗deficiencies‘, In management literature, the work of including the potential for cultural Hofstede has been used to analyse insensitivity, whilst abroad. The specificity of interpersonal dynamics based on cultures the cultural competence model used here may within corporate teams (see Iles 1995; fall short of addressing the potential needs of Matveev & Milter 2004; Sriussadaporn 2006). academic migrants. However, it can also be Much of this literature focuses on the argued that cultural identity, cultural practices overlapping issues of communication and and, by extension, cross-cultural cultural competence and the potential for communication are much more complex. miscommunication and misunderstandings These complexities, combined with the issue between employees of different cultural of power, which arguably lies at the core of backgrounds to damage important cross-cultural communication (Foucault 1980), negotiations, block project outcomes and may require universities to go beyond a reduce productivity overall. Specifically, it competency model that places the focuses on the need for the professional responsibility for ‗fitting in‘ squarely at the development of business employees and feet of international staff members. managers to enable them to navigate the sometimes complex intercultural The cultural competency model has also been communication contexts they face as part of applied to the student context in higher routine work within increasingly education, both in Australia and elsewhere. internationalised corporations. Whilst the The first arena of application is that of focus on intercultural communication within business graduates. Within the Australian business literature has raised concerns about context, the need for intercultural skill the potential for negative stereotyping of some development for Australian business students cultures, most agree that some sensitivity to was established by the then Federal differences in culture and values, and the way Government‘s Karpin Report (Woods & these affect employee expectations and Barker 2003). The importance of intercultural practices, is valuable for employees working skills for business graduates is also echoed in overseas, or with international colleagues at American literature (see Cheney 2001). So home (Sriussadaporn 2006:331). great has been the emphasis on developing intercultural skills of business graduates, that One Australian study that focuses instead on ‗intercultural business communication‘ is now the experiences of migrants in Australian a distinct field of study within Business studies workplaces is that of Mak (1998). Mak‘s study (Bargiela-Chiappini & Nickerson 2003:3). focused on the experiences of Hong Kong Here, though, as with higher education Chinese migrant supervisors in the Australian literature generally, the focus is on students workplace. She notes that because of the rather than graduate employees of universities British influence many Hong Kong migrant themselves. employees speak fluent English and have British qualifications. However, Mak‘s Within Australian higher education, as in other findings suggested that there were various English speaking nations, student-focused workplace differences experienced by study literature has also focused on the experience of 79 visiting international students at Australian service teacher reflects here on the cultural universities. Despite the fact that Hofstede differences they observed: himself applied his 4 D model to both students and teachers, most higher education research In my country, students tend to be more to date has focussed on the effects of cultural disciplined: straight backs. They don‘t difference on international students‘ transition call out in class. The thing in China or to western universities, their expectations of even in Asia, teachers don‘t really what it is to be a good student, and what it consider about the students‘ opinions; means to engage in appropriate modes of they don‘t like to be challenged by learning (Hofstede 1986; Vandermensbrugghe students. You are the boss, basically. 2004; Ryan & Viete 2009; Owens 2008). The There is only one correct answer and linguistic ability of international students has the teacher has the correct answer, so also been a focus of some researchers, because we have to follow the teacher of the potentially negative effect that (Spooner-Lane et al. 2009:84). inadequate language skills have on their learning (Briguglio 2000). Other issues for pre-service teachers in these studies included the expectations of teacher In terms of examining some of the cultural and faculty supervisors, as reflected in this challenges faced by international students pre-service teachers‘ comment: Hofstede‘s individualist/collectivist and power distance dimensions have been more It‘s a language problem, a frequently applied (Owens 2008:74). communication problem, a connection Researchers have particularly focused on the problem [...] I think it comes from mismatch between expectations of students where I come from [...] I‘m really quiet from collectivist, high power distance cultures, [...] They read that as a lack of interest such as China or Taiwan and lecturers from or understanding [...] I was always individualist, lower power distance countries taught to respect teachers – not speak such as Australia (Watkins & Biggs 2001). For up (Pailliotet 1997:675). example, the attentive silence of the collectivist, high power distance student In each case, a combination of difficulties with signals respect in their home country but may language and mismatched expectations about be interpreted as disinterestedness or what it means to learn and to teach impacted disengagement by an Australian teacher negatively on pre-service teachers‘ (Owens 2008:74). This research also performance, and how they were rated by incorporates observations about the roles others for that performance (Cruickshank culture and tradition play in shaping how 2010; Pailliotet 1997; Spooner-Lane et al. students learn. One example is the now 2009). increasingly discredited claim that many Asian or Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) students There are two studies that have directly favour rote learning over higher order forms of addressed the general experiences of thinking, such as critical thinking (Green international, academic staff in Australian 2007; Owens 2008; Watkins & Biggs 2001; universities (Madaad & Melkoumian 2010; Kelly & Ha 1998). Within debates about the Saltmarsh & Swirski 2010). Saltmarsh and experiences of international students pressure Swirski explored the transitional experiences is applied to both students and Australian of twelve international academic staff at a academic staff to adapt their practice. Yet this regional university in New South Wales. To often occurs at the level of teaching practice this end, the authors conducted interviews with and the student-teacher relationship, rather international staff and documented their than at the institutional level. feelings about their experiences of confronting and adapting to Australian cultures, spoken One stream of higher education literature that and written language differences, different may more directly address some issues faced ways of teaching, and expectations of them as by international academic staff in English- fellow professionals. For example, the authors speaking universities focusses on the showed institutional induction failures, where experiences of international pre-service knowledge of computer systems was either teachers during their school placements assumed or not addressed, and induction did (Cruickshank 2010; Pailliotet 1997; Spooner- not encompass immigrant needs such as Lane, Tangen, & Campbell 2009). Issues for introducing them to Australian banking, pre-service teachers identified by such studies support systems and community networks include language difficulties, including (Saltmarsh & Swirsksi 2010:295). As with the choosing the right language to manage student experiences of student teachers above, these behaviour, accents, and the effect of cultural outside-work matters apparently were made differences on educational approaches more salient by the challenge of swift (Spooner-Lane et al. 2009:84). One pre- adjustment to new work systems as employers assumed some parallel knowledge: ‗I didn‘t 80 realise‘, one respondent remarked, ‗prior to highlights the dual literacy issues, highlighted coming here how different the higher by the literature reviewed so far, which they education system actually is‘ (Saltmarsh & have identified as barriers to their professional Swirsksi 2010:296). success. However, a sole focus on the development of these literacies may detract A second type of research directly related to attention from the skills and knowledge the experiences of international, academic international staff bring to their Australian professionals in the workplace is focussed on workplace, and from which their colleagues the effect of a lecturer‘s language on student and students could benefit. Such programs evaluation ratings (Ogier 2005). Ogier‘s may again place the onus of adaptation on the (2010:486) findings that English as Second lecturers, and may not reflect the way in which Language (ESL) teachers‘ lectures were rated staff in different faculties experience their lower by students indicates that some work. We need to measure the extent and international academic staff may require impacts of such issues across an institution, support to improve their communication skills. while at the same time identifying whether A preliminary survey of professional they are experienced differently according to development programmes in Australian academic rank and discipline, ethnicity, Universities designed for international, NESB religion, nationality and gender. Saltmarsh and staff shows the small number of existing Swirski‘s research (2010) was limited to a professional development programs that do survey of twelve individuals. An institution focus on language and communication. The with as many international staff as USQ offers University of Adelaide has developed a the opportunity for a wider survey that professional development program called encompasses more variables. ‗Spoken language strategies for staff from non-English speaking backgrounds‘. This The project will therefore investigate program is also available at other tertiary international, academic employee experiences institutions, and is also promoted by the of working at a regional university that University of South Australia to its staff. The employs a large number of international other available program we found was at the academic staff. A broad focus of the research University of New South Wales (UNSW): the will be whether there is any general ‗Workplace English Program‘. misalignment between the expectations of the University and its international staff. One While it is undoubtedly important, we would question directly related to the literature question an exclusive focus on developing reviewed here might examine potential academic language and language proficiency. barriers to the inclusion of international staff The literature reviewed for this paper indicates generated by particular linguistic and cultural a need for broader cultural competencies to differences. Another question might focus on ensure the professional success, if not the level and type of support provided to new inclusion, of international staff. Saltmarsh and international academic staff by the University. Swirski‘s (2010) findings would argue that the Additional questions that stem from identified focus on language is inadequate – yet it gaps in the literature reviewed here could remains important for academic staff to address whether international staff members develop levels of language proficiency that perceive that they are valued, both enable them to clearly communicate their professionally and socially and whether they ideas. Several websites maintained by students share a sense of belonging. at several universities in Australia and overseas show regular student complaints CONCLUSION about communication difficulties with lecturers who are not native speakers of the dominant language in the country in which Answers to research questions raised by the they work; postings emphasise that students literature reviewed here should inform future dislike barriers to learning over which they research and any language or cultural have little or no control. development activities aimed at building stronger professional profiles. Such programs International lecturers share student concerns. will undoubtedly aim to achieve the important Anecdotal feedback from international objective of minimising the potential negative teaching staff at USQ indicates that lecturers impact of cultural and language differences would rather students be able to focus on their among NESB staff, while maximising respect learning instead of deciphering the language for the necessary and diverse skills brought to itself. Because of their concern, international Australian universities by lecturers from non- lecturers of one faculty at USQ have requested English speaking backgrounds. In shifting the the help of specialised staff to develop a onus for cultural and linguistic skills program, which is designed to address what acquisition to the professional development they perceive to be their English language and activities of an institution, they should also cultural literacy shortcomings. This action relieve NESB staff of the pressure of being the 81 sole agents of their own change while Hofstede, G 1986, ‗Cultural differences in enhancing their feelings of being on an teaching and learning‘, International Journal equitable footing professionally, and thus able of Intercultural Relations, 10:301-320. to achieve their personal and professional Iles, P 1995, ‗Learning to work with goals in their new work settings. difference‘, Personnel Review, 24(6):44-60.
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83 Looking through the Gap in the Fence: A Discussion with Employers’ of Skilled Migrants
Michelle Harding ([email protected]) Queensland Government, Brisbane, Queensland, 4000, Australia.
Abstract contribute to the Australian economy (DIAC 2010) and provide long term benefits to the The Australian Government‘s skilled migration Australian economy and community. In program has been successful in attracting Australia, Canada and the United States, the significant numbers of skilled migrants to Australia. essential driver for migration policy has been New arrivals face a number of challenges when the perceived benefit to national economic settling into their new community. One of the most growth derived from high-level human significant issues is employment. This article, expertise to cope with labour shortages which is part of a larger report on settlement issues (Mclaughlan and Salt 2002). for skilled migrants, outlines the findings from discussion forums with Queensland employers‘ of skilled migrants. It investigates their recruitment, The Australian Government states that its induction and settlement practices. migration program emphasises skilled migration of people with qualifications and Many firms used multiple avenues to recruit skilled relevant work experience that helps to address migrants. However, the most common and widely specific skill shortages in Australia and implemented method was the use of external enhances the size and skill level of the recruitment agencies to find suitable overseas Australian labour force (DIAC 2009). These workers. Employers greatest concerns were finding two central themes are important as they imply workers with suitable skills and assessing migrants‘ skills. It was also found that most employers that the purpose behind the Australian skilled provided additional organisational induction migration program is to: processes for migrants, especially for those migrants from non-English speaking countries. The supplement the domestic labour force majority of employers offered settlement assistance where skilled vacancies cannot be met although the extent of this assistance varied widely through re-skilling, training and from employer to employer. The data collected education; and from the discussion forums is qualitative; statistical data was not captured. give employers access to specialist knowledge and skills that do not exist in Keywords Australia.
Employment, cultural awareness, induction, Winkelmann (2002) argues that the migration, recruitment, skilled migrants, skill relationship between domestic and migrant shortages, settlement. workers can be seen as either complementary, where migrants bring new skills and knowledge into the country, or substitutable, if INTRODUCTION migrants possess the same skills and knowledge as domestic workers. He goes on to The Skill Stream within the Australian state that complementary relationships benefit Government‘s migration program has been domestic workers through introduction of new successful in attracting significant numbers of skills, while substitutable relationships do not skilled migrants to Queensland. Skilled as they provide additional competition for jobs migrants make a major investment in to domestic workers. In times of skill relocating to Australia, while employers and shortages, skilled migration is more likely to governments also invest considerable provide substitutable labour than resources to attract skilled migrants.1 complementary. The Skilled Stream is intended to target migrants who have skills and abilities that will Employers benefit regardless of the relationship. In times of skill shortages, the employer may gain additional benefits from 1 The term employer in this article refers only to recruiting international workers, such as those employers participating in the discussion reduction in the upward pressure on wages forums and is not meant to be a generalisation to all (Winkelmann 2002) and a larger pool of Australian employers.
workers from which to choose; even though Employers‟ issues recruiting international workers is associated with additional costs and risks compared to The skill shortages that have been evident in recruiting from the domestic labour market. Australia in the past, and now starting to re- emerge, has meant that recruiting suitably In the labour market equation, workers skilled staff remains a constant issue for symbolise supply and employers represent the employers. Where the domestic labour market demand side. However, there is little research fails to supply the required workers, employers available on employers‘ experiences in are compelled to seek workers from recruiting and inducting international skilled- international markets. workers. This paper seeks to explore skilled International recruitment raised a number of migration from the perspective of the issues for employers including dissatisfaction employer and focuses on recruiting and with recruiting agencies, problems with induction practices, and settlement services assessing migrants‘ skills and experience and delivered by the employer. delays in visa processing. Other concerns for employers included language barriers, cultural practices, providing settlement services to RESEARCH METHOD skilled migrants and problems in communicating with Government departments. The information contained in this paper came from a series of discussion forums held with Recruitment employers of skilled migrants in: The process to attract, interview and employ a Ipswich (3 employers); skilled migrant is time consuming and more costly than finding a suitably-skilled, Caboolture (6 employers); Australian worker. Employers have to the Sunshine Coast (8 employers) compare the benefits of recruiting internationally with the perceived costs Gladstone (9 employers); and including: communication problems, Rockhampton (10 employers). uncertainty with qualifications and difficulties in obtaining visas (Winkelmann 2002). Invitations to the forums were sent out through Employers participating in the discussion Queensland Government regional offices and forums also spoke about the costs of using migrant community groups. Participants self recruiting agencies, international travel to selected their attendance and ranged from interview potential workers and the additional micro-businesses with one skilled migrant time for the skilled migrant to move to employee to very large companies with over Australia and start work. The recruitment and 1000 employees.2 employment of international skilled-workers is neither an easy or cheap alternative to
employing Australian workers. However, the The forums were led by an impartial facilitator long term skill shortages that occurred before who guided the participants through a number the Global Financial Crisis and which are now of open ended questions aimed at exploring starting to re-emerge, made the recruitment of recruiting, induction and settlement activities international skilled migrants necessary. and concerns for employers. Open discussion forums were chosen as they provide a large While there are many reasons for recruiting amount of data and enable participants to build international skilled-workers including upon the responses of other participants knowledge of languages, culture and (Stewart and Shamdasani 1990). The international markets, (Winkelmann 2002), information contained in this paper is based on discussion group participants were most the opinions of the participants in discussion concerned with filling vacancies left by forums and is therefore subjective.3 shortages of suitably skilled workers. For the Quantitative data was not collected and the employer, a vacancy within their organisation analysis is based on qualitative responses to equates to lower productivity, less money open questions.4 flowing through the company and smaller profit margins. Employers, who have responsibilities to employees and shareholders, 2 In this paper the term participant refers to do not have the luxury of taking a long time to employers of skilled migrants who took part in one fill vacancies or employing a person who is a of the series of discussion forums. 3 wrong fit for the organisation. Finding the The views expressed in this paper are those of the right person for the job was likened to finding participants. a needle in a haystack (discussion group 4 The research is based on qualitative open participant - Rockhampton). discussion groups and the organisations that participated were not asked to provide statistical data on their workforce. 85 The research found that employers used a matching the recruitment agency with the number of strategies to recruit international needs of the organisation, no doubt contributed workers: to the higher level of satisfaction with the services received and outcomes. Recruitment agencies located overseas and in Australia; Where employers require a specialist worker, they may use occupational specific magazines Advertising in newspapers and magazines and websites, that is, professional associations both overseas and in Australia; and peak bodies. Some occupational specific Online vacancy advertising; websites also act as quasi-recruitment sites allowing employers to advertise vacancies or Word-of-mouth and referrals using collecting potential employee resumes. The current migrant staff to recommend other use of occupational specific magazines and skilled migrants already in Australia; websites helps the employer scale down the In-house recruitment – in response to the search for a potential employee. For the dissatisfaction with external recruiting employer, using this avenue of recruiting is agencies, larger companies set up their likely to result in applicants who are more own in-house recruitment believing it was suitable to the organisation‘s vacancy. more effective than using an overseas In 2003, Deitch et al noted that direct forms of recruitment agency; discrimination were becoming less prevalent, but indirect and subtler forms of Specialist occupational recruiting through discrimination were becoming more common. occupational specific magazines and During discussion groups with skilled websites; migrants there was a general consensus that Poaching from other organisations; Australian employers preferred domestic workers to international workers even if the Cultural recruitment that is attempting to domestic worker was less skilled than the recruit workers from a single origin; and migrant. This was not in evidence during Tradeshows – employers found no value discussions with employers, however it was in attending recruitment or migration noted that employers had challenges exhibitions as the potential migrant evaluating international qualifications and workers‘ skill set and level were very skills of international workers. wide. Employers looking for specialist Some companies send staff overseas to assess workers found that International Trade the local labour market, interview potential Fairs were an excellent source of skilled employees and verify the workers suitability to workers as they were often approached by the company‘s needs to overcome this skilled workers seeking to migrate to challenge. The benefit to the company is the Australia. In addition companies were first-hand knowledge of the skills and able to poach suitably skilled workers qualifications of the potential employee. It can from rival companies. also provide the employer with greater peace Employers participating in the discussion of mind that comes with the perception of groups had endeavoured to recruit domestic more control over the recruitment process. workers before turning to skilled migrants. All Interestingly, migrants with Australian the employers made use of more than one qualifications did not seem to have any greater recruitment method to find and recruit skilled success in gaining employment (in Australia) migrants. The most widely used method was than internationally qualified migrants external recruitment agencies, either located (Parasnis et al 2008). Therefore factors other internationally or Australian agencies involved than qualifications and skills must play a part in overseas recruiting. Many employers stated in the selection of migrant workers. they had experienced problems with recruitment agencies and employers‘ Some employers participating in the forums satisfaction level with these agencies was low. stated they prefer to have a homogeneous The most common issue seemed to be workforce, believing this makes the agencies recommending workers whose skills recruitment and induction process easier and did not match the advertised vacancy. helps the migrant settle more quickly into the community. The employer attempts to achieve There was only one company of the thirty- this by recruiting migrants from one country or three, who said they were highly satisfied with culture. This is often assisted by employers the recruitment agency services. To achieve using their current migrant workforce as a this, the company researched recruitment referral or word-of-mouth network. agencies servicing the international top 500 Conversely, skilled migrants stated that the companies and then engaged the most cold approach to employers was highly appropriate recruitment agency to service their ineffectual manner of finding employment. organisational needs. This research and
86 Previous research has indicated that the by having to learn different cultural practices selection and testing of job candidates is for both the work place and the community. inadequate or inappropriate for a number of Syed and Kramar (2003) claim that because minorities; and many organisations in there is no specific Equal Employment Australia use tests that bear little resemblance Opportunity legislation in Australia for to the job requirements and interviewers that culturally diverse workers, employers pay have little understanding of techniques suitable little attention to the development and for ethnically diverse applicants (D‘Netto & promotion of ethnically diverse employees, Sohal 1999). Best practices implemented by focusing only on women, harassment, carer employers included; advertising in ethnic responsibilities and disability. This research newspapers, utilising international recruitment found that all but one employer said they have agencies and advertising in languages other additional induction processes in place for than English. skilled migrants. Employers showed a clear preference to Most employers were of the opinion that their recruit from countries or cultures where they standard company induction is sufficient for had successfully recruited from previously. the migrant worker but implemented They were likely to return to those countries supplementary induction practices to attract seeking more workers or seek work-of-mouth migrants. Additional induction processes that referrals from current employees. Thus employers of skilled migrants utilised companies could find themselves with a included: relatively homogenous cultural workforce without consciously applying discriminative Signs in the workplace written in migrants‘ practices. native language; A majority of employers said they like to Multicultural awareness workshops for new recruit from English speaking countries such and current employees; as Canada, United Kingdom and South Africa, reasoning that written and verbal Standard organisational induction communication with the migrant was easier delivered over a longer time period; and qualifications from these countries were Australian cultural training for migrants; more likely to be recognised by Australian assessing authorities than qualifications from A buddy system where the new migrant other countries. has another worker (buddy) who speaks the same language as the migrant and the Paramount here was the need for employers to buddy interprets everything to the feel comfortable with their decision to recruit migrant; skilled migrants. Induction training in different languages Induction and retention and translation of induction information;
An induction booklet that includes Recruiting international migrants into information about life in Australia such as organisations means diversity management is a the rental market, how to send money vital part of running a company and back home and getting a mobile phone; supervising work teams. Multicultural workgroups have additional complexities as Placing multilingual directional and safety the cultural background of people influence signs into the workplace to help the their interpretation and expectations of the migrant understand workplace practices workplace, their interactions with others and and safety awareness; communication (Bachmann 2006). In the discussion groups, employers were asked Cultural awareness training for new about the induction and retention practices workers on Australian culture and training they had in place for international migrants. for current workers on migrant workers‘ country of origin; and The process of inducting a new migrant employee can have a significant impact on the English lessons. integration of the skilled migrant into the Employers believed that the additional support workplace, their ability to contribute to that given to new migrant workers during workplace, acceptance by the current induction is important to a migrant‘s well employees and outcomes for the employer. An being. It informs the migrant of their value to essential ingredient for effective groups is the company and may help the migrant settle shared understanding about the aims, functions more quickly in their workplace and give the and interactions of the group (Bachmann migrant greater confidence in becoming 2006), which can be learnt up during involved with the community. induction. However, the induction process for international migrants is further complicated The majority of employers participating in the discussion forums did not have any retention 87 strategies in place other than additional willing to help work colleagues by induction practices or helping the migrant interpreting and translating for them; and settle into the community. Financial incentives in the form of paying health insurance, travel Providing English language lessons. and relocation expenses and costs of family reunification were the most commonly offered SETTLEMENT retention incentives. Other retention strategies included assisting migrants gain permanent The response from employers on settlement residency and running in-house settlement issues of skilled migrants was varied and most forums. employers reported assisting migrants in the settlement process. Each employer felt that LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND they contributed to helping the migrant during COMMUNICATION the initial settlement period and al the employers were aware that settlement in a new community involved more than just having a For the employers attending the discussion job. Successful settlement requires strong groups, the most common challenges during social networks and connectedness which induction of migrant workers were around arises from well-developed social support language and culture. Most employers feel that infrastructure and duration of residence (Wulff it is important to understand the originating and Dharmalingam 2008). culture of the skilled migrant and what the migrant must forego in leaving their country. The employers were enthusiastic about making Participants argued that it was employers‘ migrants feel welcomed and providing responsibility to gain an understanding of the settlement assistance. The settlement factors needs of different cultural groups. However, they thought important were family and employers also felt the migrant must make an community ties, affordable and available effort to understand and fit into the culture of housing, community integration support, the Australian workplace. language training, access to health and social programs, recreational opportunities Employers said that awareness of cultural understanding by the community of the traditions reduced problems arising from migrants cultural traditions. culturally divergent practices, as did the provision of cultural awareness training for Some employers offered comprehensive migrants and domestic workers. Employers settlement assistance including; a meet and hoped that by having cultural understanding, greet at the airport, transporting the migrant to both the domestic workers and migrants will their accommodation, arranging a tour of the understand their differences and have a greater region, providing basic groceries, assistance capacity to cooperate and work together. It with finding schooling and providing transport was also reported that outcomes from cultural to and from work. awareness training are greater if the local community can be involved in this training. Some innovative employers go further to assist migrants and implement other practices Regardless of attempts to build cultural including: offering a house for the migrants to understanding, employers still faced a number live in until they found their own home, of challenges. Some employers have found paying medical bills for the migrant and their that migrants bring their prejudices with them family, providing an information packs and and refuse to work with certain other cultural seminars on living in Australia (incorporating groups or refuse to work for female managers. a range of subjects like purchasing a mobile phone, sending money back home, community Language problems are often cited as a services and getting a bank loan,) and significant barrier to migrants finding suitable organising social events for migrants to meet work (Syed 2008). The employers Australian families. participating in the discussion forums had in place a number of mitigating strategies to While employers provided their migrant overcome language barriers. These strategies workers with settlement services beyond incuded: induction processes, they argued that it should be the responsibility of governments and the Hiring interpreters – although this could community. It was interesting to note that be difficult if the company was located in there was little awareness amongst employers regional areas due availability of of settlement services and community groups interpreters; available to assist skilled migrants. Thus while Having multilingual induction materials employers wanted to help migrants settle into and workplace signs; the community, they were unaware of assistance that was already available to the Developing a language bank - other migrant. company workers who can speak a language other than English and are 88 There were two trends evident from the effort into inducting the migrant worker into discussion forums. The first was that larger the work place and settle into the community. employers provided more settlement Much of the additional induction practices assistance than smaller employers. Larger implemented by employer revolved around employers have a greater capacity to supply communication and ensuring migrant settlement services as they can absorb costs understood Australian working culture. It is more readily into their operating overheads. important that workgroups develop The second trend was that employers in South- communication competence as East Queensland provided more miscommunication can create comprehensive settlement assistance than misunderstanding, conflict and barriers to employers located in other regions of cooperation (Tung 1993). Queensland. This may be because there is Based on Dass and Parker‘s (1999) schema for greater competition amongst organisations in managing human resource diversity, the South-East Queensland for skilled workers and employers participating in the discussion employers viewed the provision of settlement groups responded to international migrant services as a way to gain an advantage in the workers with Defensive and Accommodative competition for skilled workers. strategies. Migrant workers were encouraged to learn about Australian workplace culture and adjust their behaviour to fit into that CONCLUSION culture. Some employers also encouraged same language or culture mentoring of new Employers view migrant workers as a migrant employees by more experienced substitutable pool of labour to make up for the migrant workers. In some cases employers lack of domestic workers. They do not seem to attempted to adapt the workplace to value the additional skills, such as language accommodate the different needs of the and knowledge of international markets that migrant worker through the use of languages migrants bring with them. Consequently, other than English in workplace processes. employers have high expectations of migrant workers and expect the migrant to fit into the While diversity management remains of working culture of their organisation. Thus strategic importance to companies because of skills and qualifications are not the only factor its ability to provide a competitive edge employers take into account when recruiting. (Lorbiecki 2001), there was little evidence that They also think about how the migrant will fit participant employers had moved into a into the organisation and communication learning perspective. While the learning issues. While the discussion forums did not perspective encourages compliance with explore recruitment practices of employers in legislation, it also encourages companies to detail, it should be noted that recruitment and seek better or more efficient ways of diversity selection is not neutral or value-free (Kirton management beyond legally mandated and Healy 2009). This may lead to skilled compliance (Dass and Parker 1999). migrants experiencing difficulties in gaining Despite the changes to immigration policy and employment. the efforts of employers, skilled migrants However, employers do not view their suffer from the gap between immigration recruiting practices as discriminatory; they are policy and the needs of employers. This gap trying to find a worker who is the best fit to will continue to exist as the changes to the organisation. When the survival of the immigration policy are more about controlling organisation and employees depends on the the flow of migrants rather than meeting the work of the migrant, employers must make demand for labour. hard decisions on which worker to recruit and This research provides some insight into the frequently the employer chooses employers perspectives on hiring skilled conservatively (Hawthorne 1997). That is, the international migrants. More detailed research employer will chose to employ the type of needs to be completed on the selection and worker they are familiar with as opposed to induction of skilled migrants into Australian hiring an unknown entity. This mitigates risks workplaces and how immigration policy to the employer of assessing international impacts on those processes. Research is also competence and qualifications which they may needed on skilled migrants‘ perspectives of have little knowledge about. Australian employers recruitment, selection For the employer, the challenges related to and induction processes. hiring skilled migrants do not stop with finding the best worker. Employers stated that References inducting skilled migrants into the organisation required additional time, resources and money. Nevertheless, employers Bachmann, AS 2006, ‗Melting Pot or Tossed have been shown to be willing to put extra Salad? Implications for Designing Effective Multicultural Workgroups‘ Management 89 International Review, 46(6):721-747. Report to the Home Office, March 2002‘, Migration Research Unit, Geography Dass, P & Parker, B 1999, ‗Strategies for Department, University College London managing human resource diversity: From viewed 15th September 2010, resistance to learning‘, Academy of
90 Gender, migration and human security: HIV vulnerability among rural to urban migrants in the People’s Republic of China
Anna Hayes ([email protected]) University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia.
Abstract It should be noted that because the UNDP definition of human security views it to be The ‗human security‘ paradigm emerged in the what Burke describes as ‗a comprehensive and early 1990s as a means of refocusing the security integrated matrix of needs and rights‘ referent away from the state to the individual. It is a (2001:216), this definition challenges theory that is grounded in human rights and the restricted notions of human security that limit provision of basic needs for all of humanity, the discussion of human security to ‗subjects regardless of their locale, identity or citizenship status. As a theory, it was not intended to replace and territories recognised by sovereign states, notions of traditional security, but was instead or that retain a hierarchy of state interests over intended to be a complementary theory on security human interests in times of perceived crisis‘ as it has been argued that human insecurity actually (2001:216). For the author, restricted threatens state security. While the concept itself approaches to human security are problematic remains somewhat contested in the political as they fail to recognise the important role that sciences, human security nonetheless provides a gender plays in determining threats to both useful analysis of non-state security issues and men and women on a daily basis. Without dilemmas, particularly those that concern the human gendered analyses, human security can quickly condition. In recent years there has been increasing recognition that the human security paradigm has be centred on the male experience of security, overlooked the vulnerabilities often faced by sidelining women and the unique gender-based women, many of which are gender-based and vulnerabilities that affect their security such as thereby not shared by men. To counter this, there economic, educational and employment have been attempts to ‗engender‘ human security disparities, gender discrimination, substandard discourse in academic literature. This paper healthcare, restricted access to healthcare considers the vulnerabilities faced by female rural facilities, reproductive rights, the traffic of to urban migrants in the People‘s Republic of China women, and male violence directed at women. and intersects the mainstream discourse on human security in an attempt to contribute further to the engendering of human security discourse. In addition, the ‗broader notion‘ of human security is more encompassing as it does not Keywords recognise a ‗hierarchy of security‘ but instead Human security, gender, rural to urban recognises that both state security and human migration security are interdependent, and that all the components of security identified by the United Nations are of equal importance because a deficiency in one could lead to a DEFINING HUMAN SECURITY 1 deficiency in another. Hence, while the author recognises that different interpretations of Human security remains a somewhat contested 2 term in the political sciences. Therefore, for human security exist, for the purposes of this the purposes of this study, the definition of human security is aligned closely with that of 1 However, scholars such as Paris believe that such the United Nations which states that human an assertion is in fact a ‗truism‘. In his article, security is both ‗freedom from fear‘ and Human Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?, Paris ‗freedom from want‘, incorporating stated that by treating all components of security as components such as economic, food, health, equal, the ‗broader notion‘ human security theorists environmental, personal, community and are attempting to make human security mean too political security (UNDP 1995:229). The much and are therefore rendering it unusable as an definition asserts that human security is analytical tool for research (Paris 2001). 2 centred on four key characteristics, namely Some interpretations of human security do not that it is a universal concern; its components support the development-oriented or human safety are interdependent, it is best achieved through based approaches to human security put forth by the UNDP. Instead, these interpretations generally prevention rather than intervention, and it is restrict their definition to military or intentional people-centred (UNDP 1995:232-34). threats (such as misuse of authority by governments) to the security of humans. For more
study the UNDP definition of human security concluded that ‗state security is focused, is favoured in the context of the more [whereas] human security is broad‘ gendered approach mentioned above. (Commission on Human Security 2003:6). Therefore, while it would appear that the It should also be noted that human security not wider notions of human security are generally only increases human development and human supported in the literature and thereby rights, but it also increases state security by credible, we also need to consider how does protecting people from a range of threats that human security view gendered difference. might otherwise cause social upheaval such as poverty and conflict, and empowering them to LOCATING WOMEN IN HUMAN make informed decisions and to ‗act on their own behalf‘ (Commission on Human Security SECURITY DEFINITIONS 2003:3-5). In his summary of human security, the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan It could be easily argued that the current stated that: human security framework is flawed in that while gender issues are given some attention, Human security in its broadest sense the defining documents on human security embraces far more than the absence of such as the UNDP article Redefining Security: violent conflict. It encompasses human the Human Dimension (1995) and the Human rights, good governance, access to Security Now report by the Commission on education and health care and ensuring Human Security (2003) are not wholly that each individual has opportunities inclusive of a gendered analysis. The absence and choices to fulfil his or her own of a genuine effort to consider how men and potential (Cited in Commission on women‘s security is affected is important, as is Human Security 2003:4). ensuring that human security discourse and policy documents include gender as a This quote is important because it mainstream rather than a secondary demonstrated Annan‘s belief that human consideration. This change would result in security is not constrained to the restricted both a more inclusive approach to human notions of human security espoused by some security and health crises, and one which scholars. In addition, Annan later reinforces considered the differences in insecurity faced that the components of wider interpretations of by men and women. human security ‗are the interrelated building blocks of human, and therefore national, While official documents have been slow in security‘ (Commission on Human Security fully integrating gender into their analysis of 2003:4). Clearly, Annan‘s definition of human human security, several scholars have security incorporates the wider ‗freedom from discussed the importance of including a fear‘, ‗freedom from want‘ interpretation of gendered analysis in mainstream human human security. security discourse. Hudson (2005) is one such scholar, and she used HIV/AIDS vulnerability In its report, Human Security Now, the to provide an argument for the inclusion of Commission on Human Security also gender in human security discourse. Like the supported a wider notion of human security argument contained in this paper, Hudson and identified state security as both dependent stated that the unequal status of women and on and mutually reinforced by human security. girls in all societies reinforces the need to link Put simply, in an unstable state it is impossible HIV/AIDS and a gender inclusive analysis of to attain state security, and human security is human security because ‗their susceptibility to dependent on sturdy, stable institutions. It also the disease is linked to their socio-cultural, biological, economic and political subordination within broader society‘ discussion on restricted notions of human security (2005:162). Furthermore, Hudson warned that see Wesley, M 1999, ‗Human Security in human rights could be undercut in favour of Development and Crisis: How to Capture Human ‗particular power interests‘ if there is not a Security in Regional Institutional Arrangements‘ in genuine attempt to make human security The Asia-Australia Papers, 2(September): 24-34; discourse ‗wholly inclusive‘ of all humans. Newman, Edward & Richmond, Oliver (eds) 2001, The United Nations and Human Security, Palgrave, To overcome this, however, she argued that if New York; Buzan, Barry 2000, ‗Human security: scholars employed a feminist What it means and what it entails‘, paper presented at 14th Asia-Pacific Roundtable, Kuala Lumpur, 3-7 conceptualisation of security when discussing June:1-15; Kerr, Pauline 2003, ‗The evolving issues of human security, they would be able dialectic between state-centric and human-centric to strongly affect the previous complacency of security‘, Working Paper (Australian National former human security analysts who did not University), 2:1-34 and Paris, Roland 2001, consider gender. Thus, for Hudson (2005:162), ‗Human Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?‘ in the failure to adequately include ‗women‘s International Security, 26(2):87-102. pervasive insecurity‘ has meant that the
92 broader notion of human security merely of women. While Fukuda-Parr welcomed the offers a ‗partial understanding of human focus on threats to human security contained security‘, and that until issues of human in the Human Security Commission Report security are given feminist analysis, such (2003), she too felt that it was important that complacency will continue. in the future such important documents on human security must also include a gendered Similarly, McKay (2004) and Boyd (2005) perspective (2004). also examined the need for transparency and analysis of the types of threats women face to Kermani (2006) also discussed the benefits their security during times of conflict. McKay offered by human security for extending proposed that it is important that the human rights, as well as meeting the experiences of women become a part of challenges posed by globalisation such as mainstream discussions of human security and environmental degradation, HIV/AIDS, that women must also be integrated into the terrorism and drug and human trafficking. peace-building process, as they are often After reviewing a number of criticisms of overlooked during this important period. human security, Kermani concluded that Therefore, while all of these authors examined human security offers the possibility of human security from the narrower ‗freedom securing both human rights and human from fear‘ interpretative framework, their development, and that it offered a framework discussions identified many strong arguments for responding to the non-traditional threats to for the engendering of human security security that have been heightened by discourse. globalisation.
Engendering Human Security (2006) is an Therefore, most of the above-mentioned important text that has paved the way for scholars argued that a gendered human gendered discourse in human security by security framework offered the possibility of examining security from feminist perspectives. meeting the new range of security threats This text challenged the previous neglect of posed by globalisation, while at the same time women in mainstream human security ensuring both human rights and human discourse, and examined a range of development needs are integrated into international examples and perspectives to mainstream security discourse. Furthermore, provide focused analysis of how women they also recognised the possibility offered by experience different threats to their security human security for the threats faced by women than men. The editors of the text argued that to become integrated into mainstream security for many years, discussions of women and discourse. This would give women greater human security have largely been visibility in such discourse, and offers the ‗fragmented‘ and that the evolving nature of prospect of women achieving empowerment human security discourse means there is a real and agency in the security arena, as well as opportunity for women to be included in advancing women‘s rights globally. These mainstream discussions of security. They also considerations have significant application for proposed that an engendered human security migrant women, many of whom face framework would not only improve the lives heightened insecurity before, during and after of women but it would also allow for a ‗more the process of migration. This particular study humane security vision‘ (Truong, Wieringa & examines rural to urban migration in the Chhachhi 2006:xxvi). People‘s Republic of China, and the gendered dimensions of human insecurity associated Bunch (2004) also agreed with the above with this migrant population. proposition by Trunong, Wieringa and Chhachhi that an engendered human security HIV/AIDS IN THE PEOPLE‟S framework has the potential to improve the REPUBLIC OF CHINA lives of all humans, because human security provides a framework for examining security In China, HIV/AIDS has spread to new groups issues that recognises the interrelated nature of of the population and it has been estimated ‗peace, security, equality, human rights, and that around 740,000 people were living with development‘ and accentuates ‗protection and HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) at the end of 2009 empowerment‘ (2004:30). However, Bunch (Ministry of Health of the People‘s Republic criticised the Human Security Commission of China 2010:5). There are serious localised Report (2003) for its failure to include a HIV/AIDS epidemics in several provinces; comprehensive gender analysis of human Yunnan, Guangxi, Henan, Sichuan, Xinjiang security into its mainstream discussion, and and Guangdong. These provinces alone concluded that despite this, human security is account for 70-80 percent of China‘s overall a concept that ‗women can build on‘ HIV/AIDS rates (Ministry of Health of the (2004:33). Fukuda-Parr came to similar People‘s Republic of China 2010:5). Xinjiang conclusions in her discussion of the threats Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province posed by globalisation to the human security 93 have both experienced HIV/AIDS epidemics vulnerability to HIV transmission will increase resulting from high rates of needle sharing substantially. among injecting drug users and up until 2005 the sharing of intravenous drug equipment was Physiologically, women are 2-4 times more the main mode of HIV transmission in the vulnerable to HIV transmission than their male PRC. In addition, blood and plasma selling to counterparts when engaging in unprotected centres practising unsafe blood-donation vaginal intercourse (UNAIDS 2002:57).4 In procedures has led to approximately 69,000 addition to physiological risks, women former blood and plasma donors and recipients worldwide face a number of vulnerabilities to contracting HIV mainly in Henan, Hubei, HIV/AIDS, deriving from a variety of social, Anhui, Hebei and Shanxi (National Centre for cultural, economic and political factors. A AIDS/STD Prevention and Control 2006:1).3 society‘s gender roles have considerable influence on three main areas of HIV/AIDS Figures from the Ministry of Health (MOH) vulnerability; accurate sexual and reproductive show sexual transmission is now the main health knowledge, sexual passivity and mode of HIV transmission in the PRC, aggression, and promiscuity. In addition, signalling that China has moved into the ‗enabling environments‘ such as social, growth period of its HIV/AIDS epidemic. At cultural, political and economic environments, the close of 2009, it was reported that 59 can all fuel HIV vulnerability among women percent of the total number of HIV/AIDS and these vulnerabilities are largely the result cases in China were caused by sexual of gender inequality (Feinstein and Prentice transmission, with heterosexual transmission 2000). accounting for 44.3 percent of those infections and homosexual transmission accounting for Thus, in order for a state‘s HIV/AIDS 14.7 percent (Ministry of Health of the response to be effective it must include People‘s Republic of China 2010:22). Of the gender-specific factors. Therefore, women total reported number of HIV/AIDS cases, must be recognised as a vulnerable group. 30.8 percent of PLWHA in the PRC are However, when asked whether she believed women demonstrating the vulnerability of Chinese women were particularly vulnerable women to HIV transmission (SCAWCO and to HIV transmission, Interviewee D (2003, UNAIDS 2007:4). pers. comm., 27 August),5 who was the Director of a government organisation that Also concerning is that since 2005, sexual played a key role in HIV/AIDS prevention and transmission has been the fastest growing treatment, responded that she believed mode of HIV transmission in China, thereby ‗women are less vulnerable [than men] to increasing the vulnerability of women to HIV HIV/AIDS‘ and that women‘s vulnerability to transmission (Hong et al. 2009). If effective HIV/AIDS largely depended on whether a prevention and control measures are not woman was a sex worker, an intravenous drug introduced prior to or during the growth user (IDU), if she had donated her blood, had a period, and the country‘s HIV/AIDS epidemic blood transfusion or had used other blood moves into the rampant prevalence period, large scale HIV transmission is inevitable. 4 Although rates of HIV among the general This is largely because the surface of vaginal mucosa is much bigger than penile mucosa. population remain low in the PRC, with rates Furthermore, semen from an HIV infected male is believed to be between 0.042 and 0.071 usually higher in HIV concentrations than are the percent (Ministry of Health of the People‘s vaginal secretions from a HIV positive female. Republic of China 2010:5), the spread of HIV Also, if a woman has a reproductive tract infection through heterosexual intercourse among the (RTI) or a sexually transmitted infection (STI), her general population is very much a warning that vaginal mucosa is changed and can become the numbers of PLWHA may soon explode irritated, ulcerated or more prone to scratches, all of across the country. If this occurs, it would which result in the vagina becoming more vulnerable to HIV infection (UNAIDS 2002:57). make the epidemic very difficult to prevent 5 and control. If the epidemic does reach the All interviewees spoken to during fieldwork were employed in government or non-government rampant prevalence phase, Chinese women‘s organisations that were responsible for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Furthermore, none of the 3 The transmission of HIV through blood selling is interviewees wanted to be identified, nor did they relatively unique to China and has caused many of want the identity of the organisations in which they China‘s rural poor to become HIV positive. It has worked to be named. This was largely due to the also been a very sensitive issue for the Chinese continued sensitivity of HIV/AIDS in China, government due to the role of the Henan Provincial particularly when discussing the issue with Health Department in both Henan‘s blood trade and international researchers or reporters. Thus, the the initial cover-up of the emerging HIV/AIDS interviews were conducted upon agreement that the epidemic there. For further reading see Hayes, A interviewees‘ details would be kept confidential. It 2005, ‗AIDS, Bloodheads and Cover-Ups: the is for this reason that neither the interviewees, nor ―ABC‖ of Henan‘s AIDS Epidemic‘, AQ: Journal the organisations they worked for, have been of Contemporary Analysis, 77(3):12-16. identified in this paper. 94 products (Interviewee D 2003, pers. comm., While labour migration is not a risk factor per 27 August). This point of view was supported se for HIV infection, the physical separation of by another interviewee, who was the National the migrant worker from their spouses and Programme Officer for an international non- families, as well as community and social governmental organisation (INGO) support networks can heighten HIV responsible for HIV/AIDS prevention and vulnerability. This separation can lead to treatment. In response to the same question, feelings of isolation and loneliness that may this interviewee stated that ‗gender does not see the migrant worker seeking sexual play any role [in its HIV/AIDS policies], and it relationships outside of their spouses or is not part of mainstream discussions‘ regular sexual partner. In addition, the (Interviewee C 2003, pers. comm., 22 August). increased income that accompanies labour These responses are alarming because they migration combined with new social networks ignore the patterns of HIV transmission to also increases HIV vulnerability. The social women in much of the rest of the world, networks are important as they can be more whereby women in the general population liberal than the types of familial, religious or have been found to be extremely vulnerable to social restrictions the migrant worker may be HIV transmission in areas with high rates of accustomed to. This can lead to migrant HIV/AIDS.6 Rural to urban migrants, and their workers engaging in high risk behaviours such spouses, experience increased HIV as binge drinking, drug taking – including vulnerability due to a range of factors linked to intravenous drug use, and engaging in casual their transient lifestyles. This paper now or paid sexual relations – often without using considers the links between HIV vulnerability condoms due to inaccessibility to condoms, and labour migration, particularly among poor condom awareness and knowledge of Chinese women. their role in the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, or economic factors THE LINKS BETWEEN HIV preventing the purchase of condoms. VULNERABILITY AND LABOUR Labour migration also increases women‘s MIGRATION vulnerability to HIV transmission because it often separates women from familial and The rural to urban migrants in China, social support networks that might otherwise colloquially known as the ‗floating‘ protect them from unwanted sexual advances. population, number in the vicinity of In addition to this lack of protection, migrant approximately 150 million people (Moise women often work in low status occupations 2008:250). The gender ratio of rural to urban such as domestic service or factory work, migrants is approximately 136:100 male to whereby they may work or live in isolated female migrants with the 15-34 year old age conditions, making them vulnerable to sexual bracket accounting for some 70 percent of the harassment or sexual assault by their total number of migrant workers (Xia 2004). colleagues or employers. While some rural to urban migrants live within close distance of their hometown, around a In China, rates of premarital sex among female third of them are engaged in employment migrant workers are approximately 50 percent outside of their home province and they may for factory workers and 80 percent for women only return home once or twice a year engaged in the services sector such as catering (Thompson 2003). and entertainment (Xia 2004: 29). Among male migrant workers, studies have found that approximately 60 percent of men reported 6 Surveys conducted in Africa reveal that 60-80 engaging in premarital sex while away for percent of HIV positive women, who contracted work, and of these men, 50-60 percent HIV from sexual intercourse, reported that their reported they had solicited sex (Yang et al. only sexual partner was their husband. Another 2009: 428). For both men and women, these study, which was conducted in India, another region rates of extramarital intercourse are higher where HIV/AIDS is growing at an alarming rate, than they would likely be had the person not revealed that 91 percent of HIV positive women been a migrant worker, due to factors such as surveyed, who had contracted HIV from sexual intercourse, also reported that their only sexual isolation, relaxed social networks and partner was their husband (Feinstein and Prentice increased involvement in high risk behaviours 2000:22). These findings support the results of an like binge drinking and drug taking both of earlier study conducted in 1989 which also found which can contribute to engagement in casual the majority of HIV positive women who had sexual relations. contracted HIV through heterosexual intercourse, had also contracted HIV/AIDS from their only Low education levels are also common among sexual partner, their husband. The researchers in the floating population with 40 percent of this instance concluded that often ‗condom use was migrants having only a primary school more effective in preventing HIV infection than was limiting the number of partners‘ (Berger and education (Yang et al. 2009: 428). Poor Vizgirda 1993:62). education levels increase the likelihood of 95 poor levels of STI/HIV awareness thereby making them difficult to reach with HIV/AIDS increasing the likelihood of the migrant prevention knowledge (Hong et al. 2009:212). workers engaging in unprotected intercourse even in commercial sex. Furthermore, due to While conservative estimates suggest the the transient nature of these workers, number of sex workers in China is combined with their marginalisation in the approximately three million (Thompson 2004) urban areas to which they migrate, the floating to four million (Harding 2000), scholars such population is difficult to reach with STI/HIV as Pan of People‘s University of Beijing prevention and awareness knowledge (Xia believe the figure to be much higher when the 2004: 28). Therefore, many migrant workers numbers of women who engage in ‗casual or lack basic knowledge on STI/HIV prevention infrequent transactional sex‘ are included and this increases their vulnerability to (cited in Thompson 2004). It has also been transmission. reported by UNAIDS that the Public Security Bureau estimates the number or sex workers in In HIV screening tests conducted in Shanxi China could be as high as six million Province between 1996 and 1999, 66.7 percent (UNAIDS 2002:65). Jeffreys states that of people identified as HIV positive were government authorities in China have called members of the floating population (Xia 2004: prostitution in China a ‗widespread and 29). Other more recent tests have shown that growing problem‘ (2004:83).7 Thus, a HIV prevalence among migrant workers is conservative estimate of four million sex almost double that of China‘s rural residents workers demonstrates that a considerable reflecting that labour migration is the number of Chinese women are vulnerable to difference in heightening HIV vulnerability HIV infection through prostitution. among these rural residents (Yang et al. 2009: 420). In addition to heightening their own HIV The illegal nature of prostitution in China is a vulnerability, the floating population is an major barrier to HIV/AIDS advocacy for sex important HIV ‗bridge‘ population between workers and continues to exacerbate the urban high-risk groups and the rural vulnerable status of sex workers, particularly population (Yang et al. 2009: 420). Therefore, migrant women. Interviewee D (2003, pers. they have the potential to spread HIV comm., 27 August) stated that organisations epidemics into previously uninfected areas, like hers could give HIV prevention and more importantly for this paper, back to information to sex workers, without arresting their rural spouse. This risk is especially them, because it was not a government heightened when one considers condoms are organisation. If workers from the government not normally used in extramarital or marital organisations identified sex workers, she sexual relations, increasing their spouses HIV stated that they were required to report them vulnerability. Therefore, even though she/he because of the illegality of prostitution. After may not have been involved in labour being reported, the identified sex worker migration directly, their HIV vulnerability is would then face detention in a rehabilitation heightened by the labour migration of their centre. While there are debates in China as to spouse. whether or not prostitution should be legalised so as to allow INGOs, non-governmental For female migrants, labour migration is often organisations (NGOs) and government a contributing factor for women‘s involvement organisations to legally provide STI in the sex trade, which substantially increases prevention knowledge and services to sex their vulnerability to HIV transmission. This workers, the rehabilitation system offers an involvement can occur as a survival strategy opportunity to reach this vulnerable group for women facing economic hardship after with HIV/AIDS prevention information. migrating to urban areas for work, or it can be However, Interviewee D (2003, pers. comm., due to migrant women being tricked into the 27 August) stated that this was not occurring, sex trade after applying for false jobs such as even though the organisation she worked for domestic servants or factory work. A large had been trying to launch programs that linked number of China‘s sex workers are migrant ‗HIV/AIDS prevention education into the women (Thompson 2003), with figures on the rehabilitation programs of these centres‘. proportion of migrant women engaging in sex Furthermore, without adequate help to works ranging from between 62.3-95 percent overcome their economic insecurity, upon in some locations (Hong et al. 2009:212). release from these centres many women Migrant sex workers sometimes display higher actually returned to prostitution. Thus, she risk behaviour than non-migrant sex workers, in part due to low education levels and poor
HIV/AIDS awareness, which increases their 7 likelihood of contracting HIV and due to the For further reading see Jeffreys, Elaine 2004, ‗Feminist prostitution debates: Are there any sex transient nature of their stay at a particular site, workers in China?‘, Anne McLaren (ed), Chinese which is often around 2-3 months, thereby Women – Living and Working, Routledge Curzon, New York. 96 stated, an important opportunity was being also increases women‘s HIV vulnerability missed. because labour migration takes women away from the economic support and protection There is concern however, over the networks that exist in their home villages, contradiction in the government‘s response to making them easy targets to be lured or forced prostitution, which sees sex workers targeted into prostitution due to economic necessity, as by interventionist programs, not those well as becoming the victims of sexual soliciting the prostitutes. This obvious gender harassment and sexual violence. However, bias is in part fuelled by the extant view that women do not have to be directly involved in those selling sex always come before those labour migration for it to heighten their HIV buying sex (Chen 2008). This view is vulnerability. The spouses of returning labour problematic in that one could argue that it is migrants also face heightened vulnerability to demand that drives provision; however at a HIV transmission due to their partner‘s very basic level it punishes the sex worker as transgressions while away. Therefore, in areas the guilty party in the commercial sex of HIV epidemics, labour migrants play an exchange and not the solicitor. It also means important role in patterns of HIV transmission that many of the men who solicit prostitutes and they are an important part of an effective are left out of the targeted commercial sex HIV/AIDS response. However, the gendered HIV prevention strategies although they are dynamics of this vulnerability reflect that clearly a ‗high risk‘ group. If they are married gender is an important consideration in human or have other sexual encounters outside of the security discourse. By exploring the HIV commercial sexual exchange, they are also a vulnerability faced by rural to urban labour possible ‗bridge‘ population who have the migrants in the People‘s Republic of China, potential to transmit HIV into the general this paper has considered how gender, population. migration and human insecurity are linked. In an era of increased labour migration, it reflects Chen (2008) argues that the failure of the the importance of gendered considerations of Chinese government to adequately respond to both migration and human security. this contradiction reflects that there is an urgent need in China for recognition of the Acknowledgments important role men play in safer sexual practice, a responsibility that is continually The author would like to thank all participants being thrust onto women. In fact, recent in the field component of this study for their campaigns by the ACWF provided 27.25 time and insights into China‘s HIV/AIDS million women across China with HIV/AIDS epidemic. prevention and awareness knowledge. However, there was no discussion of if/how She would also like to acknowledge the men were also given this important knowledge involvement of Professor Don McMillen or if they were made aware of how their (USQ) and Dr Rosemary Roberts (UQ) for actions can impact on the HIV vulnerability of their comments on earlier versions of this their spouses (SCAWCO and UNAIDS 2007). research. These types of measures require the involvement of both men and women. To neglect the involvement and importance of References men serves to increase women‘s vulnerability Berger, B & Vizgirda, V 1993, ‗Prevention of while at the same time apportioning HIV Infection in Women and Children‘, in F responsibility to women for their own HIV L Cohen & J D Durham (eds), Women, safety, something that is simply unachievable Children and HIV/AIDS, Springer for many women. Chen (2008) also argues that Publishing, New York. the increase in HIV transmission among spouses is unsurprising considering low rates Boyd, R 2005, ‗Gender and human security of condom use among spouses, even when issues: building a programme of action- there is extra-marital sexual activity and that research‘, Development in Practice, this is an important reason for the inclusion of 15(1):115-21. men into measures designed to increase women‘s awareness of HIV/AIDS. Bunch, C 2004, ‗A Feminist Human Rights
Lens‘, Peace Review, 16(1): 29-34. CONCLUSION Burke, A 2001, ‗Caught between National and Labour migration increases women‘s HIV Human Security: Knowledge and Power in vulnerability as it often involves long periods Post-Crisis Asia‘, Pacifica Review, of physical separation from family and loved 13(3):215-39. ones thus leading to feelings of isolation and seeking out extramarital or casual sexual Commission on Human Security 2003, Human relationships as outlets for erotic impulses. It 97 Security Now, viewed 22nd April 2005, National Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and
Moise, E 2008, Modern China, 3rd edn, Pearson, Harlow.
98 Johann Christian Heussler – German liberal (1820-1907)
Chris Herde ([email protected]) University of Queensland, Brisbane, St Lucia, 4067, Australia.
Abstract who were the only non-Anglo-Celt Members of Parliament (MP) in the colony during the This paper examines the link between an 19th century, have been outlined by Corkhill immigrant‘s political socialisation in their homeland (1992), Manfred Jurgenson and Corkhill and their political integration in their host country. (1992); Johannes Voigt (1983) and Tom It focuses upon Johann (John) Christian Heussler, a Watson (1992). However, these studies failed German-born Member of the Legislative Council to specifically link the immigrants‘ political (MLC) who spent more than 40 years in the choices in Queensland to their political Queensland Parliament in the 19th and early 20th century. I argue that Heussler‘s political ideals in socialisation or rather ‗those developmental Queensland reflected many of the unique liberal processes through which persons acquire ideals in his homeland up to the time of his political orientation and patterns of behaviour‘ migration. This was reflected in colonial (Easton & Dennis, cited in Chilcote Queensland by his political integration through his 1981:231). acceptance of utilitarianism over other ideological 1 strands within the colony at the time. This study examines the influence of Heussler‘s homeland and how this impacted Keywords on his integration into Queensland colonial political culture. Central to this is evidence Colonial Queensland, German migrants, German from studies that indicate a link between liberalism, integration, ideology, John Heussler, immigrants‘ political socialisation, and the migration, political culture, utilitarianism particular ideological and party identification they adopt in their new homes (Mistilis 1985; McAllister & Makkai 1991; Rice and Feldman INTRODUCTION 1997).
This paper examines the career of German- Heussler had to adapt his German-European born Johann Christian Heussler, who was a Weltanschauung or world view to a colonial Member of the Legislative Council in the Queensland political culture very different to Queensland Parliament from 1866 to 1907. that in his homeland. The evidence of the Over the course of his 40-year political career interlocking influences of his homeland and Heussler‘s actions on the political stage host country can be seen in 1867, just one year reflected the integration of his political beliefs after he was appointed to the Queensland from his German homeland to colonial Upper House. Heussler told the chamber that Queensland. This paper will examine these a rational society should support that ‗old and beliefs and their influence on his political well-known maxim of political economy that career. the greatest good should be done to the greatest number‘ (QPD, Legislative Council, Heussler‘s life has been examined by Alan 1867:6). This statement did not materialise out Corkhill (1991), Delphine Nagel (1983) and of thin air. Heussler was referencing his great-grandson Robert Heussler (2001). On utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham‘s a broader scale, the careers of the eight famous mantra that an ideal society was one German-born Queensland parliamentarians,2 focused upon the ‗greatest happiness for the greatest number‘ (cited by Heywood, 1992: 319).
1 This article is based on research completed in my This paper argues that Heussler‘s political PhD thesis, Hartz revisited: German liberalism and choices in Queensland were largely based the fragment cultures in 19th century Wisconsin and upon the ideas of the German liberal Queensland. University of Queensland, 2010. movement from the Vormärz pre- 2 Jacob Horwitz (MLA Warwick 1878-1888), revolutionary period, the 1848 revolutions and Francis Kates (MLA Darling Downs, 1878-1881, reactionary era up to the end of the 1850s. 1883-1888, Cunningham 1899-1902)); Albrecht Feez (MLA Leichardt 1880-1883); Jean Baptiste Isambert (MLA Rosewood 1882-1892), Isidore 1899); Theodore Unmack (MLA Toowong 1888- Lissner (MLA Kennedy 1883-1893, Cairns 1896- 93) and Jacob Stumm (MLA Gympie 1896-99).
Heussler‘s German liberal sympathies saw him become part of political liberalism reject, to varying degrees, other ideological (Langewiesche 2000:18-19). strands such as classical liberalism, social liberalism and working class radicalism For the German liberals, freedom was not evolving within Queensland political culture at necessarily equated with individualism, nor the time. However, Heussler found in one authority with repression. They accepted such strand – utilitarianism - a political reform from above as the best way to achieve philosophy in tune with German liberalism. national unity and ultimately power in an oppositional environment. German liberalism THE GERMAN LIBERAL- could never be fully applied to a British- colonial liberal-radical model. However, in UTILITARIAN CONNECTION Queensland, Heussler applied his own
th understanding of liberalism to the ideological Although 19 century liberalism in Germany strand that most suited the political realities of was a broad-based movement containing his new home, utilitarianism. constitutional monarchists advocating a limited suffrage on one extreme and radical Utilitarianism in Australia was a pragmatic republicans and Democrats on the other political philosophy, suited to a huge and calling for a complete breakdown of the old sparsely populated country. It was reflected in order – it was largely made up of the middle the idea of equality of opportunity; social and class, who shared certain core ideals. Unlike economic regulation, tariff protection, a free, Britain, which in the 1850s was ‗in large compulsory and secular education, separation governed by the precepts of classical of church and state, suffrage extension, liberalism‘ such as free trade, anti- egalitarianism and the desire for full imperialism, minimum state activity, primacy employment. While capitalist individualism of the individual and social and political was still apparent, it was confined within the freedom, (Gray 1992:27), the German liberals bounds of the State (Leach 1993:69; Heywood in general desired a more interventionist and 1992:34-6; Robertson 1993:477-9). This regulated Staat. political philosophy aimed to preserve the middle-class status quo, so desired by German These German liberals were politically aware, liberals. Heussler was attracted to Bentham‘s armed with a liberal education and what they idea of investing responsibility for the future believed to be a superior culture through their on the middle class, because it was equipped attachment to Bildung – a concept which with a ‗historic mission to rule and civilize the combined the meaning carried by the English barbarians both inside and outside their word education, with notions of character community‘ (Parekh 1974:xxiv). formation and moral cultivation (Sheehan 1999:14). Although there were early Catholic Focusing on the idea of the greatest happiness liberals, German liberalism had a strong for the greatest number, Heussler rejected the secular or cultural Protestant character. classical liberal bias of elements in the Indeed, a secular state ‗was at the heart of conservative side of politics in Queensland, (German) liberal beliefs‘ with the government made up of pastoralists, squatters, plantation assuming the administrative tasks previously owners and northern business proprietors. held by churches (Langewiesche 2000:199). While the business thrust of the party would The dominant liberal centre believed in the have attracted Heussler, the preference for a power of a just Staat governed by the rule of minimal State and a free market was foreign to law or Rechtsstaat to protect against the German liberalism‘s acceptance of reform arbitrary power of the ruling elite (Sheehan from above and concept of freedom within a 1999:43). There was also a romantic element dominant State apparatus, while the squatters‘ which lauded traditional rural life and paid elitism grated against his anti-aristocratic homage to German exceptionalism (Kohn nature. The liberal side of politics, which 1962:49-50). The German liberal movement consisted of small business proprietors and was wary of a volatile Volk and the effect of farmers predominantly in the colony‘s south- the excesses of industrialisation, and sought a east, was strongly influenced by TH Green‘s regulated economy. In Germany they were social liberalism, which advocated positive concerned over the effects of rampant freedom through an interventionist State based capitalism and the: on Christian moralism (Heywood 1992:31-45). However, Heussler being a German liberal […] doctrine of free trade was not secularist was wary of its puritan moral described as ‗liberalism‘, and only after restrictions. Finally, with an ingrained fear of the turn of the twentieth century were a potentially explosive Volk, the militant terms such as liberal and economic labour movement‘s trade union affiliated individualism linked. This is a socialist objectives of the early Labor Party reflection of the length of time it took frightened his German middle class acceptance in Germany for economic freedom to 100 of individual capitalist enterprise within a (Heussler 2001:24). At the age of 24 he regulated economy. received his first appointment as a wine merchant and practiced his trade in Germany, Utilitarianism in Australia during the 19th Holland and England, where he represented century broadly meant that the State should be his firm at the London exhibition in 1851 an active partner in the encouragement of fair (Heussler 2001:24, 28 & 32). He was no capitalism, to benefit the greatest number: radical and there is no evidence of him Capital and labour should seek negotiation and participating in the 1848 revolutions. He was accord, not conflict (Leach 1992:68). Through a German liberal sympathiser, tired of the Bentham‘s influence in colonial Australia upheaval and restrictions in Europe, who left there was a belief that political decisions for a new land ‗where security, stability and should be factually based upon individuals‘ commerce could be found‘ (Heussler self interest and should deliver equality by 2001:30). providing satisfaction to the greatest possible number of individuals. This required Arriving in Melbourne in 1852, he quickly institutions such as tribunals, courts and an became proficient at English, and established a equitable political system to remove the merchant business with branches in potential for conflict (Collins 1985:48-50). Castlemaine and Bendigo. However, for This political philosophy aimed to preserve the health reasons he moved north and arrived in middle-class status quo by deflecting ‗radical Moreton Bay in January, 1854 (Heussler democratic questioning of an unequal social 2001:37 & 43-4; Nagle 1983:122). He was system‘ (Leach 1993:89). naturalised in 1855 and on his papers called himself John and four years later married into Utilitarianism in Queensland, which a respected Presbyterian Anglo-Celtic family influenced both sides of politics, was (Corkhill 1991:22; Heussler 2001:74). consistent with German liberalism‘s idea of reform from above, acceptance of Rechtsstaat Heussler appeared to possess a certain to protect against extremes, a middle-class denominational ambivalence, and although distrust of the volatile Volk, as well as a raised a Lutheran, he joined his new wife‘s wariness of elitism and support for a secular Presbyterian church in Brisbane and was later society. As an acculturation strategy, Heussler associated with the Lutheran church (Heussler maintained a German liberal ideological bias 2001:74; Waterson: 2001:88). In line with the in his new home, under the guise of secular ideals of the German liberal utilitarianism. It was the integration of these movement, Heussler once told his Upper two political philosophies in Queensland that House colleagues that the ‗clergy of the guided Heussler during his political career. present day were just as bigoted as they were 1700 years ago; if they were in power, they FROM JOHANN TO JOHN would do just the same as when they used to burn fellow mortals‘ . He went on to say he HEUSSLER was wary of religious exclusiveness declaring that he was a member of the ‗Christian Heussler was born into a Protestant family of Church‘ and ‗he could go anywhere without builders on June 16, 1820 at Bockenheim, in reference to a particular creed‘ (QPD Hessen, near Frankfurt-am-Main and although 1875:1210). Religious bigotry did not seem to not wealthy were ‗respectable‘ (Heussler be part of Heussler‘s make-up. 2001:17-18 & 74). He was first educated at a state school with a non-classical syllabus Settling in Brisbane, Heussler built up which emphasised science and modern merchant businesses with various partners, languages, and said later he went to school investing widely in property and the sugar with Jews and Roman Catholics, and children industry and became an accredited agent for of all denominations ‗were educated very JC Godeffroy & Sons as well as other shipping happily together in those times‘ (QPD firms. He was a founding member of the 1975:1151). At the age of 12 he attended a Queensland Club and the North Australian French Academy and was schooled in Freemason‘s Lodge, and was a committee commerce and industry (Heussler 2001:19). It member for the founding of the Brisbane was a liberal education that prepared him to Grammar School. He was on a number of enter the middle class. Indeed, in Germany it government committees, helped form the was considered that education, not wealth, to German Club and importantly, for a time, was be the main pre-requisite for being a member also Emigration Agent for the Colony of of the middle-class (Sagarra 1977:273). Queensland on the Continent of Europe. He was Consul for the Netherlands and from 1880 After graduating, Heussler enrolled at a to 1900 consul for the German Empire (Nagle commercial institute at Frankfurt-am-Main, 1983:122; Corkhill 1991:7-9; Heussler learning finance, banking, the stock exchange, 2001:76-80). Yet he also suffered business markets, transportation systems and more setbacks, especially his sugar interests in the 101 1860s and 1870s, having to mortgage and then parties‘ ( QPD 1879:32). Unlike many of his sell his home Fernberg in Milton, which squatter colleagues in the Legislative Council eventually became Queensland Government and Labor Party opponents in the Lower House (Heussler 2001:152; Nagel 1983:126). House, Heussler sought an active government, not as a tool simply to promote business Heussler no doubt looked with pride at the interests or as a harbinger of radical social united German nation however, he was reform. Instead, government was there to committed to his new home, was an anglophile create a stable society. He told Parliament and in Parliament called Britain ‗home‘ (QPD that: 1895:66). He summed up his affiliations stating that: There should be general progress and happiness; not that a few only should […] although he spoke with a foreign have millions and the majority not a accent […] He was a naturalised bite or a crust. He spoke for humanity, Englishman, and, having lived forty not for a class of the community. The years among them, more of an object of legislation was the well-being Englishman now than he was of of the people (QPD 1879:15). anything else in his feelings, and perhaps a little of the Scotchman into His German liberal/utilitarian sentiments were the bargain (QPD 1884:265). in evidence in his views on education, the economy and parliamentary reform. Heussler may have come from a lower middle- class background but he entered the ranks of Heussler had a cosmopolitan relationship with the commercial middle class in his new home religion, reflective of his own education and and moved freely in the ranks of the colonial cultural Protestantism. State-based education elite. Heussler was no radical in his was a strongly held German liberal ideal, homeland, yet his upbringing, education and which aimed to ready the less fortunate for lower middle and commercial class entry into the Mittelstand or middle-strata of affiliations, when linked to his actions in society (Sheehan 1999:33). German liberals Queensland politics as a member of the held similar ideals to Bentham who promoted Legislative Council, would suggest he the idea of ‗useful learning‘ and argued that displayed strong German liberal sympathies. Latin and Greek are of little value to the great majority of people (Dinwiddy 1989:114). To POLITICAL CAREER IN ensure useful learning and certain standards it was vital that the State provide free public QUEENSLAND education, wresting power from religious institutions (Roberts 1974:189, 195). The urbane Heussler cut a distinct figure in the Legislative Council, dominated by rough hewn During the debates on the State Education Act squatters and gentlemen graziers (Morrison (1875) which sought a free, secular and 1960:558). He saw himself as an honest compulsory education system, there was broker, making constructive criticism and opposition to the reform amongst Heussler‘s being ‗able to bring his wider experience of classical liberal colleagues. Squatter Edward the world […] to view issues contrastively as a Wienholt criticised compulsory education as ―foreigner‖ steeped in another culture‘ ‗un-English‘, (QPD 1873:212) while (Corkhill 1991:16). Heussler never had to businessman Archibald Buchanan described a woo electors because he was appointed for life free, secular and compulsory school system as by the Governor. However, by assessing his ‗wicked‘ and leading to ‗atheism‘ and ‗free actions during parliamentary Divisions, it can thinkers‘ (QPD 1875:1144). However, be seen that he gave his support according to Heussler sided with the liberals in the Lower his ideals and interests which more often than House wanting largely a secular school not were aligned with the conservatives system. He claimed that the ‗State should (Herde 2010: 243-249). educate‘ and also called for grammar schools to be free and within the State system. He was In many of his speeches his German liberal strongly opposed to religious schools saying sentiments were evident and would refer back he believed that ‗the greatest amount of to his experiences in his homeland sometimes happiness in the world had always been where quoting Goethe and others in the House (QPD the greatest amount of liberty in learning had 1875:1210). He saw himself as above party been acknowledged and the least amount of alignments, preferring to see his role as a doctrine taught‘ (QPD 1875:1151). protector of business, checking the radical extravagances of the Lower House. He He also pushed for technical schooling, calling thought of himself as occupying what was for additional agricultural and mechanical called in Europe the ‗party of the Centre, and schools. In true Teutonic style he said from it radiated the extremes of the other Queensland‘s youth should be ‗taught to love 102 good and useful work‘ and claimed that Indeed, Heussler was a strong advocate of the Germany had introduced such ‗rational liberals Crown Lands Act (1884) which was measures‘ (QPD 1875:1277). Thus the utility reflective of the political pendulum swinging or value in learning was to create a stable from a tentative classic liberal orientation secular society without class, religious and towards utilitarian-radical liberalism. historical barriers: in other words a society Displaying a romantic agrarianism, Heussler with middle-class values. said public opinion was behind land reform and that ‗there is plenty of room in the colony In Germany the commercial and lower middle- for the small capitalists and young men of class liberals wanted to break down enterprise‘ (QPD 1884:240-1). He claimed the aristocratic privilege and harness the economy agricultural labourer ‗produce something‘ to achieve progress, and they were concerned unlike ‗parasites‘ such as lawyers and that total economic freedom would only merchants (QPD 1887:15). advantage the larger firms at the expense of smaller artisans (Sheehan 1999: 30). While After the Conservative-Liberal fusion in 1890, Bentham and his followers supported laissez- Heussler sided exclusively with the faire economics, he also recognised the need Continuous Ministry which was in power for for governments to encourage economic the decade, apart from one week of a Labor activity by providing services and ensuring government (Herde 2010:243-9). The union protection of property and labour (Vincent did not represent the seismic shift for him that 1995:47). For utilitarians, the maximising of it did for other German MPs in the Lower utility or value, and thus happiness, was an House. One of his major crusades was for inherent part of the state‘s duty to its citizens government-sponsored co-operative (Dinwiddy 1989:99-102). For Heussler an settlements, which reflected the greatest interventionist government which respected happiness for the greatest number principle. individual enterprise and promoted economic The idea of co-operative settlements in a progress, regulated competition and protected country blessed with rural expanse and a small workers in times of economic downturns manufacturing base, appeared to be a rational reflected his German liberal sentiments. solution to working-class unemployment. In Australia, utilitarianism‘s rejection of class This attachment to economic regulation meant extremism also made co-operativism – a that Heussler, despite his business interests, gathering of individuals to share in an had no taste for unrestrained capitalism. In enterprise for the greater good – an alternative response to the squatter James Taylor‘s call to to militant socialism. cutback government expenditure in tough times, Heussler told Parliament that: In a newspaper article, Heussler declared that ‗co-operation is not communism but When prospects were gloomy, when recompense according to earning capacity‘ times were bad, when all things were (Brisbane Courier, 14 July 1893:6). He wrote low, it was not fit to stop work and that Queensland‘s large expanse was progress. He believed it was the duty of especially suited to co-operative farming every good Government then to do which would ‗bring peace between the capital something substantial to keep things and labour‘. Instead of the government giving going; not to stop them and to bring away rations ‗indiscriminately to good and about a collapse (QPD 1879:17). bad‘, a co-operative system would reward the workers, while the ‗unworthy will […] be He was also an advocate for small farmers, in found out, and can be dealt with in a different contrast to the majority of the Legislative fashion‘ (Brisbane Courier, 14 July 1893:6). Council dominated by squatters. Resting his Heussler believed co-operative settlements argument on utilitarian principles, Heussler were the panacea to militant socialism because outlined the views of the squatters in the they allowed the working class, who would Upper House, whom he saw as a self- otherwise be opposed to capital, to become interested lobby group. He thought that: producers and part of a liberal middle-class society. It was a middle-class solution for a […] as a body of representative men, potentially volatile Volk and quite unlike the every member of the Council had a ideological-bound co-operative communities much higher duty than that of looking established by early socialists Robert Owen out for one‘s self … as representative and Charles Fourier in Europe (Heywood men, they should step out of 1992: 94). themselves, so to say, and look upon the whole community as deriving In line with Bentham‘s adherents, Heussler happiness and prosperity […] His idea also saw the government as a service provider. of true representation was, the securing In 1895 he told parliament that the colony was of the greatest amount of happiness for moving towards ‗true socialism‘, with the post all (QPD 1878:56). office, telegraph and railways in government 103 hands. He said that in Scotland and England, opinion in a greater degree than if they were the government owned gas and water supplies elected‘ (QPD 1871:448). Six years later he which had reduced costs to the consumer, defended the idea of being nominated for life while in Switzerland there was a referendum claiming ‗it was the most judicial and real on the state being able to sell spirits and in exercise of the sovereign power‘ (QPD France the state sold tobacco (QPD 1895:66- 1877:43). According to Heussler, security of 7). But it was a very different system than the tenure: one proposed by Labor: […] sometimes prevents measures All this is socialism in true form […] which are hastily concluded, perhaps, this is not the socialism that agitators under what I may call misguided public wish to bring about. Theirs is a opinion for the time – and which we all levelling process, and is something know are occasionally brought forward very different from that which naturally in deference to popular feeling; it grows out of the progress of the people. prevents such measures being imposed We are going in a socialistic direction, upon the country without due time for and no power in the world will be able reflection and deliberation (QPD to prevail against it. But it is the 1877:43). socialism of a kind which will not allow people to do as they like and to Accepting the winds of change, Heussler, who oppress one another, and I hope our recognised the widespread support for a more Government will foster it as much as inclusive political system, reversed his earlier possible where good grounds for opposition to payment to MPs. He said he had progress come before them (QPD learnt that ‗the country was in favour of the 1895:67). measure‘ and it was only payment to pay their expenses (QPD 1889:69). He saw himself as a For Heussler, class-based militant socialism of representative of the liberal Staat, and the Volk the kind which he believed surfaced during the had to earn entry into the middle class. In this 1891 shearers‘ strikes was abhorrent because it regard the failed to fully embrace the pitted one class against another. He saw that it utilitarian acceptance of a more inclusive was the role of the State to ensure stability by political system. To him, freedom did not establishing ‗true socialism‘ for the benefit of mean the right vote or even participate in the all, while ensuring a kinder type of capitalism, political process but meant equality before the in which individuals would be allowed to law, which was important to protect individual realise their potential, within a regulated civil rights in an illiberal state. society in which the State was an active participant. Heussler believed the only result Heussler linked his German liberalism to of militant socialism was class war and utilitarian ideals in the Australian context. He revolution. sought economic reform and at times there was tension between that and his advocacy of However, Heussler was not comfortable with social progress. A secular rationalist, he was utilitarian‘s support for manhood suffrage, a comfortable with the government taking an single chamber and other measures to ensure active role in development and increasingly that the ‗Government would so regulate saw the State as an ally in most endeavours. society that man‘s own self-interest would For Heussler, governments should be promote the greatest happiness‘ (Roberts institutions to ensure the greatest number 1974:187-8). In the Queensland Parliament could benefit from the fruits of society. there was a call for a wider franchise, an Reform should come from above, not from the elected Upper House, the payment of members radicals below. Social progress was important and triennial parliaments. They were ideas to Heussler but only in terms derived from his consistent with the left wing of the German German liberal values. liberal movement in contrast to the centre who wanted something less radical: To protect the References state from the dangers of the mob and yet provide opportunities for political, participation to those deserving (Sheehan Chilcote, R 1981, Theories of Comparative 1999:27-8). Politics: The Search for a Paradigm, Westview Press Inc, Boulder, Colorado. Calls to change the Legislative Council from a nominated body to one elected were Collins, H 1985, ‗Political Ideology in predictably opposed by Heussler. 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105 Catholicism and Alcoholism: The Irish Diaspora lived ethics of the Dropkick Murphys punk band
Kieran James & Bligh Grant University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, 4350, Australia.
Corresponding author: Kieran James ([email protected])
Abstract A POSTMODERN IRISH NATIONALISM This paper discusses the contemporary Irish-
American punk band, the Dropkick Murphys, and in particular the band‘s most recent studio album The Dropkick Murphys (hereafter DMs) have 2007s The Meanest of Times. We find that the unabashedly adopted an image and worldview band‘s resurgent Irish nationalism is both uniquely of a resurgent and triumphalist Irish a product of the Irish Diaspora, and, although the nationalism grounded in singing of Irish band might be unwilling to admit it, American traditions, festivities, towns and places, and culture and its self-confident jingoistic patriotism. use traditional Irish instrumentation in some of The band‘s attitude to Roman Catholicism is, in their music. Fictitious characters in songs Sartre‘s (2003) words, a unique synthesis of invariably are given Irish names, such as facticity and transcendence in that they ‗Flannigan‘s Ball‘ and ‗Fairmount Hill‘. acknowledge its reality as a shadow overhanging both their pasts and their presents. However, the However, what emerges is as obviously a band seems to go beyond simply acknowledging its product of the USA as it is of Ireland. spectre by adopting, expressing, and/or reflecting Although Dublin is referenced in songs (e.g. some degree of religious faith themselves without the cover of ‗Rocky Road to Dublin‘), Boston, going so far as to be clearly a ‗Catholic band‘ like, America‘s ‗Irish city‘, is referenced more for example, the Priests. frequently. We thus have a uniquely Diasporic Irishness created, which is in a sense genuine The shadow of a religious culture, and some degree and in a sense romanticised and even of actual religious belief set the backdrop for and fabricated. The Irishness is extremely self- indeed inspire the band‘s world-weary tales of urban alienation, family breakdown, and brotherly conscious and pushes the barrier between affection; complex, metaphysical accounts of a authenticity and inauthenticity without culture imbedded in Diaspora. Yet, due to their becoming wholly unbelievable. status as a punk band, the Dropkick Murphys render this attendant religious metaphysic eminently Whilst the history of Ireland is frequently graspable by de-mythologising it. In particular, the portrayed as merely sectarian and violent in band explores what 1970s punk journalist Caroline popular media (the films Bloody Sunday, Coon described as ‗personal politics‘ sharing this directed by Paul Greengrass and In the Name with other ‗postmodern‘ contemporary punk bands of the Father, directed Jim Sheridan, as well as NOFX (see James 2010) and the Offspring as well as their predecessors such as the Sex Pistols. the political and religious content of U2‘s Through our ethnomusicological reading of The earlier albums Boy (1980) October (1981) and Meanest of Times (2007) they remind us that it is War (1983)) the DMs infer a romanticised, a- equally important to understand the experience of historical Ireland which is a pleasure to visit migrant security, Diasporic or otherwise, as and easy to identify with. Theirs is a oscillating between what Giddens (1991) termed postmodern nationalism that assimilates ‗ontological security‘ and ‗existential anxiety‘ disparate cultural products to form a narrative alongside geo-political readings of the same of national identity. The DM‘s nationalism phenomenon. caters for Irish emigrants, those who have Irish
ancestors in the long distant past, and those Keywords who are simply attracted to aspects of the Existential anxiety, Existentialism; Irish Diaspora; Irish Nationalism; ontological culture (Ireland‘s vibrancy being preferred security; punk music; Roman Catholicism over England‘s dourness and austerity). If we have an Irish parent or grandparent we can choose the DMs‘ Irish narrative without guilt (or even if we have no Irish ancestry at all). We are never forced to choose sides politically or in war.
While possibly objectionable in the sense that man to come home in silent devotion). it reconstitutes the history of sectarian Ireland However the rough world-weary sounds of the (see, for example, MacDonagh, 1992; O'Leary, two singers of the DMs (who exchange lines 1995) so as to render it politically benign, we rapid-fire with each other, in the manner of argue that the DMs retain sufficient sincerity Californian punks Rancid), makes this and lived ethics to make their project viable. In message come across as sincere and the the same way a Croatian Diasporic band could product of lived experiences, that is authentic, authentically focus on Croatian-Catholic working-class and Catholic, as opposed to national identity whilst not involving itself in middle-class, Anglican, and conservative. the reality of recent war in the Balkans. In a There are similarities here with the veiled postmodern world of shifting unstable moral and religious messages of Tolstoy and identities and mass immigration, many feel Dostoyevsky (see Tolstoy, 2003) which attracted to and comforted by nationalist arguably only works successfully in cultures messages of various sorts. Being associated such as the Russian and the Irish, where with the political left rather than the political religion, or at least the external trappings of a right makes the DM‘s project less problematic very visual religious tradition, is woven into (unlike, for example, white-British nationalist the fabric of national life. The DMs would punk band Skrewdriver referred to in Bill agree with Tolstoy that it is ‗better to be a Buford‘s ethnographic study of English Levin than a Vronsky‘, i.e. better to maintain football hooligans Among the Thugs (1993)). one‘s personal freedom, integrity, and self- Being rooted in a romanticised a-historical respect rather than forsake conscience and past and a largely self-created diasporic society to engage in cynical and self-centred present, the DMs‘ world of Irishness seems extra-marital relations which ultimately hinder largely unassailable. In effect, they are one‘s own honest personal journey of self implicitly asserting that it is the Irishness that creation rather than assist it. we choose that counts; as such its authenticity is guaranteed. The DMs allow this lived The rest of the paper discusses songs from the Irishness and lived Catholicism to gel with DMs‘ most recent studio album The Meanest more traditional and mainstream punk rock of Times in order of the track listing on the concerns such as integrity and falsehood; album. corporate greed and the greed of the small businessperson; the emptiness of pre-marital „FAMOUS FOR NOTHING‟ sexual relations and the single person‘s ‗meat- market‘; whiskey- and war-related early deaths The opening song is a super-fast DMs song in (as on ‗Virtues and Vices‘ where, the classic 1990s punk mould characterised by significantly, the war death portrayed is in rapid-fire exchange of vocal parts between the Vietnam rather than Northern Ireland); child singers. Lyrically the band is at its least abuse and marital breakdown (as on ‗The State moralistic here which is appropriate for an of Massachusetts‘ and ‗Walk Away‘ album-opener (certain to become a regular respectively). A loosely quasi-Catholic feature of the band‘s live set) so that no position is combined with a postmodern listener is shocked by the band‘s religiously existentialist worldview similar to that of Nick influenced morality early on. The song begins Hornby‘s 30-something single male characters with the sound of a classroom bell and in his novels High Fidelity (2005) and About a children‘s playground noises, complementing Boy (1998), so that pre-marital sex is despised the cheerful Irish Catholic schoolyard because the experience of waking up in a photograph on the album cover. We are stranger‘s bed is unpleasant, as opposed to it immediately brought back to the primary being morally wrong ex-ante from the school playgrounds of Ireland (or at least perspective of the Church. Likewise, an Boston). The song verses include some unnamed male friend is urged to reconsider reference to the courts filling up after a ‗long leaving his family in pursuit of the idol of night on the town‘, at once giving the song a presumed freedom (in ‗Walk Away‘). These contemporary context but also reminding us of moral positions can be viewed as being our own unruly youth. First we have as vaguely or loosely Catholic in the sense that follows: family unity and loyalty are given pride of place, or valorised, rather than the stark There‘s two little shits/ individualism of the postmodern consumer. Selling joints on the hill/ And the kids down the lot/ On another song (‗Echoes on A Street‘) a Are burning cruisers for a thrill. friend is reminded of his wife‘s devotion (‗she promised to honour, cherish and keep you/ she And again: took your problems and took your name‘) that might annoy feminists (not because women The courts are filling up/ are treated as sex objects but because they are All the kids are coming down/ assigned a traditional role as waiting for the 107 For a head start on the troubles/ extra gusto and a conviction borne of bitter Of a long night on the town. experience:
The use of first-person singular throughout is Well these lies won't save me/ somewhat odd. As in the case of Rancid (on Don't you know, don't you know/ classic tracks such as ‗Roots Radicals‘ (on From the time that made me/ 1995 album …And Out Come the Wolves), Here we go, here we go. ‗Ruby Soho‘ (on …And Out Come the Wolves) and ‗Otherside‘ (on 2003 Indestructible These lines remain difficult to interpret. The album)), the use of the two vocalists, in ‗lies‘ must refer to drunkenness and teenage combination with the first-person singular anarchy but the choice of the word ‗lies‘ here, pronoun, conveys the unspoken impression of with its religious overtones, is revealing. We lads growing up together and in fact of shared then hear the contradiction that has always childhood experiences or at the very least of been a feature of the best humanist punk rock childhood experiences in common. To and the best of classic literature, including mentally and emotionally fight this aural Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky: although my past impact is difficult: we are drawn into the experiences were ‗lies‘, existentially they are DMs‘ world and convinced of its authenticity what I have become; indeed ‗they were the through the medium of the ‗two witnesses‘. times that made me‘. We are reminded of The DMs use this technique as skilfully as Dostoyevsky‘s characters Raskolnikov in Rancid did a decade earlier. Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky, 1991) who re-creates himself after murder of the It is in this song that we get a fairly direct pawnbroker by financially assisting Sonya‘s introduction to the DMs‘ complicated Irish family despite his mental turmoil, and the world of ‗Catholicism and Alcoholism‘. narrator in The House of the Dead Clearly the band members chose the second (Dostoyevsky, 1985) whose fear and cynicism path (to the extent that the two paths oppose in being sent to a Siberian prison camp slowly one another) but they are not shut out to the and unexpectedly metamorphoses into hope other (‗God willing‘, of course, to cite the title and a fresh desire for living through such of the album‘s second song). We hear that ‗the small events as the prisoners‘ shared happiness big one‘s on the way‘, being the Sunday in participating in a Christmas play. As Sartre morning problem hangover, and that ‗I‘m a (2003) argues in Being and Nothingness, God damned travesty‘. The chorus switches although self re-creation in the manner of the over half way through the song so that we get deed is always possible for the existentialist, the band spelling out a clear demarcation: our personal journey can have no starting ‗Their gang went my way for basketball/ my point other than our actual past. gang went their way for alcohol‘. This appears to be past tense, describing school days. In fact The Roman Catholic aspect is emphasised we are ‗famous for nothing‘ and ‗nothing was only in the second half of the song as if the our world‘. It is this self-deprecating honesty Catholic tradition of Ireland operates as a kind that saves the DMs, as it saved Rancid in the of echo or repressed memory that takes some 1990s and Joe Strummer in the 1970s. We can time to be dredged up from the subconscious. identify with ‗nothing‘ as ‗our world‘. The First we hear that ‗the good Lord was calling vocals are hard to understand at times but the me, 9-to-3 on weekdays, and on the hour on band makes sure that we can hear clearly the Sundays‘, which then later on becomes ‗Jesus most important lines: ‗it was us against the Christ was calling me, 9-to-3 on weekdays, world‘ of course appeals to the punk audience, and on the hour on Sundays‘. The ‗9 to 3 on as does its ‗rhyming‘ (to use the term loosely) weekdays‘ is a reference to the ritualistic line, ‗nothing was our world‘. The DMs do nature of Catholic education propaganda nothing as successfully as trading on the which can only operate during the times of the ‗underdog spirit‘ of punk rock and the Irish day set down for it. ‗On the hour on Sundays‘ nationalist factor helps immensely here. The suggests living within earshot of the local juxtaposition of past and present is handled Catholic parish church and indeed that is well and is vital to the existentialist approach. confirmed with the song‘s last repeated refrain It reminds the authors of the Clash ‗still the bells of St Mary‘s kept ringing‘, successfully juxtaposing past and present in which might (or might not) contain a reference the haunting ‗Something about England‘, to the 1944 Hollywood film The Bells of St where Strummer, as narrator, meets an aging Mary‟s starring Bob Hope. As the song closes war veteran who takes him back in flashback out, we recall the opening lines of the song narrative through the major events of the about youth having a ‗long night on the town‘ twentieth century. We then return in the last and the singers‘ own alcoholic tendencies. The verse, after the old man has shifted off home, last line then speaks to our inner soul or to the London world of 1980 with its bars, conscience, even in the religious sense: how gangs, bedsits, and police sirens. The did we respond to the church bells, and how following DMs‘ quasi-chorus is sung with are we responding now? There is a complexity 108 here, the Catholic Church being dealt with from exploitation at the hands of Multi- subtly and in a nuanced fashion: it is not National Corporations, the police force or demonised, if anything it is presented as akin local drug lords (for Rancid songs on these to Hamlet‘s ghost or the ‗spectres of Marx‘ in topics see ‗Rwanda‘ (on self-titled 2000 the post-modern sense (Derrida 1994). The album), ‗Radio Havana‘ (on self-titled 2000 Church is not presented simplistically as either album) and ‗Stand Your Ground‘ (on 2003 the cause of, or the solution to, Ireland‘s or Indestructible album)). All three bands Boston‘s problems. It is simply there, in the embrace notions of the ‗proletariat‘, the background, casting a shadow (as indeed ‗outsiders‘, the ‗ruling class‘, institutional Lennon and McCartney understood as well, as power, alienation, and the importance of indicated by the lyrics to 1966 Beatles‘ song working-class brotherhood and collective ‗Eleanor Rigby‘, from the Revolver action. All three bands‘ relationships with album,featuring the ‗oh-so-ordinary‘, hence orthodox Marxism remain unclear. The DMs the oh-so-significant, Father Mackenzie). The simply take both the humanism and the DMs makes it clear that it is the shadow or the Political Correctness (PC) a step further than spectre of the Catholic Church, if nothing else, the other two bands as is appropriate for the that remains an integral part of Irishness and 2000s (although Mick Jones of the Clash was indeed it cannot be otherwise. It may take an always much more PC, even in the 1970s, than expatriate overseas Irishwoman or Irishman to his bandmate Joe Strummer, as Pat Gilbert‘s see this, as she or he sees the Church forced to (2004) Clash biography Passion is a Fashion compete with a variety of other religious points out). The Catholicism factor is an traditions, some of which appear on the important element in this. Whilst the 1970s surface at least to be much more logical, produced entertaining radicals JG Ballard and reasonable and up-to-date than the religion of the Clash, the 2000s produced the tamer and the Pope. The ambiguous and complex more PC, but nonetheless interesting and relationship of the band to the Church in this enjoyable, Nick Hornby and Dropkick song gives way to the later songs of the album Murphys. where the Church is not mentioned directly but a clear moral position on a wide variety of Another issue presents itself for us social and economic issues is carefully postmoderns. Do the DMs believe in Catholic presented and argued for. The Church teachings in the literal religious sense? As the continues to hang over the album like a Slovenian post-communist philosopher Slavoj shadow; it influences proceedings much more Žižek (2003, 2008) points out, this question is than we can ever know. unacceptable and archaic from a position of postmodern ethical fluidity, but it is worth We get no advocating of violence on DM‘s asking here. It seems that the Church is albums, nor do we even get swearing. We are presented as being more than simply a human left with a very wholesome and moral album cultural institution: its links to the divine are that walks the fine line between morality and never denied by the band. To deny the divine moralism; usually it is the morality of bitter origins of the Church outright would surely life experiences that talks. We are clearly not take away the mystique of the Church and in Rancid territory where the band celebrates much of its power (even today). Clearly the wounding of 30 police in Oakland riots Catholicism is important for the DMs‘ connected to the poll tax in the song ‗Brixton‘ worldview and hence the band does not cast re-released on the 2008 compilation album B doubts upon its divine connections directly. Sides and C Sides. Similarly, we are not in Nevertheless, the possibility remains that the Clash territory where the small-time thief DMs actually do literally believe, at least to Jimmy Jazz is romanticised (in the 1979 song some extent. This then represents a powerful ‗Jimmy Jazz‘ on the London Calling album) challenge to the assumptions of modernity. It and the blacks of Ladbroke Grove and Notting may be better to see religious belief as a Hill are lionised for their willingness to take continuum rather than as a 0/1 binary up arms against the reactionary London police dichotomy. Then the DMs surely have at least force of the era in the 1977 song ‗White Riot‘ some faith in the divine. They sing ‗Jesus on the self-titled debut album. However, Christ was calling me‘, not ‗The Church was clearly there are similarities between the calling me‘ or ‗the priests and nuns were approaches: the existentialism of the validity calling me‘; or even the more ambiguous and of lived experiences is the key to the PC ‗a higher power was calling me‘. The DMs philosophies of all three bands and the male are not concerned about offending anyone‘s drinking culture is important for the DMs as sensibilities here. In fact, the DMs‘ possible well as for the other two bands. However, religious faith here increases the drama quality clearly, the DMs also understand and present and the urgency of the band‘s message (and the negative side of male alcohol consumption. their moralism): if Jesus Christ is literally All three bands exhibit a refreshing humanism calling me then this is a much more significant which gallantly aims to protect women, ethnic than if the Church is calling me in the purely minorities, children, the weak and the poor cultural sense. So we are left with an important 109 postmodern message: we can dare to have right to take the children away. The band does religious faith and allow it to influence our not celebrate the taking of the children away; worldviews. This faith is best seen as the there is a strong sense of regret and anguish as socially radical left-wing Catholicism of the they ponder over what might have been (the Second Vatican Council, John Paul II, and ‗paths not taken‘) and allow themselves to Polish Solidarity. Whilst the DMs romanticise connect with the women‘s feelings of loss, an a-historical Ireland their approach remains anger and bitterness. Nonetheless, there is also nonetheless contemporary and a product of the an emotion of relief present as the band contemporary world. members believe that the decision made, now a fait accompli, was in the best interests of the „THE STATE OF children. The song begins as follows: MASSACHUSETTS‟ She had excuses and she chose to In ‗The State of Massachusetts‘ the band use them/ locates its own modern concerns in the State She was the victim of unspeakable of Massachusetts, USA, which has ‗Irish‘ abuses/ Boston as its capital city. The joyfulness of the Her husband was violent, malicious band‘s music seems incongruous with the and distant/ serious, somewhat depressing, and clinically Her kids now belong to the state of ‗social realist‘ lyrical message. The complex Massachusetts. lyrical theme involves the taking away of two children by the State of Massachusetts. The They've been taken away! Hey! two children, Billy and Tommy, belong to a They've been taken away! couple, friends of the band, who are not able to care for the children properly. The band walks The very ethical position of the band, that the fine line between compassionate refuses to be swayed by ‗excuses‘ and responsible humanism and unreflexive ‗victimhood‘, renders the DMs as a moralism in this song. The upbeat musical (post)modern band that has accepted the sounds are clearly designed to make the moral wisdoms of many traditional values. The message more easily digestible to the band‘s woman‘s hard past and difficult present are fans. The band members know the fictional acknowledged by the band but do not cause wayward couple, and the mother is referred to the band to change its decision to support the throughout in second-person singular. The actions of the DSS. Next we are introduced to mother is variously chastised and remonstrated the children who are well known by the song with, the band being convinced that ‗she has narrators: had her last chance‘ with the children and that the DSS (Department of Social Security) was Billy was a bright one, Tommy's off right to take the children away. The woman is his head/ not judged by the band; the band aims simply Mother loved them both the same, at to help her accept the dictates of least that's what she said/ reasonableness. The chorus refrain ‗they‘ve I don't predict the future, I don't care been taken away‘ hangs in the air poignantly about the past/ but you can easily imagine the line being sung Send them both to DSS, now you've raucously by the crowd in concert, its original had your chance. meaning being ignored (much like on the 2001 DVD No Bull, when AC/DC perform the song The line ‗I don't predict the future, I don't care ‗Hell‘s Bells‘ in front of an audience of 18- about the past‘ reinforces the band‘s position year-old partying Spanish youth, the song that sentimentality will not be allowed to rule becomes simply another anthem of their decision-making processes. The mother celebration, its original meaning as an angry may claim to have reformed, but the future and confused response to the death of Bon may well turn out to be just like the past. Scott being forgotten). Clearly, the band believes that now is not the time for a second chance. The next verse, sung The DMs‘ social realist position and its in the manner of a chorus, nearly mocks the humanitarianism make this song a partial mother for her unrealistic stance and her success. Clearly the Catholicism referred to in appropriation of ‗victimhood‘, and then the ‗Famous for nothing‘ has influenced the verse after this one puts the band‘s responsible worldviews of the band members so that they humanism centre-stage by arguing that it is the are willing to take a strong moral stance on children‘s future that matters the most: issues such as child abuse and neglect. The song does reflect some existential angst to the The poison stole your babies/ extent that the woman is clearly well known to The judges took your rights/ the band and they hold affection for her; You can have your children or the nonetheless they believe that the DSS was night. 110 some lovely turns of phrase but the listener is I suppose you've been a victim, I left to piece them together by herself to form a suspect you may have lied/ coherent message. Our preferred interpretation Have you lost all ambition, won't is that ‗yesterday‘s values‘ are not being you give this thing a try/ presented favourably here so we have no If you can't and you fail, you won't simple romanticisation of the past. The be the only loser/ contradiction the band argues for, between These kids don't stand a chance with ‗yesterday‘s values‘ and ‗tomorrow‘s you in their future. industry‘, suggests that ‗tomorrow‘s industry‘ will be a more caring, more just, kinder place The use of the word ‗lies‘ again, as in ‗I where social and environmental concerns are suspect you may have lied‘ brings to the placed at centre-stage. This inoffensive PC forefront again the shadow of Catholic values, message seems somewhat naïve and but even here the band is not willing to make a inconsistent with the band‘s strong support for direct accusation of ‗lying‘. Instead, they hardcore trade unionists on earlier albums simply say that the mother is ‗suspected‘ of (such as ‗Worker‘s Song‘ on 2003 album doing so. Blackout and ‗Which Side Are You On?‘ and ‗Heroes From Our Past‘ on 2001 album Sing „TOMORROW‟S INDUSTRY‟ Loud, Sing Proud!). The chorus is as follows:
This is a rather strange song with a somewhat Greed is blinding you/ veiled lyrical message. The band is clearly But we can see/ ranting against the song‘s main protagonist, an He's got yesterday's values/ old-fashioned ultra-competitive capitalist Living in tomorrow's industry. small businessperson. However, exactly what the person has done wrong and how he can The shift from second-person to third-person make amends is only hinted at. The band is singular halfway through the chorus is less successful in conveying one clear moral confusing also: is it the same person being message here, especially when listening to the talked about? We suspect that it is. The band song as opposed to studying the lyrics. The drifts off-topic in the last verse and the song opening clever first verse introduces the main does not end strongly. In the last verse we protagonist, clearly a driven alienated careerist depart from our lead character and the band such as Ivan Ilyich in Tolstoy‘s famous short makes some social commentary about the story ‗The Death of Ivan Ilyich‘ (see Feldman rising cost of living and the need for families 2004; James et al., forthcoming). The person to have two jobs to pay the bills. Overall, it is aims to pay for ‗Catholic school‘ fees, hard to be sure whether the lead character is introducing the Irish dimension, and he adopts being portrayed as a hero or anti-hero, and, the old-fashioned business values of hard whilst in other songs this complexity works, work, thrift, sacrifice and tough but fair we argue here that it merely confuses. The last competition: verse is as follows:
Young kids in Catholic schools/ The weight falls hard on the stand up Elderly parents living under your guy/ roof/ The one you can count on you can You pay the bills and you pay the rely/ price/ This is your future it don't seem You don't back down and you won't right/ play nice/ But this is your battle, this is your The disgraced values of the company fight/ man/ Something in this country has got to Are why you fight and sacrifice/ change/ Don't bend or break for their one- If we're ever going to see those days way rules/ again/ Or run from battles you know you'll Your parents may have done it with lose. just one job/ But now we're working for less and The song does not succeed in the way it should twice as hard. as one fears that there is no one strong clear and coherent message unlike in ‗The State of Whilst the song contains many good ideas, its Massachusetts‘. Instead, we have some lovely impact is weak, compared to the impact of the suggestive phrases thrown together (which is other songs discussed here. In the first half of the essence of Žižek‘s (2010) recent critique of the song the Catholic businessperson is Adorno). Possibly giving a name to our criticised but later on he is praised for his fictional protagonist may have helped matters ‗principles‘. The band, whilst lamenting the here. The following chorus also puts together present, seem to want to return to the old days 111 of our leading character where each family‘s narrative. This verse is sung slowly and sole breadwinner had to put the children authoritatively and every word can be heard through Catholic schools solely through his clearly especially in the pivotal first four lines own efforts. before the song builds up some momentum. The third and fourth lines especially are sung slowly, with conviction and authority, and are „ECHOES ON “A” STREET‟ clearly audible. The song‘s message will certainly impact many in the band‘s audience, In what is, musically speaking at least, an although its message may be largely lost on extremely powerful song, ‗Echoes on ―A‖ younger fans that have not yet had similar life Street‘ tells the story of a faithful young wife experiences. staying at home patiently waiting for her husband to come home in silent devotion. As a As often happens with DM songs lyrically the listener you presume that the narrator is first verse is the strongest or at least the most remonstrating with a young male friend urging in line with principles of social realism. By the him [the friend] to see his own wife‘s good time we reach the second half of many DM qualities. This is the impression that the song songs emotion and pathos take over and creates since the narrator addresses all his careful descriptions and logical argument tend remarks to an unnamed ‗you‘. However, the to be put to one side. We can see this last refrain of ‗Shannon I'm coming home‘ happening here later in the song with the (which is also the song‘s chorus) introduces following melodramatic verse. For any band some confusion/complexity as here the other than the DMs we might think that this narrator seems to be acknowledging and verse is a send-up (imagine it in the hands of praising his own wife. Have we then got a ‗Fat Mike‘ Burkett and his joker buddies from song like the 1976 Kiss ballad ‗Beth‘, on the NOFX; James 2010). However, clearly, the Destroyer album, where the singer-on-the-road DMs are completely serious. They simply addresses his patient faithful wife-at-home prefer the emotional melodramatic approach (although ‗Beth‘ had at least some sincerity that the Irish traditionally (and stereotypically) clearly the DMs song has more)? It is probably tend to be known for. The second verse is as better to simply view the chorus as a follows: juxtaposition of the Shannon relationship with the other relationship being referred to in the As she waits patiently by the song in the same way that ‗Famous for window/ nothing‘ juxtaposes past and present. We then She knows you'll be coming home have a song similar to ‗State of Massachusetts soon/ or, on the previous album, ‗Walk Away‘. The She'll sit quiet there and won't go/ first verse then appears particularly strong and Her dedication can't be moved/ insightful: She hears the echoes marching down "A" street/ Anxious nights give way to daylight/ Like footsteps on the cobblestone/ She don't cry and she don't A pace to heavy to be her master/ complain/ They pass her by and she's still To honour, cherish, protect and keep alone. you/ She took your problems and took The references to her ‗master‘ and the your name/ ‗cobblestones‘ will have some laughing in All she wants to do is stroll down the derision, although clearly they do still have island/ cobblestones in Ireland. Without doubt the She don't care if there's wind or band is having some fun here; possibly they there's rain/ have given themselves licence to do just that Only a women of her stature/ after communicating the very serious message Could shield you from the venom of in the first verse. Only an Irish-American this town's disdain. nationalist band could ‗get away with‘ words like this but they do not drag down the song as There is an element of juxtaposition of past a whole since the first verse has already and present here as well with the last line of proved so effective. It is interesting that in the verse suggesting some past event in order some songs the DMs can be so very PC (see to set context. We have a narrative that is ‗State of Massachusetts‘) whereas here they similar to a lawyer building up a carefully are anything but. It could be that the contexts crafted argument; the goal here is surely to of the two songs simply warrant different persuade the male friend of his own wife‘s responses – in ‗State of Massachusetts‘, the goodness in the context of the possible case has already been decided in a public temptation to abandon everything and run context involving judges and government away. The citation of the wedding vows adds a departments. Hence a carefully worded clear Catholic presence to the powerful response is required. By contrast, in ‗Echoes 112 on A Street‘, we simply have a friend‘s private Derrida, J 1994, Spectres of Marx, Routledge, relationship (that is a non-public setting) and London. the band can be freer in its choice of words. Also the ‗State of Massachusetts‘ had an Dostoyevsky, F 1995, The house of the dead, official YouTube video clip and was for wide D McDuff (trans), Penguin Classics, public consumption whereas ‗Echoes on A London. Street‘ is more of an ‗in-house‘ song aimed at Dostoyevsky, F 1991, Crime and punishment, dedicated fans. In both songs, however, the D McDuff (trans) Penguin Classics, London. moral message is extremely clear and delivered with strident conviction. At the same Feldman, S P 2004, ‗The professional time the veiled Catholicism is also clearly conscience: A psychoanalytic study of moral evident. character in Tolstoy‘s The Death of Ivan Ilyich‘, Journal of Business Ethics, 49:311- CONCLUDING REMARKS: THE 328. MURPHYS AND MIGRANT Gilbert, P 2004, Passion is a fashion: The real SECURITY story of the Clash, Aurum Press, London.
So despite their project as ‗merely‘ a punk Hornby, N 1998, About a boy, Penguin, band, and despite what we have identified as London. some of the ambiguities in their moral poise – particularly with respect to Irish nationalism, Hornby, N 2005, High fidelity, Riverhead American jingoism and (more interestingly) Trade, London. their Catholicism – it is indeed a complex imagining that is the DM‘s Diaspora. This rich James, K 2010, ‗Living the punk life in Green texture stands alongside other ethnographic Bay, Wisconsin: Exploring contradiction in and indeed ethnomusicological accounts of the the music of NOFX‘, Musicology Australia, migrant/Diaspora experience presented at this 32(1):95-120. Symposium (see, for example, in this volume, Baak 2010; James, et al. 2010; Mason 2010) James, K, Briggs, SP and James, EM and juxtaposes heavily with both those forthcoming, ‗Raskolnikov speaks today: discourses that are state-centric on the one Marxism and alienation in Fyodor hand, and indeed rights-centric by way of Dostoyevsky‘s Crime and Punishment and reply. Arguably, in these latter discourses the the implications for business ethics experience of migrant security is conveniently education‘, International Journal of Critical simplistic – perhaps for the sake of policy Accounting. formulation – yet it may indeed be in this convenient rendering that these dominant James, K, Skinner, J, Tolliday, C and Walsh, discourses miss the opportunity of crafting R 2010, ‗The appropriation of migrant more nuanced prescriptions. For this reason, labour as Australia‘s Premier Football and for their own complex integrity, the DMs League turns hyper-capitalist‘, paper do well and deserve to be taken seriously. presented at Migrant security: Citizenship Their (very popular) approach and worldview and social inclusion in a transnational era, might provide something of a wake-up call to 15th – 16th July, University of Southern those researchers who see no place for religion Queensland, Toowoomba. in public life and a clarion call for adding complex and conflicting meanings to the lived MacDonagh, O 1992, States of mind. Two experiences of migrants. centuries of Anglo-Irish conflict, Pimlico, London. References Mason, R 2010, ‗Rethinking resentment: Baak, M 2010, ‗Murder, community, talk and Political memory and identity in Australia‘s belonging: An exploration of Sudanese Salvadoran community‘, Migrant security: community responses to murder‘, Migrant 2010. Proceedings of the National Migrant th th Security: 2010. Proceedings of the National Security Symposium, 15 – 16 July, Migrant Security Symposium, 15th – 16th July University of Southern Queensland, 2010, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba. Toowoomba. O‘Leary, B 1995, Explaining Northern Buford, B 1993, Among the thugs, Vintage Ireland. Broken images, Blackwell, Oxford. Random House, London and New York. Sartre, J-P 2003, Being and nothingness, Giddens, A 1991, The consequences of Routledge Classics, London. modernity, Polity Press, Cambridge.
113 Tolstoy, L 2003, Anna Karenina,Penguin Dropkick Murphys, Blackout, Hellcat Records, Books, London. 2003.
Žižek, S 2003, The puppet and the dwarf: The Dropkick Murphys, The Meanest of Times, perverse core of Christianity, Massachusetts Born & Bred Records, 2007. Institute of Technology, Boston.
------2008, The fragile absolute or why the Kiss, Destroyer, Island/Mercury, 1976. Christian legacy is worth fighting for, Verso, London/New York. Rancid, …And Out Come the Wolves, Epitaph- Ada Records, 1995. ------2010, Living in the End Times, Verso,
London/New York. Rancid, Rancid, Hellcat Records, 2000.
Rancid, Indestructible, Epitaph, 2003. Discography Rancid, B Sides and C Sides, Cobra, 2008. AC/DC, No Bull [DVD], (Live Plaza De Toros De Las Ventas, Madrid), East-West, 1996. U2, Boy, Island Records, 1980.
The Beatles, Revolver, EMI, 1966. U2, October, Island Records, 1981.
The Clash, The Clash (UK version), Sony- U2, War, Island Records, 1983. CBS, 1977.
The Clash, London Calling, Sony-CBS, 1979.
Dropkick Murphys, Sing Loud Sing Proud! Hellcat Records, 2001.
114 The Dutch on the Tweed
Martin Jansen in de Wal ([email protected]) Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia, 6102, Australia.
Abstract eighteen‘.1 The term ‗civic engagement‘ will be used to denote community involvement. This paper describes a planned investigation into The second stage will involve a greater range the experiences, activities and perceptions of some of methods, more participants, a wider of the current second-generation Dutch-Australian definition of ‗Dutch Australian‘ and a broader residents of the Tweed Shire in northern New South concept of civic engagement. This paper deals Wales. The participants are Dutch Australian mainly with stage one, although reference is residents who were born in the Netherlands and made to stage two where appropriate. who arrived in Australia as the children of Dutch immigrants. The focus of this qualitative, sociological investigation is the civic engagement CONTEXT OF THE of these residents with the Tweed Valley INVESTIGATION community. The first stage deals with the working- life aspects of civic engagement, including voluntary work. A significant methodological issue Selecting the Tweed Shire as the site of the is that the researcher is himself a Dutch Australian investigation was largely a matter of resident of the Tweed Shire. convenience. However it is important to relate this choice to the Dutch Australian presence in Keywords NSW and in Australia. According to the Civic engagement, Dutch, Dutch Australian, Tweed Shire Council (TSC 2008), at the 2006 migration, social cohesion ABS Census the number of residents of the Shire who were born in the Netherlands was 329. As the population of the Shire was just over 79,000, the proportion of residents born INTRODUCTION in the Netherlands was 0.4 per cent. This is the same as the national percentage. The This paper describes a proposed sociological Netherlands-born constituted the fourth largest investigation into the experiences, activities group of overseas-born residents. The other and perceptions of a number of second- groups were UK (6.3 per cent); New Zealand generation Dutch Australians currently (2.5 per cent) and Germany (0.5 per cent). The resident in the Tweed Shire, an urban-rural number of overseas-born people was 11,305, local government area in northern New South or 15.3 per cent of the Shire‘s population. The Wales. The investigation will focus on their comparative figure for NSW is 23.8 per cent involvement in the local community. It will and for the nation as a whole 22.2 per cent explore their perceptions of the significance of (TSC 2008). The statistical division of their Dutch background in this involvement. Richmond-Tweed had a smaller percentage of The projected outcome of the investigation is a overseas-born (11.5 per cent) but it still ranked greater awareness and understanding, by the in the top thirty divisions, nation-wide (DIC participants and other residents, of the 2008). Hence it can be said with some contribution the Dutch Australian citizens confidence that the Dutch Australian presence make to the civic life of the Tweed Valley in the Tweed region is not atypical of that community. presence in the wider State and national community. It is proposed to conduct the investigation in two stages. The first stage will involve Similarly, an indication of some of the extensive, in-depth interviews with a small national features of the Dutch Australian number of participants. These interviews will presence may help to provide a context for initially explore only the participants‘ civic exploring those features in the local setting. contributions which relate to their working According to the Department of Immigration lives, including their voluntary work. For the and Citizenship (DIC 2008), at the 2006 ABS purpose of this first stage, the definition of Census, just over 310,000 Australians claimed ‗Dutch Australian‘ will be ‗born in the Netherlands‘. The term ‗second-generation‘ 1 will mean ‗arriving in Australia as children Note that the Australian Bureau of Statistics between the ages of one (or less) and defines the second generation as the Australian- born off-spring of foreign parentage.
Dutch ancestry and almost 79,000 gave the work, these data provide an important context Netherlands as their birthplace. Of these, for the investigation. The second set of data almost 19,000 (24 percent) resided in NSW. concerns some aspects of the working At 0.4 per cent of the Australian population, population profile of the Netherlands-born the Dutch Australians born in the Netherlands residents of the Shire. The Community Profile ranked thirteenth in the top thirty birthplace (TSC 2008:145, Table 6.5.3) shows that for groups. The Dutch language ranked twenty- the Shire as a whole, 1,575 persons out of a second in the top thirty overseas language total of 22,280 employed, or seven per cent, groups but did not figure at all in the statistics were owner-managers of incorporated about internet connection type by language enterprises. The equivalent figure for spoken. Just over 36,000 Dutch Australians Netherlands-born residents was five out of reported speaking Dutch at home (0.2 per cent seventy-one, which is also seven percent. of the Australian population) but Dutch did not However, for owner-managers of figure at all in the statistics about languages unincorporated enterprises, which are likely to spoken at home by persons who speak English be family-owned and small businesses, the not well or not at all, nor did it figure in the equivalent figure for the Netherlands-born was statistics about the thirty fastest growing eighteen out of seventy-one, or twenty-five overseas languages. Just over 13,000 people percent, compared to 2,994 out of 22,280, or were affiliated with the Reformed or Free 13.4 per cent for the Shire as a whole. As the Reformed Church (These terms are taken to investigation will focus strongly on the work- refer to the two main Dutch Protestant related aspects of community involvement, denominations, the ‗Hervormde‘ and such as participation in employer/ employee ‗Gereformeerde Kerk‘, respectively). organisations, these data provide an important context for the investigation. By comparison with the figures for the Australian population, the educational The focus, nature and site of the investigation attainment of the Netherlands-born was having been decided upon, the main task that somewhat higher. Fifty-two per cent of those needs to be completed before data collection aged fifteen-and-over had a certificate or can be commenced, is the selection of the higher qualification compared with thirty- major fields of scholarship that would appear seven per cent for the Australian-born. Only to be relevant to the investigation. The major eleven per cent had less than twelve years of paradigms within each of these fields need to schooling, compared with forty per cent for be examined and tentative positions have to be the Australian-born. As a percentage of those developed on each of these. working, thirty-eight per cent of the Netherlands-born were employed as managers PERSPECTIVES or professionals, nine per cent as labourers, compared with thirty-two and ten per cent Neuman (2006) in his comparative analysis of respectively for the Australian-born. Fifty quantitative and qualitative approaches to percent of the Netherlands-born earned less social research, develops a model of the latter than $399 a week and fifteen earned more than approach which emphasises the ‗highly self- $1000, compared with forty-two and twenty- aware acknowledgement of social self‘ as the one per cent respectively for the Australian- first step in the research process. Neuman born. These figures give a brief overview of suggests that this acknowledgement of self the socio-economic position of the Dutch leads qualitative researchers ‗to ponder the Australian people in contemporary Australian theoretical-philosophical paradigm … in an society. inquisitive, open-ended settling-in process as they adopt a perspective‘ (2006:15). The Two other important sets of data need to be investigation is in its early stages and very noted – one in relation to the Dutch Australian much concerned with developing a presence nationally (but not available locally) perspective. Significantly, the author is and one in relation to the Dutch Australian himself a Dutch Australian, who was born in presence locally. Both are relevant to the the Netherlands and became an Australian subject of the investigation. The first concerns citizen at the age of seventeen. This presents voluntary activity. At the 2006 Census, the him with some opportunities of cultural and participation rate in voluntary activities, for linguistic access but also some potential the preceding twelve months, for those born in threats of myopia and selective blindness in the Netherlands was 21.2 per cent. This placed conducting the research in a scholarly manner. them fifth in the top thirty, ahead of Australia (seventh), UK (eleventh) and New Zealand The investigation is motivated by personal (thirteenth). The list was headed by the USA, interest but also by the broader, sociopolitical followed by Canada, Kenya and Papua New agenda of contributing to the debate about Guinea with Switzerland in sixth place and social inclusion, integration and cohesion in South Africa in eighth. (DIC 2008:38). As the present-day Australia (Jupp & Niewenhuysen investigation will focus strongly on voluntary 2007). The current political turmoil in the 116 country of the author‘s birth over the impact of refugees, from countries with cultures very an immigrant (worker) population on the host different from ours. By contrast, the society is not entirely irrelevant to the investigation looks at what the author sees as investigation. There is anecdotal and scholarly the third ‗moment‘ in the movement called evidence that many migrants and their children migration – the more or less active maintain regular contact with their country of participation of people with a different cultural origin. For example, Bottomley (1979, 1992) (national/ethnic) background in the civic life refers to return visits by Greek Australians and and culture of their adopted country. This Peters (2006) to visits by Dutch Australians. It participation merits being examined from a is important, therefore, to maintain a flexible basis of equality with native-born citizens, and global, transnational perspective on the since, in legal terms, a Certificate of participation of different cultural groups in the Naturalisation confers equal rights and civic life of a nation. Also relevant is the obligations of citizenship on the recipient. The Tweed Shire Council‘s Vision Statement that investigation may therefore be seen as a ‗The Tweed will be recognised for its ... strong migrant study, since its participants are former community ...‘ (TSC 2010). Highly significant migrants, but its concern is with these as also is the work of Tesoriero (2010) on citizens. The comparison is not with their community development. One of the more former status but with native-born citizens. practical outcomes of the investigation may be Although ethnicity is perhaps one aspect of that greater awareness and understanding of such a study, class and gender may also be civic engagement will lead to a greater factors (Bottomley 1992). participation by the Dutch Australian residents of the Tweed Shire in the civic life of the local Another important distinction is between this community and hence the progressive investigation and research into the attainment of the civic ideal of a strong psychological dimensions of the community in the Tweed Valley. (re)acculturation process, with special reference to second-generation migrants, The investigation is not a migration study, whether born in Australia or overseas. Much although the participants were, and may research has been and is being conducted into acknowledge themselves as still being, former this aspect of the migration process at a migrants. There is a vast amount of literature number of Universities and Research Centres within the rubric of Australian migration across Australia − Ladzinski at Curtin studies, by both migrant and non-migrant University, Colinetti at Swinburne University, observers. However, its relevance to the Turunen at Charles Sturt University, to name investigation is marginal. For example, a just a few current studies.2 Although it is recent publication (Kijas 2007) includes Dutch acknowledged that psychological factors may migrants to the Tweed Shire amongst the be significant in explaining the nature and subjects of its migration study but it is not an level of civic engagement, their identification investigation of the civic engagement of its or measurement is not an objective of this subjects with the Tweed Valley community. investigation.3 Nevertheless, childhood As with most other studies based on oral experience may be found to be relevant to the histories, its focus is the story of the arrival investigation because an awareness of the and settlement of some migrants, told largely parents‘ civic engagement, or lack of it, during through their eyes, and of their early the later stages of family settlement in difficulties. The study does not pretend to be, Australia, may affect current community nor is it, anything other than an historical involvement and this will be explored in the narrative. It is not an ethnography and not a investigation. The author‘s own life history is sociological study. relevant here and some auto-ethnographic research will be carried out. Some research The author distinguishes between what he may also have been done on the voluntary calls ‗a migration study‘ and what might be activity of first-generation migrants as part of termed ‗a migrant study‘. The distinction is more general studies on volunteering, such as crucial to defining the focus of the those by Oppenheimer (2008), and there is investigation. The former concentrates on the experience, and its impact on the migrant and 2 Many of the papers delivered at the National on the host society, of leaving one‘s country Symposium on Migrant Security, July 15-16, 2010, and making one‘s home in another. The two at the University of Southern Queensland, dealt post-departure phases of this bold, often with issues related to the migration process as they traumatic, but always risky action are: (1) affected the children of migrants from this point of arrival (early impressions, interactions and view. Many authors were themselves such children as the author is. adjustments) and (2) settlement (long-term 3 adjustments and economic and social Nevertheless, one of the outcomes of the investigation may be to generate some testable establishment). This has been, and continues hypotheses for a quantitative, explanatory study into to be, well-documented, most recently the causes of civic participation or non- focusing on the involuntary immigrants, or participation. 117 clearly some statistical evidence for this almost identical – 1606 and 1609 to the activity, as noted earlier in this paper. This is present, respectively. However, taking this an area of the literature that remains to be Olympian view risks losing sight of the detail reviewed by the author. of historical differences between the two connections. These will be taken into account Of central importance to both stages of the in comparing the two. In other ways also investigation are the ideas of civic engagement historical dimensions are relevant to this (Verba, Scholozman & Brady 1995; Ehrlich investigation. Mention was made earlier of the 2000) and social capital. (Sibeon 1999; emphasis, in the literature on migration to Putnam 2000). Neuman (2006:38) cites a Australia, on exploring the individual and (2002) research study into ‗the relationship collective historical narratives of Dutch and between civic engagement … and higher other migrants. By contrast, the author has education among young people in Great stressed that the investigation seeks to address Britain‘. He defines civic engagement as the present-day concerns of the Dutch encompassing ‗volunteering and participation Australians currently residing in a present-day in churches, labor unions, environmental community. However, the historical groups, political parties, women‘s groups, perspective is a critical constituent of the parent-teacher associations, and sports clubs‘ sociological imagination (Wright Mills 1959, and takes social capital as meaning ‗having 2000; Berger 1963; Willis 2004). The social connections with other people‘ These investigation will be informed by such a are useful and practical definitions. However, perspective with reference to Dutch history there are ideological aspects to both ideas and (Schama 1987, 1991) and specifically to the neither is unproblematic. Underlying both of 400-year-old connection between the them is the highly contested concept of Netherlands and Australia.4 citizenship. This is not the place to do more than ask the question, what is the relationship Of central importance, also, to both stages of between civic engagement, citizenship and the investigation, are the ideas of culture social capital? The intention of the researcher (Willams 1973, 1986) and ethnicity (van den is to explore the Dutch Australian contribution Berghe 1981, 1987)51 and the tension between to the civic community of the Tweed Valley in the two. As with the ideas of civic engagement empirical terms such as level, or intensity, and and social capital, there are ideological aspects field, or direction, of civic engagement but to both and, as with the former, neither is theoretical questions will be addressed. As unproblematic. Even more so than with civic Wright Mills (2000:66) points out – empirical engagement and social capital, scholars have data without theory are blind and theories taken a wide range of ontological positions on without data are empty. culture and ethnicity. As with the previous concepts, this is not the place to do more than Much scholarship has also been directed at ask the question, what is the relationship understanding the civic engagement of the between culture and ethnicity? Again, whilst Dutch within North American society. The the investigation is driven by a search for Association for the Advancement of Dutch empirical evidence, it is not empiricist. The American Studies is actively engaged in this stance taken by Layder (1998) on ‗adaptive scholarship and the researcher will seek to tap theory‘ linking on-going empirical research to into this resource with a view to establishing generating social theory, has much to some comparisons in civic engagement recommend it. between Dutch Americans and Dutch Australians. In the course of making these In considering the ideas of culture and comparisons, it will become evident that there ethnicity, it is worth pointing out that the are substantial differences between the two requirement to take an historical perspective societies, especially in relation to the seems even more compelling in this case than importance of local government and politics in in considering civic engagement or social the spectrum of political engagement. It may capital. Much of the investigation will search also become evident that there are substantial for markers of what van den Berghe differences between the two societies in what (1981,1987) has called ‗the persistence of might be termed the culture of volunteering. A hint of this may be seen in the statistical 4 The author‘s undergraduate training was in history evidence, alluded to above, for the differential and literature and these two are still his primary participation in voluntary activities by intellectual pursuits along with philosophy. American and native-born Australians and by 5 The reference to van den Berghe is not intended to Australians born in other places. be an endorsement of the socio-biological approach to ethnicity, as opposed to the cultural one, although Another reason for tapping into the Dutch it seems that van den Berghe has been misinterpreted in some quarters and it is incorrect to American experience is that the time span of read him as a biological determinist like Richard contact between the Netherlands and Australia Dawkins. and between the Netherlands and America is 118 ethnicity‘ especially as this may or may not be significance may be their response to the related to language maintenance, and perceived impact of foreign workers on the especially in its absence. Consciousness of a present-day societies which their parents left shared historical past is such a marker. At the behind many decades earlier. It could be same time, consciousness of a shared culture, argued that the Netherlands are a prime whether in the narrow sense espoused by T.S. example of the current socio-political turmoil Eliot (1948,1962) and Mathew Arnold accompanying a large influx of foreign (1869,1963) or in the much broader sense workers. However, it is not only global travel delineated by Raymond Williams (1958,1963), that may prove relevant to the level and extent is also a marker. When the consciousness of a of the community involvement of Dutch shared culture coincides with the Australians. Globalisation may also impact on consciousness of a shared historical past, both their everyday lives, especially if it is refracted acquire a diegetic effect greater than one or the through the medium of their Dutch cultural other alone. Delineating and exploring the background. It has been suggested (Cahill remnants of Dutch culture and of Dutch 2006) that Dutch Australians differ ethnicity in the present-day second-generation, significantly from other overseas-born and (later) the third and fourth-generation, Australians in the nature and degree of their Dutch Australians, may not only prove to be of ethnicity. One of the objectives of the significant relevance to his or her civic investigation is to search for empirical engagement and deployment of social capital, evidence of this assertion and to explore the it is a worthwhile endeavour in its own right. It theoretical links between ethnicity and may well be of course that we will find globalisation. ourselves witnessing what van den Berghe has called ‗the demise of ethnicity‘ (1981). Contemporary Dutch Australians on the Tweed, and arguably elsewhere in Australia, One of the objectives of presenting the various may be seen as caught up in a three-cornered perspectives is to illustrate the ‗inquisitive, ‗contest ‗between community development, open-ended settling-in process‘ that Neuman cultural diversity and globalisation. The Dutch (2006:15) sees as characteristic of the have been profoundly involved in all three qualitative approach to social research. This historically – from environmental innovation process, Neuman suggests, marks the to international law to a model of community transition from acknowledgement of social self organisation that has spread from New to adopting a perspective. The author has Amsterdam (New York) to New Holland already indicated, at the start of this paper, that (Australia). Can Dutch cultural traditions be he is aware of his position as a Dutch reinvented to help shape a new world? Can we Australian, partly educated in the Netherlands, call on the second, third and fourth generation now slowly reclaiming his Dutch heritage and Dutch Australians to rediscover and reinvent language after perhaps relinquishing both too their Dutch traditions and bring them to bear readily (although understandably so) in his on their civic engagement with the present-day youth. He is conscious of his history and his Australian community? culture, though perhaps in denial of his ethnicity, and even now only reluctantly It remains now to link the planned coming to terms with it. Above all the author investigation to the research that has been and has always been, still is and always will be continues to be undertaken into the presence of acutely aware of ‗being between two worlds‘. the Dutch in Australia. He is therefore happy to acknowledge his social self, but he also acknowledges that at RESEARCH ON THE DUTCH IN this point he is still some distance from AUSTRALIA ‗adopting a perspective‘. The investigation is part of the on-going Lastly and finally, of central importance to scholarly endeavour to examine, describe and both stages of the investigation is the highly eventually explain the Dutch Australian contested idea of globalisation (Cohen & presence in Australian society The Dutch were Kennedy 2000). Mention has been made of the the first European people to set foot on the return visits by second and third generation Great Southland they called New Holland and migrants to their country of ancestry Both seem to have been the first (albeit accidental anecdotally and statistically there seems to be and unwilling) European inhabitants of the plenty of evidence of the increasing incidence continent but they did not come to Australia in of such visits. Exploring the frequency and significant numbers until after the Second reported impact of such visits may prove to be World War. A significant body of literature of some relevance to the engagement with the has been built up in the last thirty or so years Australian community of Dutch Australians examining and describing the arrival and and the way they distribute or invest their settlement of Dutch immigrants, as part of the social and cultural capital. Of special now very extensive research into the post-war 119 Australian migration project. A relatively somewhat more elusive, hypothetical ‗Dutch‘ recent addition to the literature on the Dutch in nature of this involvement, the Cahill thesis is Australia is the work being done on the worth outlining. Based, at least in part, on ‗Indisch‘ Dutch immigrants (those who fled some questionable primordialist assumptions from the Dutch East Indies after the war and about the nature and operations of ethnicity, the Declaration of Independence of what then the Cahill thesis is that the ‗core cultural became Indonesia) (Coté 2010; Peters 2006). baggage‘ the Dutch immigrants brought with them to Australia after the Second World War The literature on the Dutch falls into two helps to explain both the particular pattern of major categories – ‗migration studies‘ and, Dutch (re)settlement in Australia and the ‗migrant studies‘,. The latter such as those of distinct nature of Dutch adaptation to Velthuis (2005) and Overberg (2006) cover Australian society. Cahill sees this adaptation Dutch communal life, and, more recently, as being characterised by a qualified efforts to provide social services for, largely accommodation to the then existing Australian first-generation, elderly Dutch Australians. A values rather than an unreserved assimilation significant part of the literature has been of those values, as is often asserted. He argues produced by Dutch researchers and the author that the high degree of similarity between the is therefore in the position of maintaining a two societies – the Dutch and the Australian respectable, scholarly tradition.6 However, societies of the day − largely accounts for the with the notable exception of Peters (2006, widely acknowledged and popularly esteemed 2010), there does not appear to be a large body integration of the Dutch into the Australian of fine-grained micro-sociological research on society. However, the Cahill thesis also the civic engagement of the Dutch Australians suggests that this apparent integration masks a with their local community. Peters has carried paradoxically but pervasively ―Dutch‖ out very extensive field work around contribution that helped post-War Australian Australia, consisting of 470 taped interviews, society to make the transition from a then 20 taped focus group sessions, 520 completed largely mono-cultural Anglo-Saxon society to questionnaires and 300 family histories of the present multicultural one. migrants, including Dutch Australians.7 Much of her work has dealt with immigrant In similar vein, Peters (2010) has written about enterprise, rather than with the community ‗aanpassen‘ which is the Dutch term for involvement of those migrants, but there is ‗accommodation‘. The Dutch word for obviously some overlap between the two areas ‗assimilation‘ is ‗gelijkmaken‘. The of interest. investigation is not about ‗aanpassen‘ but about ‗aansluiten‘ (connecting) and in as far as ‗The Dutch Down Under 1606-2006‘ (Peters the thesis of the investigation has ‗a moral 2006) is a collection of scholarly articles on message‘, it can be summed up in the phrase various aspects of the Dutch Australian ―aanpassen is niet aansluiten‘ (accommodating presence from historical, sociological and is not the same as connecting). In essence, the demographic perspectives. As suggested by term ‗aanpassen‘ indicates a degree of the title, it was published to celebrate 400 (p)reservation of Dutch culture. Expressions of years of the Dutch-Australian connection. this reserving and preserving can be readily Cahill‘s contribution focuses on the nature of found, for example in the establishment and the Dutch Australian presence and suggests a continued existence of the, after hours, Dutch number of ways in which this differs and Flemish language and culture schools in significantly from the migrant presence Sydney and Brisbane – the Kangoeroe and generally. Cahill contends that not only are Duyfken schools respectively. This is not the the Dutch different, which is hardly debatable, place to argue the merits of this endeavour but but that they are differently different – and this the preservation of Dutch migrant heritage, is somewhat more debatable. Cahill does not and beyond that of Dutch (pre-migration) provide any empirical or micro-sociological cultural and linguistic heritage, may well in evidence for his claims but his thesis some yet-to-be-explored way have a bearing nonetheless provides a valuable starting point on the nature and extent of the ‗aansluiten‘ of for an empirical study on the nature of the the Dutch Australians on the Tweed with their Dutch contribution to Australian society. local community.
Since the investigation aims to establish not CONCLUSION only the easily recognised but largely unacknowledged fact of Dutch Australian The investigation described in this paper seeks community involvement, but also the to take the scholarship of Dutch migration and migrant studies into a new and as yet but little 6 Notably Duyker (1987) arguably the ‗father‘ of explored direction. It does so in answer to the this scholarly tradition, but many others since then. imperative need for scholarly engagement with 7 Personal communication to the author. the social and political problems associated with new forms of transnational migration and 120 the issues of national and global citizenship Cohen R & Kennedy P 2000, Global that have arisen. Multiculturalism was a timely Sociology, Palgrave Macmillan, and necessary answer to the problems of social Houndmills. cohesion in the seventies and eighties of the Coté J 2010, ‗The Indisch Dutch in post-war last century but a new ‗culturalism‘ is now Australia‘, Tijdschrift voor Sociale en needed based on greater participation in the Economische Geschiedenis, 7(2):103-125. local community and accompanied by a much wider metacultural and global perspective. It is Department of Immigration and Citizenship conceivable that the Dutch are well placed by (DIC) 2008, The People of Australia, heritage and tradition to play a role in the Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. transformation of Australian society in the twenty-first century. Duyker E 1987, The Dutch in Australia, AE Press, Blackburn.
Acknowledgements Ehrlich T 2000, Measuring Up 2000: The State-by-State Report Card for Higher My partner, Pamela Blakeway, for patiently Education, viewed 27th August 2010, sharing the burden of writing and rewriting
My daughters, Elizabeth and Angelique, for Eliot TS 1948, 1962, Notes towards the helpful critical comment, and for being there. Definition of Culture, Faber and Faber, London. Dr Robert Mason, University of Southern Queensland, for encouragement, patience and Jupp J & Nieuwenhuysen J with Dawson E detailed comments on drafts of this paper. 2007, Social Cohesion in Australia, Cambridge University Press, New York. My supervisor, Dr Nonja Peters, Curtin University of Technology, for invaluable, Layder D 1998, Sociological Practice: Linking continuing support, encouragement and Theory and Social Research, Sage, advice, and for alerting me to the Symposium. London.
Mr Geoffrey Roberts, retired, Queensland Neuman WL 2006, Social Research Methods: University of Technology, for many hours of Qualitative and Qualitative Approaches, active listening and for comment on early 6th edn, Pearson Education, Boston MA. drafts of this paper. Oppenheimer M 2008, Volunteering: Why we Dr Maarten Rothengatter, Southern Cross can‟t survive without it, University of University, for initial and continuing support, NSW Press, Sydney. for critical comment on many occasions, and for patient, detailed checking of drafts of this Overberg H 2006, ‗Dutch communal life in paper. Victoria‘ in N Peters, The Dutch Down Under: 1606-2006, Wolters Kluwer, References Sydney.
Abercrombie N, Hill S & Turner BS 2006, The Peters N 2006, ‗Two generations of Dutch Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, 5th edn, women in Australia: Citizenship, identity Penguin, Harmondsworth. and belonging‘, in N Peters, The Dutch Down Under: 1606-2006, Wolters Kluwer, Arnold M 1869, 1963, Culture and Anarchy, Sydney. Cambridge University Press, London. Peters N 2010, ‗Aanpassen and invisibility: Berger, PL 1963, Invitation to Sociology, being Dutch in post-war Australia, Penguin, Harmondsworth. Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis, 7(2):82-102 Bottomley G 1992, From Another Place: Migration and the politics of culture, Putnam RD 2000, Bowling Alone: The Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Collapse and Revival of American Community, Simon & Schuster, New Cahill D 2006, ‗Lifting the low sky: Are Dutch York. Australians assimilationists or accommodationists?‘, in N Peters, The Schama S 1991, The Embarrassment of Dutch Down Under: 1606-2006, Wolters Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture Kluwer, Sydney. in the Golden Age, Fontana Press, London.
121 Sibeon R 1999, ‗Agency, Structure and Social Verba S, Scholozman KL & Brady HE 1995, Change as Cross-disciplinary Concepts‘, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in cited in J Grix, ‗Introducing Students to the American Politics, Harvard University Generic Terminology of Social Research‘, Press, Cambridge. Politics, 22(3):175-186. Williams R 1958, 1963, Culture and Society Tesoriero F 2010, Community Development: 1780-1950, Penguin, Harmondsworth. Community-based Alternatives in an Age of Globalisation, Pearson Australia, Williams R 1976, 1983, Keywords: A Frenchs Forest. vocabulary of culture and society, Fontana Press, London. Tweed Shire Council 2008, Community Profile: communities working together, Willis E 2004, The Sociological Quest: An Tweed Shire Council, Murwillumbah. Introduction to the study of social life, 4th edn, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest. Tweed Shire Council, 2009, Your Council, viewed 17th June 2009, Wright Mills C 1959, 2000, The Sociological
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122 The importance of global immigration to South Korea’s nation branding strategies
Bongmi Kim ([email protected]) University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia.
Abstract their bricks to identify their products. However, brand names first appeared in the The development of nation branding during the last early sixteenth century. According to Farquhar two decades has been dramatic and is still growing. (1989), whisky distillers shipped their Many states are trying their best to brand their products in wooden barrels with the name of country in the world environment to gain the producer to achieve two objectives, as the sustainable competitive advantage over the other first was to identify the distiller for the countries. As part of that process, over the last five years countries that have traditionally relied on consumer and the second was to prevent exports for their foreign revenues, such as South substitution with cheaper products by tavern Korea and Japan, have attempted to build their owners. In the eighteenth century the ‗brand‘ visitor n umbers to broaden their image to embrace concept replaced the producers‘ name with foreign direct investments, worker migration, names and pictures of animals, places of tourism exports and other sectors. For example, origin, and famous people. The new purpose more than half a million foreigners reportedly was to strengthen the association of the brand resided in South Korea in 2006 and Korean society name with a product. This led to making it is rapidly becoming a multiethnic society (Kim easier for consumers to remember products 2009). However, many South Koreans prefer to have an ethnically homogenous society and insist and to differentiate between products. on an almost zero-migration policy (Kim 2009). According to Farquhar (1989), a related purpose for branding emerged in the The chairman of the Nation Branding Institution in nineteenth century when a brand was used to South Korea recognised a lack of understanding enhance a product‘s perceived value through about multiculturalism among South Koreans as a such associations. In the twentieth century, major challenge for their nation branding policies. brands began to be used to achieve Due to globalisation, South Korea‘s international competitive advantage for companies as strong migrants continue to increase and therefore, the brands have sufficient resiliency to endure South Korean government needs to develop policies to change the negative mindset of South Koreans crisis situations and also a strong brand name about the migrants. This is in order to ensure the can be a barrier to the entry of competing maximum advantage from international migration products into some markets. In the 1980s, and to raise the international profile of South Korea. companies used an existing brand name on a Those policies must include more targeted and new product in a new category to benefit from improved policies for migrants‘ settlement and an existing brand name‘s attributes, imagery better support for those families. Helping this way, awareness and association to gain consumer Koreans may become better global citizens. trial, retailer distribution, and so forth, in the
new category (Batra 2010). A more recent While the field of nation branding is developing rapidly, no one has attempted to identify the application of the branding concept is that of importance of global immigration to South Korea as nation branding. part of their nation branding strategies. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the importance of global immigration to South Korea for its nation branding From product branding to nation strategies and provides insight into the importance of global immigration to nation branding in a branding developed country in Asia. Continued growth in international trade and in Keywords global communications due to globalisation Global Immigration, Multiculturalism, Nation has created enormous opportunities for branding, South Korea companies to extend their products over their domestic and regional markets. A strong brand is a key asset for a global company THE HISTORY OF BRANDING (Khermouch, Holmes & Ihlwan 2001). Similarly, nationality is an important and The process of branding has spanned valuable tool for a product. According to centuries, as it has been found that brick Sorrel (2002) 70 percent of the companies makers in ancient Egypt placed symbols on believe sources of origin is significant in the
purchasing decisions of customers and there number of tourists, foreign direct investments, are stereotypes attached to most nations that or exports. drive consumers‘ prejudices and perceptions. Some prime examples of such stereotypes include German engineering skills, French What is nation branding? fashion styles, and Italian foods. Research by Paswan, Kulkarni & Ganesh (2003) and Anholt (2004:214) defines a nation branding Papadopoulos & Heslop (2002) also highlights strategy as ‗a plan for defining the most the importance of a country of origin for realistic, most competitive and most global products and services. Therefore, it is compelling strategic vision for the country, worth noting that the success of a product or region or city: this vision then has to be service is mostly depending on the image of fulfilled and communicated‘. This includes the country of origin. As a result, countries recognising the principal resources of the now seek to promote their image in nation as well as the primary determinant of international markets to gain an advantage for their ‗brand essence‘, which is as much the their products and services over other nations. people who live there as the things that are made and done in the place (Anholt 2004). A Some theorists consider that nation branding is country therefore, concentrates on ‗finding similar to product branding (Dinnie 2008; ways to direct some of the energies of the Sorrel 2002). Such theorists argue that it is population towards better communication of similar to when marketing specialists seek to its qualities and aspirations‘ (Anholt achieve competitive advantage through 2004:214). According to Anholt (2004:214) successful product branding strategies for a the acts of communication in which places product. Therefore, nation branding strategists commonly engage include: aim to achieve competitive advantage through The brands which the country successful nation branding strategies for a exports. nation. This means that a nation brand is much The way the place promotes itself for like the corporate brand of a large trade, tourism, inward investment and conglomerate. However, some theorists argue inward recruitment. that nation branding is something more than The way it behaves in acts of product branding (Anholt 2003; Fan 2005). domestic and foreign policy, and the While a product has smaller number of ways in which these acts are services and stakeholders, a nation has a much communicated. greater number of services and stakeholders. The way it promotes and represents The stakeholders of a nation include and shares its culture with other permanent, temporary and prospective places. residents and those include business The way its citizens behave when companies, tourists, students, politicians, abroad and how they treat strangers at retired people, and the labour force and so on. home. Therefore, nation branding is something more than product branding and as a result nation The built and natural environment it branding is a complex, controversial and presents to the visitors. exciting phenomenon (Dinnie 2008).Thus, the The way it features in the world‘s study of nation branding is not a simple task. media. The bodies and organisations it According to Fan (2005), a nation has a brand belongs to with or without nation branding. Anholt The other countries it associates with. (2004:213) further explains Fan‘s notion by stating ‗most countries of any size or age Gilmore (2002) proposes a model for nation already have a brand image whether they like branding that comprises three layers, including it or not. People have heard of them and the spirit of the people which reflect the believe certain things about them‘. However, a national character, the ‗positioning‘ of the country can challenge people‘s prejudices by country, and stakeholders. According to telling something new and relevant about a Gilmore (2002) the core of a country‘s brand country. Loo & Davies (2006) identify that must capture the spirit of the people in that managing a country‘s reputation in the nation and their shared values. The positioning international market has been an important is what a country will derive from its core factor for Chinese branding strategies to values and spirit and this process is the most increase their competitiveness. Therefore, difficult part of the branding exercise because nation branding is about challenging people‘s the positioning needs to be aspirational, prejudices by telling something new and inspirational, challenging and differentiated relevant about a country to achieve (Gilmore 2002). The final layer represents the competitive advantage over the other stakeholders of a country. These include countries. This may include increase the present and future residents, investors, students, skilled workers, retirees, foreign 124 governments and so on. Gilmore (2002) and political relationship, exports, brands of further highlights the importance of products and services, people and culture, developing a brand that has holistic potential Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and will not alienate one stakeholder group at immigrants, diplomatic relations and tourism. the expense of another. Therefore, this paper will examine the importance of global immigration for South When considering Anholt (2003) and Korea‘s nation branding strategies. Gilmore‘s (2002) models it is important to understand the role of country‘s citizens in GLOBAL IMMIGRATION their nation branding. However, in the process of nation branding, many countries have been People migrate to other countries for different more concerned about achieving economic reasons such as to escape from political goals rather than identifying their people‘s role repression, searching for better economic in their nation branding process. On the one opportunities, and/or to join their families hand, only a few countries identify the (Kong, Yoon & Yu 2010). Migration can importance of their citizen‘s in their nation occur in a range of ways, from developing to branding policies. On the other hand most of developed, developing to developing, and the scholars in nation branding talk about a developed to developed countries within and competitive advantage that can be achieved across regions. Lee & Hernandez (2009) through successful nation branding. However, explain immigration theories by drawing on this paper will argue that the ultimate goal of the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and nation branding must be a sustainable anthropology that offer explanations for the competitive advantage and not just individual, family, and other groups that competitive advantage. Therefore, to achieve experience immigration. However, countries sustainable competitive advantage for a in the globe react in different ways for these country it is important to have core migrants. For example some countries competencies that can keep their sustainable welcome newcomers, others merely permit competitive advantage for a longer period of them to enter for various economic reasons, time. and still others attempt to seal their borders
Table 1: Estimated world migrant stock at mid-year, 1970-2005(millions)
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Europe 18.8 20.2 21.9 23.5 49.4 55.3 58.2 64.1 Asia 27.8 28.0 32.1 37.2 49.9 47.2 50.3 53.3 Northern America 13.0 15.3 18.1 22.1 27.6 33.6 40.4 44.5 Africa 9.9 11.0 14.1 14.4 16.4 17.9 16.5 17.1 Latin America & the Caribbean 5.7 5.7 6.1 6.3 7.0 6.1 6.3 6.6 Oceania 3.0 3.4 3.8 4.2 4.8 5.1 5.1 5.0 World 81.3 86.8 99.3 111.0 154.9 165.1 176.7 190.6 More developed region 38.4 42.5 47.5 53.6 82.4 94.9 105.0 115.4 Less developed region 43.0 44.3 51.8 57.4 72.6 70.2 71.7 75.2 Least developed countries 7.2 6.8 9.1 9.1 11.0 12.2 10.2 10.5 Source: UNDESA (2006)
According to the Organization for Economic (Kong, Yoon & Yu 2010). According to the Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Department of Economic and South Korea was ranked 13th amongst 50 Social Affairs (2006) in 2005, the total number countries in economic development but it was of migrants across the world reached 190.6 ranked 33rd in Nation Branding Indexes. It is million, with an average growth rate of 13.4 suggested that these developments can percent every five years since 1970. There negatively affect South Korea‘s economic used to be more migrants in less developed development in the longer term. The main countries than more developed countries, but reasons for low nation branding rankings were this trend has reversed since the late 1980s. In South Korea‘s poor infrastructure, lack of 2005, about 40 percent of migrants resided in democratic characteristics in South Korea‘s less developed countries (See Table 1). government policies, and lack of contributions to other countries. According to Lee (2003) over the past decade, the term ‗human security‘ has become a The major factors that can affect the nation buzzword in the global security debate as it branding rankings of a nation include social has emphasised the government‘s 125 responsibility to protect not only territorial GLOBAL IMMIGRATION AND security and sovereign integrity of the state, SOUTH KOREA but also freedom and rights of its citizens. Therefore, now it is government‘s South Korea experienced the transition from responsibility to guarantee the human rights being a country of emigration to a country of and safety of their immigrants. As a result immigration due to the economic many countries introduced laws and developments achieved through last two multicultural policies to safeguard their decades. According to Seol and Skrentny immigrants. Thus, immigration links with (2009) after sending citizens abroad for multiples areas and as a result the development centuries, since the 1980s, South Korea has of an immigrant policy is a difficult task for been hosting an increasing number of low any government. skilled migrant workers. South Korea started to import foreign workers in the early 1990s Understanding the politics of immigration is of and it was reported that the number of the increasing importance in the current era of unskilled foreign labourers, as of 2005, economic globalisation and mass migration totalled more than 285,000, including (Henry 2009), because immigration policy undocumented labourers (Kim 2009). determines the openness or closure of societies According to Kim (2009) the demand for (Hollifield 2000) and has multiple effects for a foreign labour has largely come about due to country. Political theorists often use economic better-educated and wealthier Koreans turning theory to explain the development of away from certain occupations and wage immigration policy in industrialised or liberal levels, especially the so called 3-D (difficult, nation states and political economic theory dirty and dangerous) manual jobs prompting gives priorities to economic factors than the Korean government to utilise several political or cultural factors when determining labour importing schemes since 1992. immigration policies (Henry 2009). According to Meyers (2000) the elements that have a It has been reported that international impact on the development of specific marriages account for 12 percent of all immigration policies in the industrialised marriages in South Korea (Choe 2008). Prior world include demand for cheap labour; threat to the 1990s, the large majority of of economic crisis; unstable markets; and international marriages were between Korean ongoing tension between the working and women and foreign men (generally Japanese capitalist classes and so forth. Meyers (2000) or US citizens). Another trend of inter-ethnic further explains that during economic crises, marriages began to take off in the early 1990s, liberal governments tend to alter their when a large number of Chosonjok1 women immigration policy by tightening borders, began moving from China to marry Korean reversing or expanding immigration policy or men, especially those living in Korea‘s rural restricting the rights of immigrants. Therefore, areas. The number of marriages between immigrants can be an easy target of such Korean men and Chinese women grew 37,171 governments during economically difficult to 70,163 from 1999 to 2005 (Lim 2010; Kim periods. However, such short-term reactions & Shin 2008). Another 90,295 marriages can negatively affect those countries in the between Korean women and foreign men long run. For example tightening the borders (large number of men from China and small for refugees might create a wrong perception but significant number of men from Pakistan, about a country among other countries in the Bangladesh, Philippines, and Nepal) occurred world map. during this period (Lim 2010). In addition, the possible huge influx of North Koreans to According to Piper, the number of migrants in South Korea will further increase the number Asia is likely to grow more rapidly as the of immigrants in South Korea in the near region plays a more important economic role future. Therefore, the state of South Korea is in the twenty first century (2004 p72). A increasingly experiencing multicultural number of scholars have identified South characteristics within its current culture. Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore as attractive destinations for migrant workers According to the latest figures released by the (Lee 2009; Han 2007; Choe 2008, Kim 2005). government, the number of foreigners living in However, Seol and Skrentny (2009) believe South Korea exceeded 1.2 million in the first East Asia has a small amount of migrant half of 2010 due to an increasing number of settlement because of the lack of regional short-term visitors (Lee 2010). The increase institutions pushing for family reunification came mainly from the number of short-term rights, an elite political culture has sacrificed visitors, which grew by 13.5 percent this year, immigrant‘s rights for economic growth and while foreigners staying longer than 90 days order, and migrant perceptions of greater immigration control in Asia. 1 Chosonjok translates into English as ‗ethnic Koreans living in China‘. 126 increased 0.4 percent. Furthermore, foreign 4 or 5 million and therefore, Koreans have to students and marriage migrants grew by 8.4 accept multiculturalism and education will percent and 8.2 percent respectively (Lee play an important role‘ (Kown 2010). KMC is 2010).Thus, having an efficient immigration expecting to provide education about policy is extremely important for South Korea. multiculturalism to government employees, military personnel and police officers first and Due to Korea‘s rapidly aging population, low according to the president of KMC ‗those are birth rate, and brain drain the demand for the people leading Korea. It is important to foreign labour is expected to increase in the educate them first and if they understand future (Choi 2008). Also, as Asia‘s third multiculturalism, citizens will follow the idea‘ largest economy, Korea is now regarded as a (Kown 2010). However, inequality of migrants land of opportunity for people in less continues as they experience problematic developed Asian countries. Given these cultural attitudes, discrimination and racism. factors, Korea is rapidly becoming a According to Watson (2010) multiculturalism multiethnic society. However, the majority of in South Korea suffers for three reasons. First, Koreans prefer to have an ethnically the ideological window dressing of state-led homogenous society. In its 5000 year history, multiculturalism is ideologically obscuring the a national identity and a homogeneous continuation of these inequalities and population have become deeply embedded as exclusions. Secondly, state led values in Korean society and politicians and multiculturalism is an expedient policy of the educated classes continue to promote this cultural assimilation into a privileged and desire of racial homogeneity (Kim & Fernando homogeneous Korean culture. Finally, state- 2009). As a result, many potential problems led multiculturalism is driven be a sense of such as racism, discrimination, and unequal ‗having to‘ rather ‗want to be‘ (Watson 2010). opportunity can arise from the increase in In other words it is worth noting that South cultural and ethnic diversity in South Korea. Korean government is introducing These problems can negatively affect the multicultural policies because of the pressure image of South Korea in near future. put on them by the human rights and other Therefore, it is important to address global institutions but not because of them to multiculturalism as a strategic issue for South overcome the current problems that facing by Korea. the immigrated people in South Korea.
In responding to the increasing number of Choe (2008) highlights the importance of immigrants, South Korean immigration policy South Korea having a vision to deal with has undergone a number of changes over the increasing cultural diversity. Choe (2008) years. The major immigration policies proposes ‗multicultural citizenship‘ as a introduced by the South Korean government solution for South Korea‘s problems in their towards foreign workers in South Korea multicultural society. According to Choe include Foreign trainees program for overseas (2008:125) firms (1991), Foreign industrial trainees program (1993), Employment permit system South Korean society should take a (2003) and Working visit H2 Visa in 2007 close look at multicultural citizenship – (Lee et al 2007 & Yoo et al 2005) In addition its principles and institutions, as well as to these policies, the Korean government the civil consciousness that surrounds it introduced a number of policies to cope with – it that has developed in countries that multiculturalism as an alternative value experienced multiculturalism ahead of However, Han (2007) insists that current South Korea and adopted multicultural discourses and concerns on multiculturalism in citizenship as a means to resolve Korea is merely political rhetoric and various problems arising from sloganism, not the constructive and analytical multiculturalism, for example, The concepts required for transforming a society. United States, Canada, and several western European countries. The Korea Multicultural Congress (KMC), a nationwide association, was established recently with the purpose of helping bring IMPORTANCE OF GLOBAL harmony to Korean society that is fast IMMIGRATION TO SOUTH becoming multicultural. Current multicultural policies in South Korea include the promotion KOREA‟S NATION BRANDING of cross-cultural education programs, changes STRATEGIES to immigration legislation and the promotion of tolerance and acceptance programs of As explained earlier, South Korea‘s demand people from different cultures who reside in for foreign workers will increase in the future. South Korea (Watson 2010). According to Therefore, the government of South Korea will KMC ‗There are 1.2 million foreigners in have to rely on foreign immigrants to address Korea now, but the number will soon grow to labour shortages. Similarly, the South Korean 127 government will have to face a number of Korea needed to introduce radical changes for problems that arise from cultural diversity. their immigrant policy to overcome their Therefore, it is up to the South Korean current problems that arise from foreign government to have a clear immigration policy immigrants. Therefore, this paper recommends to deal with the increasing number of foreign the government needs to recognise immigrants immigrants in South Korea. The current as an asset that brings long term benefits for conservative government has preferred to the country. adopt economy theory to develop policies for immigrants. As a result foreign immigrants When it comes to nation branding, this paper have to face for difficulties especially when has put forward the argument that the ultimate the country is facing economic difficulties. goal of nation branding must be a sustainable However, this paper proposes that the South competitive advantage. Therefore, a nation Korean government must look at their foreign must create core competencies in order to immigrants as an asset that will bring long- achieve sustainable competitive advantage term benefits for the country. The South through their nation branding. This paper Korean government also needs to develop recognises that a good immigration policy can policies to link their foreign immigrant‘s be a core competency for a nation that will cultural values with Korean cultural values help to achieve sustainable competitive that help them to settle in South Korea easily. advantage. Multicultural characteristics such South Koreans need to show to the world that as tolerance and acceptance are extremely we are a tolerant nation. This message will lift important for South Koreans when they deal the image of South Korea among other with foreign immigrants. By having those countries. For example countries like Canada, characteristics South Koreans can use their Norway, Australia and Switzerland foreign immigrants to lift South Korea‘s image successfully passed this message to other on the world map. countries. These countries used their foreign immigrants to lift their image around the world References and as a result all these countries remain on top of the nation branding rankings. Therefore, Anholt, S 2004, Branding places and nations, South Koreans need to develop multicultural Bloomberg Press, Princeton. characteristics such as acceptance of diversity. Such a shift in approach will also help South Batra, R, Lenk, P & Wedel, M 2010, ‗Brand Korea to attract a higher number of tourists Extension Strategy Planning: Empirical and migrant workers in the future and in doing Estimation of Brand–Category Personality so will lift the image of South Korea in the Fit and Atypicality‘, Journal of Marketing world map. This is a central aspect of nation Research, 47(2):335-347. branding. Therefore, this paper argues that a Choe, H 2008, ‗South Korean Society and good immigration policy should be seen as a Multicultural Citizenship‘, Korea Journal, core competency for a country and will help 47(4):123-146. them to achieve sustainable competitive advantage through nation branding. Choi, S 2008, ‗From Homogeneous to Multi- Ethnic Society Korea's New Face‘, SERI CONCLUSION Quarterly, 1(1):51-58. Dinnie, K 2008, Nation Branding – Concepts, In conclusion, Korea is rapidly becoming a Issues, Practice, Butterworth-Heinemann, multicultural society. However, it would Oxford. appear that a majority of Koreans preferred to have an ethnically homogenous society. As a Fan, Y 2006, ‗Branding the nation: what is result many problems arise from the increase being branded?‘, Journal of Vacation cultural and ethnic diversity such as racism, Marketing, 12(1):5-14. discrimination, and unequal opportunity have Farquhar, P H 1989, ‗Managing Brand been seen among foreign immigrants in South Equity‘, Marketing Research, 1(3):24-33. Korea. These problems may negatively affect the image of South Korea in the long run. To Gilmore, F 2002, ‗Destination Branding: respond to increasing number of immigrants, Creating the Unique Destination South Korean immigration policy has Proposition‘, in N Morgan, A Pritchard & undergone a number of changes over the R Pride (eds), Branding for Success, years. In addition to these policies, the Korean Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. government has introduced a number of Han, G 2007, ‗Multicultural Korea: policies to cope with multiculturalism as an Celebration or Challenge of Multiethnic alternative value to their policy and social Shift in Contemporary Korea?‘, Korea movement. However, this paper found that Journal, 47(4):32-63. government led multiculturalism does not work properly among foreign immigrants in Henry, C 2009, ‗The political science of South Korea. It was also found that South immigration policies‘, Journal of Human 128 Behaviour in the Social Environment, Lee, Y 2009, ‗The Evolution of Korean 19(6):690-701. Foreign Labor Policies in the Global Context: Toward the Politics of Societal Hollifield, JF (ed.) 2000, The politics of (In) Security?‘, Korea Observer, international migration: How we can bring 40(2):301-336. the state back in, Routledge, New York. 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129
Rural Migrant Workers and Civil Society in China: case study of a migrant labour NGO
Peifeng Lin ([email protected]) University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway, New South Wales, 2007, Australia.
Abstract case study of a grassroots, non-profit and non- governmental organisation in Beijing – This paper explores the participation of rural Migrant Aid – which provides legal aid to migrant workers in the emerging Chinese civil migrant workers. This paper will adopt a society through the case study of a grassroots, non- relational approach to examine the profit and non-governmental organisation (NGO) in opportunities, constraints and problems facing Beijing that provides legal aid to migrants. The Migrant Aid – shared by many similar migrant existing scholarship on rural-urban migration in organisations – by analysing its long history of China tends to focus on their working and living relations and active negotiations with the state, conditions with few studies looking at the agency of migrant workers in creating their own organisation constituency and international donors in the and actively participating in the emerging, if context of China‘s transition to a market problematic, civil society. My field research at economy. Migrant Aid, founded a decade ago by a migrant worker, adopts a relational approach to examine its It is useful to briefly recount the history of long history of relations and active negotiations Migrant Aid and to give an overview of its with the state, its constituency and international daily tasks. Migrant Aid was founded in 1999 donors within the context of China‘s transition to a in Beijing by a migrant worker, Min.1 He set market economy. In particular, this paper focuses up a telephone hotline to offer what he on the opportunities, constraints and problems facing Migrant Aid as a result of these relations and described as ‗mutual aid‘ for his fellow how they have shaped Migrant Aid. The paper will migrants, focusing particularly on their highlight that while its close relations with the state workplace problems. In the first few years of and international donors have served Migrant Aid Migrant Aid, Min tried to directly negotiate well, it may become increasingly problematic for with employers on behalf of migrant workers. the organisation to be depended on the state and But Migrant Aid remained small and its international funding. activities limited as there was little funding except small donations from friends. However, Keywords he was successful in organising volunteers for public-interest work that drew positive media China, civil society, international donors, legal aid, coverage in newspapers and television, which migrant workers, non-governmental, non-profit. proved critical for Migrant Aid‘s later development. In 2004, Migrant Aid was INTRODUCTION designated as a People‘s Mediation Committee by the local Judiciary Bureau upon reading In the past three decades, millions of rural about its story in the newspaper. Later in the migrants in China have come to the cities in same year, an international organisation search of work. Their living and working provided the first substantial foreign funding conditions have been extensively documented to Migrant Aid, followed by more frequent in scholarship (Chan 2001; Lee 1998; Pun funding from a number of international 2005; Solinger 1999). However, there have organisations and foreign government been fewer studies focusing on their agencies in the next few years. It was also participation in the emerging – if problematic around this time that Migrant Aid began to – civil society in China, as a number of consolidate itself as a migrant labour NGO migrant labour NGOs have sprung up in the with a team of full-time staff and volunteer past decade engaged in service provision to lawyers focused on offering legal aid to rural migrants (Jacka 2006). While their migrants. It has since expanded rapidly, absolute number remains small, their real and opening two more offices with more full-time symbolic contribution to the welfare of staff in two other cities that have large migrant workers and to the development of numbers of migrant workers. civil society in China is not insignificant. Based on my field research, this paper explores the participation of rural migrant workers in Chinese civil society through the 1 I have used pseudonyms for the organisation and its founder in this paper to protect their privacy. 130 The daily tasks of Migrant Aid consist of perspective focuses on the small and relatively answering telephone hotline calls and talking independent and autonomous grassroots to migrant workers who visit its office, which organisations on the margin that have emerged opens 7 days a week from 9am to 5pm. in the past two decades and their potential in Besides Min, there are currently four staffers developing a genuine civil society in China in its Beijing office, two of whom have formal (Ma 2006b; Brook & Frolic 1997; Zheng & legal training. Their work mostly involves Fewsmith 2008). This perspective has been discussing with migrant worker callers and further expanded upon in more recent studies visitors about their cases and then making which draw attention to the dependency of phone calls to the employers verifying the civil society organisations on the state despite situation, informing them about the relevant apparent autonomy and independence (Lu labour laws and urging them to comply. The 2008; Ho & Edmonds 2008) This paper builds negotiation with the employer known as upon all these perspectives and highlights the ‗mediation‘ has a rather high success rate fact that Migrant Aid and similar grassroots according to Migrant Aid‘s estimate and organisations have sought to develop genuine confirmed by my field observation. If the civil spaces – not by distancing from the state phone call fails to produce a satisfactory – but by actively building close relations with result, the staff may try to arrange a meeting state organisations and local authorities for with the employer. If either the meeting cannot legitimacy and support, producing often be arranged or it does not lead to a resolution, contradictory state-civil society relations. I the staff will then usually suggest applying for will then discuss the impacts on Migrant Aid labour arbitration which is a legally required with regard to the issue of independence and step before going to the court. They will autonomy. advise the migrant workers how this may be done and help them prepare their case. As a The history of Migrant Aid‘s engagement with last resort, the staff would ask a lawyer in the state began not long after it was founded partnership with Migrant Aid to represent when Min and a group of like-minded migrants in court at a reduced fee. Depending migrants concluded that Migrant Aid needed on the time of the year, the number of hotline the support of government for resource and calls and visits by migrant workers may vary legitimacy to survive and expand. considerably. During my field research, which Subsequently, they made contact with local was not a particularly busy time, there were government officials and eventually succeeded about 15-20 calls and 10-15 visitors per day. in establishing a volunteer group under the According to Migrant Aid‘s report, in 2009 the official sponsorship of the local branch of the Beijing office answered more than 7,000 Communist Youth League, which conferred phone calls and received more than 3,000 some legitimacy on Migrant Aid. But the migrant worker visitors. It is an impressive Communist Youth League later terminated its number considering the small size of the sponsorship, explaining that Migrant Aid may organisation. cause it unwanted trouble. Migrant Aid continued to try to build close relations with MIGRANT AID AND THE STATE authorities. In 2004, it was approached by the local Judiciary Bureau which designated It is helpful to begin with an analysis of Migrant Aid as a People‘s Mediation Migrant Aid‘s relations with the state as the Committee, a low-level popular institution state continues to play a dominant role in originated in the Maoist period. Crucially, this regulating and controlling Chinese (civil) took place against the background of a state- society in which Migrant Aid is embedded and led national campaign for the protection of operates. It is not surprising that the relations migrant workers. It was a time when violation between grassroots civil society organisations of basic labour rights was endemic and like Migrant Aid and an authoritarian state are produced much social conflict which seriously complex, contradictory and problematic. In concerned the state. The designation, which Chinese studies literature, the two prevailing does not give Migrant Aid any substantive analytical paradigms are state corporatism and power, nevertheless greatly strengthened its civil society. The state corporatist approach position vis-à-vis employers who are hesitant analyses the structural and corporatist control to confront what they often perceive as a of the state over society which requires all government agency and thus are more easily grassroots organisations to be officially persuaded to comply with labour laws and sponsored and registered with the government regulations. Min certainly has recognised this (Unger 2008). Those who cannot find official and attributed the high success rate of dispute sponsors – including Migrant Aid and many resolution to the legitimacy derived from the similar organisations – continue to be designation of People‘s Mediation Committee. excluded from state support and marginalised, But negotiations with local authorities to often registering as private business and thus secure this designation for its two other offices having to pay tax. The civil society have failed.
131 The experience of Migrant Aid helps boundaries, periodic disciplining and the self- demonstrate the often complex and censorship among civil society organisations. contradictory nature of its relations with the state. On the one hand, the state has initiated In this sense, the independence and autonomy national campaigns, championed the ‗rule of of Migrant Aid and similar organisations law‘ enacting a number of important laws and appear to be severely constrained. regulations favourable to migrant workers and Nevertheless, within the boundary sanctioned encouraged them to use legal means to defend by the state Migrant Aid in fact still enjoys a their interests (Diamant et al. 2005; Lee 2007). considerable degree of autonomy in its daily Migrant Aid and other similar organisations activities, which may help explain their have responded to this call by offering legal general lack of concern with autonomy and aid to migrant workers often with tacit independence. A survey of 1,540 NGOs government support. On the other hand, the conducted by the Chinese NGO Research state remains distrustful of independent Centre similarly suggests that ‗too much organisations and has often frustrated their government intervention‘ is ranked the last of endeavour, for example, by making it difficult their concerns (Ho 2008). However, this result for them to register as non-profit organisation should be interpreted with caution. It is and by periodically disciplining certain plausible that many civil society organisations organisations, as we shall discuss. recognise that they are unable to challenge the state so state encroachment on their Given the contradictory state-civil society independence and autonomy becomes less of a relations, it is relevant to explore its effects on concern. However, it is also plausible that Migrant Aid‘s independence and autonomy. most of them, like Migrant Aid, genuinely Based on conversations with the staff at experience little direct government Migrant Aid and field observation, there is interference as they observe the boundary and almost no direct interference by state frame their work using the state rhetoric of authorities including the local Judiciary building ‗harmonious society‘. Their utmost Bureau and there is little such concern about concerns instead become ‗lack of funding‘ and government interference on the part of ‗insufficient government support‘ (Ho 2008). Migrant Aid. However, during my field It is therefore not surprising that Migrant Aid research I observed a brief visit by officials has actively sought close relations with the from the local Judiciary Bureau. But such visit state despite the fact that in recent years there is rare and pro forma and there does not seem have been recurrent campaigns to discipline to be any close monitoring of Migrant Aid‘s and restrict even non-human-rights-related activities. But the significance of the rare visit civil society organisations (Unger 2008; is its signalling to Migrant Aid that the CLNT 2010). authorities are keeping an eye on the organisation. The absence of direct control MIGRANT AID, MARKET may be partly explained by the limited but significant retrenchment of state control over REFORM AND INTERNATIONAL society since the 1980s and partly by the FUNDING state‘s strategy to set the boundary of acceptable behaviours instead of direct In contrast to the state-centric approach often control. It is widely understood that civil adopted in studies on Chinese civil society, society organisations engaged in ‗sensitive‘ this paper argues that analysing the impact of issues risk the danger of state suppression. An the economic restructuring and the transition incident occurred during my field research to market economy in which civil society when a non-profit, lawyers‘ organisation was organisations are embedded and marginalised shut down and its leaders detained because it – in conjunction with an analysis of the state – took up human rights-related cases. Like the is necessary for a holistic understanding of the rare visit by local Judiciary Bureau officials, situation faced by Migrant Aid and similar the state‘s periodic disciplining of civil society civil society organisations. It is worth noting organisations which cross the line serves to that the emergence of migrant labour NGOs remind other similar organisations of what is like Migrant Aid has precisely been and is not acceptable by the state. In a precipitated by the development of a market conversation with a senior staffer at Migrant economy considerably predicated on low- Aid, he took a rather unsympathetic view of wage migrant labour, the social consequence organisations engaged in sensitive issues, of which is being dealt with by Migrant Aid showing a keen awareness of and willingness and others. In fact, the early scholarship on the to observe the boundary.2 The state thus emerging civil society in China demonstrates controls civil society not so much by direct an appreciation of the relations between civil intervention but rather through establishing society and the development of a market economy in China which led to redistribution of power away from the central state to the rest 2 of society presumably to the benefit of (civil) Interview with Liu on 21 August, 2009. 132 society (Brook & Frolic 1997; Gordon White of Yuan in funding from international 1996). This paper hopes to update the analysis organisations, foreign government agencies of the relative power relations between the and foreign embassies in China. The influence state, the market economy/private business of such a large influx of funding into civil and civil society and in particular how the society in China is little understood. This is reconfiguration has affected civil society not to suggest that behind international organisations funding there is necessary any political or economic agenda, as the government in China This paper argues that the redistribution of sometimes claims in order to justify power is highly uneven. While the tight grip of suppression and restriction of some civil the state over society has been weakened and society organisations. However, it is worth state power decentralised, the primary considering how international funding and the beneficiary is not the civil society. Private dependency of Chinese civil society business has flourished thanks to the state‘s organisation on international funding may pro-growth and developmental strategy; but affect the development of civil society in the migrant workers many businesses employ China. have fared poorly with their employers in collusion with local authorities bent on The positive contribution of international economic growth often ignoring labour funding cannot be overestimated. In the regulations. The substantially reduced role of absence of any significant domestic funding, the state in social welfare provision means international funding has been instrumental in migrant workers could expect little support enabling civil society organisations in China to from the state. Instead, the social welfare better deliver their service to those in function of the state has been to some degree desperate need (Ma 2006a). Migrant Aid delegated to civil society. However, the non- would not have been able to survive let alone profit civil society sector which could not develop without the crucial international yield a profit and does not attract investment funding it has received over the years. It has has benefited little from the redistribution of also benefited from personnel training and power away from the state. This manifests institutional capacity building programs perhaps most visibly in the lack of financial provided and funded by the same international security faced by almost all civil society organisations and more broadly from the organisations. Migrant Aid has to constantly dissemination of ideas and practices of worry about its source of funding even as it international NGOs. has successfully received a stream of international funding in the past few years. But there are also existing and potential problems confronting migrant labour NGOs The economic reform and development of like Migrant Aid as a result of their market economy have therefore resulted in dependency on international funding. The great disparity of power between private government in China has carefully screened employers and local governments on the one and monitored international funding to root hand and the migrant workers and grassroots out any potential risk and periodically clamps migrant labour NGOs on the other. This is down on NGOs – including migrant labour where it is important to not confine the NGOs – that are deemed to be controlled or analysis of civil society to the state-civil manipulated by ‗foreign forces‘ due to their society relations. Furthermore, the conflict that foreign source of funding (CLNT 2010). It immediately confronts migrant workers and puts Migrant Aid further at the mercy of the their NGOs is often not one with the state but state and threatens its financial security or with individual employers despite the fact that even survival. Moreover, given the fierce the underlying conflict is national and competition among grassroots organisations structural. And the state – ever concerned with for international funding, Migrant Aid often social stability – has become a de facto if has to resort to designing programs that appeal reluctant ally of Migrant Aid and others in to international donors but which have little individualising and localising labour conflict realistic prospect of implementation. and directing grievance at employers. Here the Furthermore, I argue that it sometimes creates state and migrant labour organisations united tension between the need of Migrant Aid to in the goal of resolving labour disputes are appeal and answer to international donors and non-antagonistic, in fact often cooperative. its responsibilities to its constituency as well This further explains why Migrant Aid has as potentially distort Migrant Aid‘s priorities. actively sought state support and has been This may result in Migrant Aid objectively largely successful. distancing from its constituency.
Lacking domestic funding, Migrant Aid and similar organisations are considerably dependent on international funding. In the past few years, Migrant Aid has received millions 133 MIGRANT AID AND ITS an exercise of ‗mutual aid‘ by migrant CONSTITUENCY workers, having helped tens of thousands of fellow migrant workers. But it has been less Another dimension – the relations between successful in facilitating ‗mutual aid‘ among civil society organisations and their its constituency. During my field research, I constituency, namely migrant workers – has observed an interesting case which may be also been largely overlooked in studies of civil considered as the kind of ‗mutual aid‘ society organisations in China. This is envisioned by the founder of Migrant Aid. It understandable given these grassroots took place when several groups of migrant organisations often do not have a membership workers were in Migrant Aid‘s office waiting base nor a well-defined constituency as such. for their turn to talk to the staff. Listening to However, I argue that the relations affect both the discussion, one migrant worker – a small the organisation and its constituency in sub-contractor – apparently felt sympathetic important ways. In this paper, I will analyse toward another migrant worker whose salary Migrant Aid‘s relations with its constituency was not paid by his employer. So he offered with a focus on the changes over time. I will him a job as they happened to work in the then discuss the issue of Migrant Aid‘s same home innovation business, promising to accountability to its constituency. pay him adequately and on time. Then he began a conversation with another group of It is useful to take as the starting point the migrant workers about doing business provision of legal aid which is at the core of together. This small and indeed rare episode Migrant Aid‘s activities and its relations with hints at the potential of genuine ‗mutual aid‘ its constituency. The work service-based among Migrant Aid‘s constituency and the model previously described has served possibility of lessening dependency on the Migrant Aid and its constituents well in terms state and international funding. of legal aid provision. But what are the effects of this service-based model on migrant But why is ‗mutual aid‘ among Migrant Aid‘s workers as well as on Migrant Aid? Here I constituency not happening more often? It is argue that it could have real if contradictory plausible to suggest that trust and prolonged effects in at least three ways. Firstly, through contact are the necessary preconditions for discussing their case with staff, migrant ‗mutual aid‘ and there are several reasons why workers generally acquire some basic legal the preconditions are often absent. Firstly, knowledge relevant to their situation, making migrant workers‘ own lack of resource and them more aware of their legal rights in the power means that they are often unable to help workplace. To some extent, Migrant Aid thus each other even if they want to. Secondly, helps empower their constituency. Secondly, there is division and often mutual suspicion because of the asymmetric access to legal within the heterogeneous migrant community knowledge, information, expertise and differentiated by locality and socioeconomic resource, the empowerment is limited and status which is not conducive to building trust. migrant workers will remain dependent on Thirdly, migrant worker visitors spend on Migrant Aid. In turn, this also conditions the average only 15-20 minutes in Migrant Aid‘s working model of Migrant Aid, making it office and do not usually talk to each other, difficult to change its modus operandi. thus little chance of building ties. Partly Thirdly, given that Migrant Aid often makes because of these realities and partly because of the decision as to how cases should proceed, its own lack of resource and personnel, the politics and orientation of the organisation Migrant Aid has not focused on facilitating necessarily limit the range of solutions and ‗mutual aid‘ in any concerted way in recent hence shape the outcomes. In the case of years. The increasing reliance on international Migrant Aid, it adopts a pragmatic and funding also means that ‗mutual aid‘, which conciliatory approach seeking ‗mediation‘ and may have been a necessity in the early years of legal redress and this precludes the possibility Migrant Aid when it had little external of collective action by individualising the support, is no longer essential for the issue and channelling it into legal institutions. organisation. Finally, the state has been suspicious of independent organising and this However, the current service-based model of might have deterred Migrant Aid from Migrant Aid is not the only possible mode of facilitating mutual aid. operation. It has been an early goal of Migrant Aid to help build horizontal ties between Migrant Aid‘s constituency has not been migrant workers through ‗mutual aid‘. entirely passive, however. Indeed, the active However, precisely what ‗mutual aid‘ means participation of many migrants working as in practice is not clearly articulated despite volunteers over the years helped to build up constant reference in their pamphlets and and sustain the organisation. When Migrant reports. It is worth pointing out that the Aid was created in 1999, it had little resource creation of Migrant Aid itself can be seen as itself and no public exposure. So it was decided, critical to its subsequent 134 development, to organise ‗public-interest‘ in the context of China‘s transition to a market volunteer activities in the hope of drawing economy.3 It shows both the agency and public and government support to their good ingenuity of migrants in organising their own work. Over the years, Migrant Aid organised organisation as well as the difficulties and numerous such volunteer activities entirely constraints confronting them sometimes as dependent on the contribution of its unintended consequences of their close constituents – their fellow migrants. It relations with the state and international received substantial positive media coverage donors. The active participation of rural and was viewed favourably by local migrants in the development of civil society in authorities, which has been instrumental in China – while fraught with problems and building good relation with the government against enormous odds – points to the real and international donors. The constituent- potential of their project and gives hope to the volunteers continue to offer their assistance to gradual emergence of a genuine civil space for Migrant Aid to this day. rural migrant workers and other marginalised social groups. This paper hopes to have Having discussed the relations between contributed to our understanding of this Migrant Aid and its constituency, it is relevant important development. to briefly explore the extent to which Migrant Aid is accountable to its constituency and Acknowledgments more broadly how decisions in this migrant workers‘ organisation are made. In this I wish to thank the founder, staff and volunteers respect, it has undergone some important at Migrant Aid for their generosity. I would also changes over the decade. In the early days of like to thank Dr. David Bray, Professor Anita Migrant Aid, decisions were more or less Chan, Diana Beaumont, Cathy Walker and Paul collectively made or at least often widely Garver for commenting on the draft and for discussed and consulted among the small their encouragement. group of migrant workers associated with Migrant Aid. This continued for some years References but eventually only Min stayed on while others drifted away from the organisation for various Brook, T & Frolic, BM 1997, Civil society in reasons. The decision-making has since been China, ME Sharpe, Armonk, New York. concentrated in the hands of Min, who is seen as the indisputable leader in the organisation. Chan, A 2001, China's workers under assault: Nevertheless, despite the fact that there is no the exploitation of labor in a globalizing established mechanism to hold the leader or economy,ME Sharpe, Armonk, New York. the organisation accountable to its constituency, Min continues to consult with CLNT 2010, Chinese Labor NGOs and Free others, including the staff and migrant workers Legal Services Always in a Precarious who have been supporting Migrant Aid. Situation, viewed 7 July 2010, Moreover, Migrant Aid has made their work at
CONCLUSION
In summary, this paper has offered a case 3 Still, it should be noted there exists important study of a migrant labour NGO in China – not differences, for example, between migrant labour untypical of many other migrant labour NGOs founded and run by migrants and those by organisations – by analysing its relations with academics; or, between those in the North and those the state, international donors and constituency in the Coastal South. However, it is not within the scope of this paper to explore all these differences. 135 Ho, P & Edmonds, RL 2008, China's Ma, Q 2006b, Non-governmental embedded activism: opportunities and organizations in contemporary China: constraints of a social movement, Routledge, paving the way to civil society?, Routledge, London. London. Jacka, T 2006, Rural women in urban China: Pun, N 2005, Made in China: women factory gender, migration, and social change, ME workers in a global workplace, Duke Sharpe, Armonk, New York. University Press, Durham. Lee, CK 1998, Gender and the south China Solinger, DJ 1999, Contesting citizenship in miracle: two worlds of factory women, urban China: peasant migrants, the state, University of California Press, Berkeley, and the logic of the market, University of California. California Press, Berkeley. Lee, CK 2007, Against the law: labor protests Unger, J (ed) 2008, Associations and the in China's rustbelt and sunbelt, University of Chinese state: contested spaces, M.E. California Press, Berkeley, California. Sharpe, Armonk, New York. Lu, Y 2008, Non-governmental organizations Zheng, Y & Fewsmith, J (eds) 2008, China's in China: the rise of dependent autonomy, opening society: the non-state sector and Routledge, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon. governance, Routledge, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon. Ma, Q 2006a, 'Impact of Globalization and International Non- governmental Organizations on the Development of Non- governmental Organizations in China', Open Times, issue 2, 2006, viewed 14th October 2010,
136 Workplace Experiences of International Academic Staff in South Australian Universities
Nina Maadad & Noune Melkoumian University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, 5005, Australia
Corresponding author: Nina Maadad ([email protected])
Abstract INTRODUCTION
The last two decades in an increasingly globalised International academic staff have become tertiary education system has witnessed academic much more globally mobile during the last staff and postgraduate students from other countries working and studying in Australian institutions, a decade and this has forced a rethink of both situation which has its problems (Guilfoyle 2006; teaching practices, and closely related to them, Symons 2001; Ingelton & Cadman 2000). curricula and assessment practices. Moreover, Language, isolation, teaching and learning, cultural the diversity of academics in an educational shock and personal problems are being reported by setting, be it a classroom, lecture theatre or international academics as factors affecting their seminar presentation, evokes interesting work. research and psychological experiences with locally-born professionals. A review of the This has necessitated a rethink of both teaching and literature has highlighted that between 1990 learning practices. Moreover, the diversity of academic staff in tertiary institutions evokes and 2010 the number of international interesting patterns of interaction with other staff, academics doubled in Australia (Frew 2006). students, teaching and learning materials, academic From the academics‘ perspective, this could be cultural teaching styles and contexts. This mixed due to factors such as the promotion of methodology research study explores how Australia as an educational expert commodity, international academics from non-English speaking the value some societies place on overseas backgrounds at three universities - University of recruitment in order to gain a global Adelaide, University of South Australia and reputation, as well as the quest for better Flinders University -experience cultural change, professional credentials and expertise in a language barriers, academic challenges and differing teaching styles and expectations. The foreign land (Frew 2006; Wang 2004; Beaver experiences of the respondents from diverse & Tuck 1999). For Australian universities, geographic, cultural, professional and educational international academics are becoming backgrounds are documented. increasingly important sources and dispensers of knowledge. Under scrutiny in this research paper are various types of international academic staff: lecturers, Employing overseas academic staff in tutors, and supervisors across a range of disciplines. Australian universities is not without its Five academics were interviewed to document their problems. Language, isolation, teaching and experiences of cultural change, challenges regarding language and varying teaching learning culture, and personal issues are methodologies and what they were expected to generally reported by them as factors affecting impart to students and how. A case study was their work. Many staff members coming to conducted to analyse those factors that influence Australia are in the mature age category as their employment in the university context and the well as experts in their chosen disciplines back impact these had. Twenty staff members, ten males home (Frew 2006). Internationally recruited and ten females from the University of Adelaide, academics in a wide variety of fields who do Flinders University and the University of South come to Australia on a specific contractual Australia participated. Data was collected and basis do make a commitment to return to their analysed quantitatively. home country amidst great difficulties as well Keywords as stress from ―family, home and academic International academics; internationalisation; institutions‖ (Symons 2001: 6). This study cultural attitudes; cultural experience; cultural was undertaken in order to reassess and shed values; cultural shock; psychological new light on the experiences of international experience; humanistic sociology; Australian academic staff in Australian universities. The universities case study unfolded to address six themes: factors affecting choice of institutions; teaching and administrative support; differences in teaching and supervisory styles;
attitude of the host society and predominantly his discussion on Dimensions of the Changing Anglo-Celtic staff towards internationally Academic Profession. He contends that recruited staff members; success in achieving internationalisation is an important issue on promotions; and success in winning grant which data have to be compiled and further applications. research conducted. Another study (Metcalfe 2008) states that examining faculty and the LITERATURE REVIEW academic profession in higher education in Canada are central research topics. However, Scholars advocate that it is important to look due to limited funding there are very few at an individual‘s psychological well-being in national-level surveys that might facilitate the context of their teaching and/or research better understanding of the changing face of experience in Australia. Previous studies on the academic profession. Faculty members, the idea of social process in teaching and particularly scientists, are considered ‗highly research projects by Albert Bundura (cited in qualified personnel‘ in various public policies Woolfolk 2001), which is known as the ‗social relating to Canada‘s role as an innovative and cognitive‘ theory, focuses on people‘s knowledge-centric society (Langford, Hall, cognitive factors such as self-perceptions, Josty, Matos & Jacobson 2006). Luke (2005) expectations and beliefs. This theory stresses that Canadian institutions compete distinguishes between firstly, active learning, internationally to attract skilled researchers i.e. learning by doing and experiencing the and scholars to enhance Canada‘s position consequences of that action, and secondly, within global knowledge production flows. vicarious learning, which is learning by observing others. Furthermore, Metcalfe (2008) examines the internationalisation of Canadian higher Cultural aspects, on the other hand, distinguish education in terms of in-country or foreign between one ethnic or national group and degree attainment by Canadian faculty, the another. Their existence derives from well- internationalisation of teaching, and established human needs and nature. These international dimensions of research. aspects identify the tradition, language, However, Metcalfe (2008) does not include religion, social class and values of the studies on academics from non-English individual. Smolicz (1979) contended that backgrounds and under internationalisation these must be viewed in one‘s own original has conducted surveys on obtaining a degree setting or in a plural society. Some aspects of (such as a Canadian getting his/her PhD in the cultural values alter over time, changing USA), collaborating with institutions from contexts and the impact that modernisation has other countries or internationalisation of the on a culture, while others remain subjects taught. Metcalfe (2008) also fundamentally important as the centre around recognises the importance of understanding if which all other social and identification immigration status, citizenship, country where systems revolve (Maadad 2009). A major a degree is attained, gender and other issue that does influence international demographic variables bear any relationship to academic staff‘s psychological well-being is international research collaboration or the culture shock, particularly if they have come incorporation of international themes in from a predominantly religious society and are teaching. now teaching, research and/or supervising in a secular one. If left unaddressed, it may A study was conducted on the current state of seriously impinge on what they hope to Australian universities with the aim of achieve professionally and personally. Patterns developing strategies to attract more people of interaction in a university faculty, school, or into the academic workforce. In their recent department are another factor that may or may research briefing titled ‗The attractiveness of not influence successful participation in a the Australian academic profession: A program or course structure. Finally, attitudes comparative analysis‘ Coates et al. (2009) of the host society towards international provide an analysis of challenges that are academics, directly or indirectly shapes hindering the sustainability and development feelings of comfort, security and happiness of the academic workforce in Australia. They (Maadad 2009). The following sections will claim to draw together insights from national expound on these factors. statistics collections and a number of recent studies that aim to shed light on current A comprehensive literature review on the characteristics of the academic profession, and proposed topic shows that to date no study has to identify key problem areas. However, they focused on international academics from non- do not discuss the experiences and challenges English speaking backgrounds. However, faced by academics from non-English many researchers worldwide have recognised speaking backgrounds, many of whom have the importance of this issue. For example, earned their degrees overseas and currently Cummings (2008), includes increased comprise a substantial part of the academic internationalisation of academic personnel in 138 workforce in Australia. Coates et al. (2009) investigate individuals‘ attitudes, feelings and suggest that: self-reflections on how they adapt to the culture of their society and environment efforts to attract, retain and train (Smolicz 1979, 1999). The capacity to do this young academics need to be made on depends completely on the individual and their a variety of fronts. However, in a reflections on their feelings and consciousness, broad sense, three key issues are of as they go through the different stages. In crucial importance: considering immigration-based research on attracting a greater number of academics, humanistic sociology can be high quality candidates to the applied on many different levels. These PhD; include an examination of participants‘ increasing the completion rates experiences by analysing their points of view, of those who enrol in doctoral and evaluating the social and cultural degrees; and outcomes. encouraging a larger proportion of PhD completers to take up PSYCHOLOGICAL academic postings. EXPERIENCES IN REGARD TO
Here again they do not include the highly TEACHING IN A FOREIGN qualified group of people from non-English ENVIRONMENT speaking background who could largely contribute to maintaining and repopulating The literature on existing approaches to Australia‘s academic profession. In discussing understanding cultural shock focuses mainly the importance of the environment in which on migration where the individual or academics work and recognising its impact on academic‘s family faces a whole new life in a shaping their perceptions of the job, Coates et society about which they know little or al. (2009) do not include issues like cultural nothing at all. Such an approach comprises diversity, language barrier, or lack of many important broad perspectives, the first sufficient interaction between academics from one being a combination of psychological, English and non-English speaking sociological and philosophical theories and backgrounds. their relationship to social change and learning (Cross 1981; Long 1983; Candy 1991; Meriam Coates et al. (2009) rightly state that & Caffarella 1991, all cited in Tenant 1997, 1- 3). In contrast, international academic staff workforce analysis and planning face the same problem, especially those who usually gain momentum when there is come from countries where culture, language a crisis that needs resolving. Waiting and religion are different. for a crisis may be too late for higher education, however, given that with There have been many theories supporting the the exception of immigration it takes fact that both internal and external factors an absolute bare minimum of seven influence cultural changes and adaptation. The years to produce an academic. …there social environment seems to be the most is a clear and present need to plan influential factor that stands out in personal now about maintaining and relationships. There is also an ongoing repopulating Australia‘s vibrant research that focuses on emotional academic profession. development. Its emphasis is on how our concepts of self and conflict proceed and Although this briefing contributes to develop in life. Rogers and Maslow (cited in advancing understanding of the academic Tenant 1997) did much research on humanistic workforce in Australia to some extent, it psychology and developed a number of leaves out a very important group of categories for people‘s motives that were professionals who are willing and can bring related and connected. Basically, unless valuable contributions to Australia‘s university individuals have reached a level of satisfaction system if given the right guidance, support and at the most basic stage, they do not move on to attention. Many academics coming to the second step. Rose (1993) also discussed Australia are experts in their chosen the influence of general prejudice in society disciplines (Frew 2006). They are from a wide and its impact on individuals, and the variety of fields and arrive in Australia on a importance of inter-group connections in order specific contractual basis or as skilled to reduce that prejudice. migrants. Generally, they experience difficulties while adjusting to the culture in a Cultural values vary from nation to nation and given university. they also vary in their influence on different families and groups within one nation. This study is shaped by the principles of According to Sandel, an individual self does humanistic sociology, which seek to not exist as an independent entity because no 139 one has the ability to stand completely outside Much has been written about the impact of his or her experience, or outside of society internationalisation on university governance (Sandel, cited in Theophanous 1995). This structures and students‘ experiences, yet the explains the extent to which each individual is effects of internationalisation on academic shaped and influenced by their own work, for example staff mobility and academic community or society, and the psychological careers remains under researched (Mayson & stresses that they have to go through in order Schapper 2007). Furthermore, the impact of to adjust to the demands and pressures of the international academics in their teaching role new society. These reactions could be eased on Australian university students‘ learning is by introducing ‗multicultural education‘ which important, given that in the last two decades helps people to cope with changes and academic work has undergone profound differences (Falk & Harris 1983). In this way changes due to globalisation and the cultural background or context can be internationalisation. Little has been published initiated and students‘ experience of cultural on the effects of internationalisation on shock and fear of alienation will be reduced. academic work and managing academics in universities that have increasingly become The degree of cultural shock depends on the large international businesses. Taking into degree to which the individual or family is consideration that the universities in this separated from similar ethnic groups (Di present research setting are becoming Leonardo 1984). For instance, international increasingly multicultural, it is evident that academics arriving from places such as academics‘ past teaching and research Singapore to teach in Australia, find it less experiences as well as cultures are emphasised difficult to adjust to the change because of when they take up employment. They are their previous exposure and understanding of people who have achieved success the English language. They will only have the professionally in their home culture and may cultural challenges to deal with (Di Leonardo come to the host institution with 1984). However, international professionals predetermined expectations about the types of who arrive from China or Japan to work in support they would receive. Australian universities will face more difficulties as a result of the language barrier Additionally, language competency is another as well as cultural differences. In recent problem that international academics are decades most countries have changed the aims constantly challenged by. For many of these and practices of education as a deliberate academics, although English may be their result of policy because economically the second or third language, they are competent world is more globalised, competitive and and proficient users of the language, with interconnected. The educational contexts in some even teaching the language in the which procedures and policies are formed are schools or universities back home. To ignore determined by a nation‘s particular socio- this ability and to classify them homogenously political history, character and traditions with other students, as requiring language (Lewin & Lewin 1945). skills assistance, results in frustration and dissatisfaction. Unlike international students EXPERIENCE who would be returning home when their studies are completed, there is every necessity For many international teaching and research for them to embrace Western writing styles as professionals, a fundamental problem when required by fellow teachers, postgraduate they begin working in a foreign university is researchers, supervisors or staff. This is not, grappling with teaching styles or becoming however, to suggest that a ‗western model of accustomed to an academic culture that is alien learning‘ is necessarily superior (Guilfoyle to them. Often, perceptions of staff in the host 2006). institution magnify the problem because these international academics are perceived to be at PATTERNS OF INTERACTION risk, in the sense that they come from a culture that is ignorant of Western learning styles, Previous research in the field highlights that more specifically the Australian education there are significant differences in the patterns system (Beaver & Tuck 1999). Thus, of interaction between international academics transition into the host university for the from different backgrounds and the Anglo- period of their teaching or supervisory Celtic academics. These differences contract/tenure can be daunting and/or tedious commonly arise from what Ballard and as feelings of self-worth are undermined when Clanchy (1991) term to be ‗cultures of their presentation and lecturing skills, writing learning‘. Thus, academics who want to teach styles and critical thinking are queried or at the university level have had to endure challenged by their peers, their students or drawbacks because - as Richardson and faculty/departmental heads. McKenna (2003) and Richardson and Zikic (2007) have reported - international 140 academics‘ desire to take up an overseas considered most appropriate for the study in appointment did not automatically lead to which cultural and relevant sociological factors upward career mobility. Luxon and Peelo were analysed and understood. Data were (2009) in their analysis of non-UK teaching collected through a questionnaire and semi- staff at British universities commented on the structured interviews. The questionnaire was substantial practical, cultural and linguistic divided into two sections: Section One asked barriers that may compromise international questions about international academics‘ academics‘ teaching styles and strategies (see perceptions about the teaching and research also Smith & Todd 2007). The culture that programs, their goals for the future as well as international academics come from also their present experience in the host institution; prohibits them from saying what they actually Section Two asked questions relating to their feel to authority and management in face-to- psychological well-being, particularly in the face meetings. This view is supported by context of coping with language difficulties and Guilfoyle (2006), who states that international new styles of teaching. The interviews were postgraduate students are often not familiar carried out to confirm their responses in the with asking questions or disagreeing with questionnaire. persons of authority. Rather, these staff members turn to other staff who are in similar The participants (ten males and ten females) predicaments to share their problems. were selected through personal and professional contacts. The participants were ATTITUDES OF ANGLO-CELTIC academics staff members from overseas and ACADEMICS now working in three South Australian universities (University of Adelaide, Flinders Smolicz (1979) stressed the importance of the University, and University of South Australia) first impression that families or individuals get all from non-English backgrounds. They were when arriving to a new country and the of Japanese, Indian, Singaporian, Chinese, attitudes of welcome and acceptance, or Bangladeshi, Jordanian, Malaysian and suspicion and rejection which they encounter German background. Five of them came to in the host society can reflect greatly on them. Australia to work, 2 completed their PhDs As the earlier discussion indicated, adopting to here and got academic positions, while the the Australian education system is a process remainder were immigrants employed by the fraught with potential misunderstandings. It universities. was considered important to understand the difficulties that staff face on a daily basis with Five academics were interviewed. The analysis educational and cultural issues, and language of the data obtained in this study began once all barriers as they related to the experiences they the interviews were completed and all the encounter in Australian universities. Some of questionnaires were returned. The interview these experiences refer to the extent to which and questionnaire data were analysed from an they can be damaging to their confidence, self- interpretative perspective and from major esteem and morale. themes that emerged as important.
In order to provide a basis for communication, FINDINGS studying and living together in a multicultural society, Secombe (1999) has referred to Data from the questionnaire and interviews Kloskowska‘s concept of cultural valency. were analysed based on participants‘ This involved not just knowledge of a responses. The survey results were put into language and culture, but a positive attitude or six groups addressing the following aspects of intimate feelings regarding shared workplace experiences: teaching and connections. Individuals could develop these administrative support (professional in tandem with their own and any other culture experiences), factors affecting choice of they encountered in the course of their lives. institutions (personal experiences), differences Such a concept could be useful in developing in teaching and supervisory styles (teaching mainstream education so that people brought experiences), research support and grant up in the majority cultural system could be application (research experiences), attitude of educated about the different cultures that they host society and Anglo-Celtic staff towards would almost inevitably interact with during internationally recruited academics the course of their lives. (promotional and cultural). The results from the quantitative studies are given in Figures 1- METHODOLOGY 6. They show strong interaction between different experiences. The methodology for undertaking this research involved the use of qualitative and quantitative When considering overall professional techniques, in the form of a mixed-method experiences 36 per cent responded as having approach to data collection. This was positive, while 64 per cent had negative 141 experiences (see Figure 1). The survey participants have recognised the university Figure 3: Teaching status, teaching and research environment, Experiences positive interaction with students, public engagements, negative lack of support and information, pressure to perform and isolation as important aspects 45% influencing their overall professional experience. 55%
Figure 1: Professional Experiences According to the survey research experiences positive are largely affected by: firstly, heavy teaching 36% and administrative workload; and secondly, difficulty in obtaining grants. Only 44 per cent 64% of the survey participants noted positive experiences while 56 per cent had negative research experience (see Figure 4). Interestingly, the survey result for research experience is almost the exact opposite of the When it came to personal experiences 53 per teaching experience (see Figures 3 and 4). cent of the survey participants registered positive with 47 per cent registering negative experiences (see Figure 2). Most of them are Figure 4: Research concerned with the high workload and lack of Experiences positive time to maintain outside contact, to take part in professional activities and attend conferences. negative
44% Figure 2: Personal 56% Experiences positive negative 47% 53% Promotional experiences come right after professional experiences with 41 per cent being positive and 59 per cent negative experiences (see Figure 5). Many survey participants understand what the requirements for obtaining a promotion are but do not see The highest satisfaction was registered for those as fair and reasonable. teaching experiences with 55 per cent positive and only 45 per cent being negative (see Figure 3). Many of the survey participants found teaching to be both a rewarding and Figure 5: Promotional challenging experience. Although many Experiences positive participants have pointed out that the teaching negative style at Australian universities differs from their home country‘s universities, they did not 41% find it difficult to understand and perform according to the Western academic culture and 59% style.
The survey on cultural experiences resulted in 53 per cent positive and 47 per cent negative experiences (see Figure 6). Interestingly, these results coincide with the survey results on personal experiences presented in Figure 2.
142 Figure 6: Cultural that there was a big gap between expectations positive and what was actually delivered. Inevitably, Experiences this may contribute to psychological problems negative as well and ultimately compromise successful teaching outcomes. 47% The findings of this study demonstrate that 53% nine respondents claim to experience more difficulty teaching in the host institution than they would in their own homeland. This is a result of the mental discomfort and pressure that they are facing. Being away from their home, their culture, their family, friends and The analysis of the survey results shows that having pressure put on them to adjust at the the international academics register highest workplace and perform well can create many percentages of positive experiences in hurdles with their teaching. Five of the teaching, followed by personal, cultural and respondents said that these pressures are based research experiences. The promotional and on the assumptions that they have to adjust to professional experiences attained the lowest and the expectation that they adopt Australian positive percentage. teaching practices swiftly. Seven of the respondents also pointed out that they found The implication of the findings for key language was a factor that contributed to their stakeholders in academia is that the problems (problem with their accent); it international academics who participated in impacted on issues that facilitated assimilation this study are highlighting discontent in regard such as social connections, communication to the transition program. Additionally, they with the general mainstream public, have expectations in regard to the types of occupation and in addition to academia. Eight support and mentoring they perceive respondents listed that teaching styles and load themselves to require, in order to carry out added to the difficulties and the differences their duties effectively. The findings highlight between what they were used to. What is that issues such as factors influencing choice expected of them caused them a great deal of of institution, expectations of the institution grief. Six respondents highlighted other and study program, future goals, problems academic staff mainly for the reason that they experienced whilst in the study program, cannot speak freely, nor complain when not learning support, ability to adapt to a new satisfied or even explain their feelings; this is culture as well as societal differences in the consequently related to the different cultural host country, ultimately all play a major behaviour concerning dissatisfaction. contributing role to learning outcomes. Moreover, five of the participants also stated Successes in teaching outcomes are grounded that cultural differences made it difficult for in the experiences felt throughout the them to perform in the host institution, not just transition program. Failure on the part of key societal culture but also academic culture. players to acknowledge these factors could This factor is a critical one but it can be result in feelings of dissatisfaction, which resolved with the help of staff members and ultimately may impact on their performance. local postgraduate students.
Additionally, the findings of this study Institutional managers in the university should highlight that international academics come to endeavour to reassess current induction and Australian universities with pre-conceived mentoring programs so that these issues raised expectations. Among others, these academics by the international academics can be expect the transition to be well structured, to resolved. The psychological well-being of provide sufficient support and mentoring to these academics very much depends on how facilitate their settlement into their new comfortable and satisfied they feel in the host academic environment. Although a majority institution. The host institution should strive of the academics who took part in the study to offer more language support to these stated that their expectations were met, there academics; more mentoring when needed, as were a few who were undecided and yet others well as train academic staff to be more aware who claimed that they were disappointed with of the problems faced by them. Ideally, those the structure as well as support. A majority of in managerial positions should be more the academics claimed that they were unhappy understanding, sympathetic as well as with the induction program in their university. supportive towards international academics as The participants of this study indicated that their overall psychological well-being is a big they would have preferred more support in the determinant of positive outcomes in their form of induction and administrative work, teaching. These academics have to adapt to a with mentoring and guidance to help with new teaching and learning environment as Western teaching styles. What this implies is well as a new culture. Additionally, apart 143 from the emotional and cultural separation, six Beaver, B & Tuck, B 1999, ‗The Adjustment academics felt that they were working much of Overseas Students at a Tertiary Institution longer hours than local academics and the in New Zealand‘, HERDSA, viewed, 11th expectations of them is a lot higher in order to November 2007, attain the same status as those who are
144 Hall, J 1996, Towards More Effective Rose, PI 1933, Strangers in Their Midst: Research Supervision for International Small Town Jews and Their Neighbours, Students in an Australian University, Richwood Publishing Co., Merrick, New viewed, 11th November York. 2007,
145 Rethinking Resentment: Political memory and identity in Australia’s Salvadoran community
Robert Mason ([email protected]) University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland 4350, Australia.
Abstract This paper uses the Salvadorans to argue, firstly, that transnational political The paper questions how former refugees from El identification and frameworks of morality may Salvador have settled in Australia, and particularly be reinforced by the progressive in metropolitan Queensland. It is positioned at the ‗ethnicisation‘ of migrant identities intersection of history and citizenship studies, and (undermining the aims of Australia‘s addresses the lack of research into the effects of multicultural policy framework). The paper remembered social upheaval on migrants' settlement in Australia. The paper uses qualitative argues that migrants frequently draw on data from interviews and online blogs to interrogate formative historical and social memories to the nature of migrants‘ engagement with El transfer anti-capitalist frameworks of radical Salvador, and, significantly, the impact on their resistance to Australia. Finally, the paper conceptualisation of Australian liberal democratic argues that the low to medium density values and civic society. population of groups such as Australian Salvadorans suggests a new model for civic The community remains highly politicised, and is engagement. Whereas Salvadorans in the connected with both local and global contacts. United States retain an interest in reproducing Since fleeing El Salvador‘s civil war in the 1980s, Australia‘s Salvadoran community has developed in authority in their former homes, Australian a markedly different manner to the much larger Salvadorans lack the requisite social capital communities in the United States. Salvadorans in for this. Instead, they are focussed on the Australia use transcultural rhetoric to justify their application and enactment of what they engagement with Australian politics and perceive to be transcultural norms in wider multiculturalism. Democratisation in El Salvador Australian society, informed by past has had a profound impact on Australian experiences. Salvadorans‘ identity, with key implications for their engagement in multiple civic societies. Whilst their ongoing contact with home communities in El LEAVING EL SALVADOR Salvador has declined, there has been a re-assertion of the transnational Hispanic identity of the radical A strong sense of historical injustice continues Left, which draws on migrants‘ pre-migration to exist in contemporary El Salvador, based on memories of social conflict. an entrenched oligarchy and long-term
structural poverty. These tensions erupted Keywords violently during the country‘s civil war, which Multiculturalism, civic participation, Salvadorans, political participation. lasted from 1980 to 1992. During this period, right-wing government forces sought to end a left-wing insurgency led by the ‗Frente THE SALVADORAN MODEL Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional‘ (hereafter, the FMLN). Throughout the war, Australia‘s Salvadoran community offers a the United States was closely associated with case study of a politicised group that the government forces, and was implicated in experienced serious social trauma prior to their a number of human rights violations that emigration. Most pertinently, it provides an remain seared into emigrants‘ memories. exemplar for long-term Australian immigrants who experienced social and political violence, Large numbers of displaced persons fled El and are digitally literate. The Salvadorans are Salvador during the hostilities. Many sought particularly noteworthy, as many community the comparative wealth of the United States. members continue to identify with Significantly, those Salvadorans who settled in transnational sentiments and a sense of the United States occupied a position of legal historical injustice, applying this in Australia ambiguity that amplified their sense of after decades of settlement. vulnerability. Classed as economic migrants, their traumatic experiences were rarely accorded public recognition. However, a
number of Salvadorans also resettled in and coalitions of interest that are based in Australia, where they were afforded refugee multiple localities. status. Most of these had been based temporarily in Costa Rica, where they had PAN-HISPANIC SENTIMENT lived in the local community as recognised refugees. Australian officials flew from There has been a lack of research into the Mexico to interview refugees for potential effects of Australian immigrants‘ historical resettlement, leading to significant numbers memories. Historians, such as Neumann eventually being granted access to the country (2004) and Tavan (2005), have engaged with under the Refugee/Special Humanitarian migrants‘ social memories and the role of the Programme. past in Australians‘ welcome to them. However, scholars have not yet fully The first Salvadorans arrived in Australia in investigated how narratives of former civil 1983, and about 1,200 refugees were accepted conflicts are reconstructed in Australia in the following three years (Immigration (although important work has been conducted Museum 2009). Henceforth, private by Hage, 2003). This is noteworthy, since sponsorship would rapidly accelerate the refugees and migrants find themselves Australian community‘s growth, and the physically isolated from the institutions that population more than tripled within five years. are designed to affect reconciliation in their In 2006, there were approximately 20,000 former homes. This has important implications Salvadorans living in Australia (although this for how emigrants experience democratic number does not take into account return transition, since they are excluded from the migration). Most now live in Sydney and national conversations that occur in their Melbourne, with about a quarter of the absence. Previously, it may have been national population based in south-east sufficient to assume that local supports and Queensland (Sanchez-Castro & Gil 2009). engagement with Australian civic society These numbers stand in sharp contrast to the would engender a gradual settlement process approximately three million Salvadorans that was orientated towards Australian currently in the United States. Yet, those in citizenship norms. The new era of Australia were afforded a limited public transnational technologies and social recognition of their trauma and grief, and have movements means such an approach is no not been viewed through a predominantly longer credible. economic or utilitarian prism (as was the case in the United States). El Salvador‘s „Museum of the Word and Image‘ provides one case study of how Very little research has been carried out Australians from El Salvador may engage with regarding Salvadorans‘ settlement in Australia, ongoing debates of historical and beyond analyses of early intervention contemporary injustice (Museo de la Palabra strategies (see Pittaway 1991; Santos & y la Imagen, 2010). The museum establishes a Webber 2009). Langer, writing in the 1990s, framework and narrative of Salvadoran asserted in a number of articles that Australian history, through an extensive online digitised Salvadorans had successfully ‗become ethnic‘ collection that ranges from movies to and had relegated politics ‗to history‘ (Langer photographic images and memoirs. It is 1990: 9). This paper argues that such a dedicated to creating a reflective space and a position misrecognises the complexity of visible testimony to Salvadorans‘ collective social memories and the function of ethnicity pasts (albeit primarily for those living within for migrant groups. Indeed, migrants‘ the national borders). Publicly recognising the experience of democratic transition in divisions of the past, it is designed to facilitate Australia has been obscured by the Salvadorans‘ engagement in their country‘s predominant multicultural paradigm, with its history by fighting ‗against the chaos of scholarly emphasis on ethnic identities and the memory loss.‘ (Museo de la Palabra y la practical desire to facilitate access to social Imagen, cited in Rodríguez 2006: 4) welfare. Langer‘s position has been further undermined by the communication revolution The museum‘s narrative is emphatically caused by the internet. Opportunities to nostalgic and evocative of loss, but is also communicate instantaneously across suggestive of a continuum of national international borders, and to receive regular historical purpose. As such, it seeks to create a information from sympathisers across the coherent framework from diverse exhibitions world, have transformed the relationship that range from images of 1930s Salvadoran between ethnicity and local space. This paper feminists to excerpts from leftwing Salvadoran argues that new opportunities now exist to existential poets and images titled ‗The War enlarge multiculturalism‘s meaning beyond for Peace‘. The aim is ‗to foster a society that the public emphasis on ethnicity in order to … has a sense of placement and belonging.‘ accommodate transnational political sentiment (Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen, 2010). The 147 very large proportion of Salvadorans who live The best thing is to take sides‘. (Interview B overseas means that no conceptualisation of 2010, pers. comm., 1 August) belonging or community can be achieved without incorporating the overseas Emigrants‘ social memories were framed by a ‗Departmento 15‘ (Rodríguez 2005).1 broad empathy with pan-Hispanic sentiment. Crucially, therefore, the museum helps to For many, Salvadoran identity was include emigrants in the recently emerging understandable through a prism of radical narratives of democratic transition in El Hispanic experience, which had been central Salvador. during the turbulent 1970s and 1980s in Latin America. This political and moral framework Emigrant communities had nurtured subsequently informed their ability to interact grievances against the right-wing ARENA with local Anglophone Australians. However, government (which had remained in power it also proved fundamental to managing the after the civil war until 2009), given its guilt many felt at leaving El Salvador (Hage opposition to public commemorations of the 2003), a sensation that was progressively conflict. The discursive space now occupied reinforced as the right-wing government by the online museum is shared by emigrant characterised them as ‗subversives‘ (Landolt, groups, who seek to perpetuate and Autler and Baires 1999: 304). Such memorialise memory of the losses. A clear frameworks of engagement (with Australian narrative of ongoing conflict continued and wider Salvadoran communities) provided amongst politically active Australian refugees, a moral impetus to organise beyond the based on absolute terms of moral certainty. In boundaries of their designated ethnic an open letter in 2009, Australian refugees community. claimed that ‗[t]en Salvadorans are assassinated each day, [a situation that is] This engagement focussed initially on tolerated by the state justice and public Australian student groups (which were security bodies. State officials are implicated strongly involved with Latin American in homicides. The unilateral amnesty Solidarity movements that ranged from anti- legislated by ARENA is a false instrument for Pinochet protests to support for Nicaraguan the protection of criminals‘ (FMLN Australia Sandinistas). This contact helped to inform 2008). This certitude was reinforced by the new generations of political and social actors validation they found in the gradual formation in the migrant community. There was little of local emigrant community structures – opportunity for capacity building projects although political attitudes remained within the low density Australian community. circumspect at the start. Instead, new leaders associated Australian attempts to improve social inclusion with Rather than simply reflect on events in El social justice campaigns elsewhere in the Salvador, emigrants began to locate their world, connecting localities that featured in grievances in Australia. Areas, such as their diverse social imaginary. Brisbane‘s West End and Wacol, witnessed a series of Latin American forums from the late This sense of Solidarity was enacted in a 1980s. Groups, such as ‗Resistance‘, were number of ways. Salvadorans were at the heart comprised of leftwing academics, community of regular ongoing trips by Hispanic activists and (often) musicians. Many such Australian youth leaders to Cuba, for example. groups identified with the refugees‘ presumed Sentiments of Solidarity also produced an political identification, and sought to offer Australian volunteer movement that regularly support and validation to them. Community sends groups to Venezuela, in order to provide members were frequently wary, however, and electoral support for Hugo Chavez‘ Bolivarian unsure of conventions of liberal democratic revolution. Very clearly this provides an expression in Australia. Over time, they learnt ongoing framework for anti-American the norms governing public space and political imperialism, validating the community‘s social expression, but vehemently rejected models of memories. One Australian Hispanic, Roberto community activism based on subjective Jorquera, is active in the pro-Chavez ‗Brigades political negotiation. Whilst grateful to well- to Venezuela‘ movement. As with other meaning Anglophones, one community community commentators, his views are member commented that in El Salvador ‗there projected in online and local forums. Jorquera is no choice [regarding political identity]. You is also a regular contributor to websites such have to be one side or the other. If you are in as Direct Action, the Australia-Venezuela the middle, you will be caught in the crossfire. Solidarity Network, and the influential Green Left. The notion of Latin American Solidarity (so vital to the formation of an early public 1 presence in Australia) has been further El Salvador is administered through 14 local government areas or ‗departments‘. The term reinvigorated by the internet. Blogs, but also ‗Departmento 15‘ is used to signify the country‘s iconic radio such as the Civil War Radio large emigrant population. Venceremos, are now available online. Not 148 only does this provide information, it supports non-authoritarian, non-hierarchical and non- the cultural milieu previously lacking for patriarchal form of … solidarity with Latin migrants. American grassroots movements in resistance and struggle‘ (LASNET 2010). Not only does TRANSNATIONAL ELECTIONS this echo the historical and wartime experiences in El Salvador, it is firmly aligned It is important to question how historically with the much larger American communities conditioned transnational sentiment affects that use the internet to meet, organise and immigrants‘ involvement in social movements fundraise. based in their former homes. This is particularly significant given the dearth of Various FMLN politicians have toured prior research on the nexus between Australia, and lower level contact between disaggregated citizenship and communities‘ sympathisers is relatively constant. In 1997, location. Seminal American works, such as for example, the Legislative Member and Michel Laguerre‘s (1998) Diasporic former combatant Maria Chichilco toured Citizenship: Haitian Americans in Australian capitals to consolidate the country‘s Transnational America, were written and various Solidarity Committees. Speaking to researched prior to the communication key themes of ‗dignity‘ and ‗justice for all‘, revolution and the internet. Academic debate she was strongly critical of ‗the … continuing has paid relatively little attention to the human rights abuses by the government‘ as manner in which transnational sentiment and well as ‗a failure … to prosecute those accused contact with former homes inform political of … human rights abuses during the civil processes of democratisation. The lack of war‘ (Chichilco, cited in Jorquera 1997). She research is all the more noteworthy given the drew a line from past to present, helping to interest in migration and securitisation that define community boundaries by existential followed the ‗9-11‘ terrorist attacks in New questions of personal morality and politics. York. Ethnicity as a Salvadoran, in terms of family origin, was insufficient for membership in this The opportunities provided by real time active community. communication have transformed relationships between community and place. The former Whilst politicised members of the Australian Salvadoran belligerent group, the FMLN, has community are very proud of the arrival of had a global strategy to marshal support since FMLN representatives, much more research is the 1980s, and actively targets emigrant needed on how migrant groups have reacted to communities for funds (Landolt, Autler and the FMLN‘s transition from a belligerent Baires 1999). In 2001, for example, FMLN group to a democratic party. Blogs suggest leaders in Salvador explicitly urged there is generally a focus on empathetic and ‗Australian activists to travel to El Salvador to moral issues, rather than specific questions of act as international observers‘ (‗El Salvador‘ political negotiation and compromise. This is 2008). More generally, May Day marchers in partly related to the nature of the formation of all the main Australian capitals continue to textual comment on internet blogs, which have an FMLN contingent, and sausage sizzles often encourage clear cut judgements amongst and BBQs raise money for the FMLN like minded-individuals. Community members throughout the year. It is the process of state they do follow political decisions when participation that is most important however, possible, and recognise the necessities of with former migrants desperate to maintain the political negotiation (Interview B 2010, pers. moral affirmation secured by public meetings. comm., 1 August). They are equally New technologies have heralded improved unequivocal that this is a process to pursue a opportunities for more direct contact between moral requirement, and is not an end in itself. the FMLN‘s political leadership and its sympathisers worldwide. They have also For migrant communities to perpetuate this facilitated access to improved information, focus, historical memories must remain with interested Australian Salvadorans holding applicable to contemporary experience. In one monthly video conferences with elected example, the recent formation of a FMLN politicians, at which they request ‗Commission for the Disappeared‘ by the new clarification and information on policies of Salvadoran President, FMLN member interest (Interview A 2010, pers. comm., 5 Mauricio Funes, was widely reported online May). and in the Australian community. At its launch, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Much of the FMLN‘s success in Australia, and ‗explained the importance of … the historical internationally, can be attributed to its memory of the country. [He said] ―Forgetting organisational structure of autonomous cells. is laying the groundwork for other boys and This was endorsed by Australia‘s key liaison girls in our country to continue being body, which declared that it believed in ‗a [forcibly] disappeared‘‘‘ (Martinez, cited in ‗FMLN Creates Commission for the 149 Disappeared‘ 2009). The significance of this local poverty, as well (crucially) as the power historical memory is widespread, as of communities to counter this. Salvadoran emigrants negotiate life narratives in both Australia and in El Salvador. A Concern for local communities and particularly significant consequence is the environmentalism is also demonstrated by altered processes by which perceptions of Hispanic support for Indigenous issues in ethnic and political difference are formed Australia. Salvadorans do not regularly engage within Australia. directly with the local Indigenous community. They do recognise the importance of the AUSTRALIAN POLITICS struggle however, viewing it as part of the history of Indigenous dispossession by white It is crucial to question how empathy with El capitalists that is replicated throughout Latin Salvador and transnational sentiments are America (Interview B 2010, pers. comm., 1 enacted within Australia‘s multicultural policy August). As such, Indigenous poverty is context. The Latin American Solidarity viewed as one function of capitalist Network (with whom Salvadorans‘ FMLN imperialism and its alleged proclivity for groups are affiliated) declared that their aim is reducing local communities‘ control of their to ‗build bridges of struggle and resistance resources. between Latin America, Australia and the whole Asia Pacific Region‘ (LASNET 2010). Thus, ideas of historical justice and radical It is not simply a matter of recognising that social memories come together in an informed Salvadorans empathise with anti- support for certain causes in Australia. As a Americanism. This paper argues that their final example of the projection of these initial contact and coalition-building with New synergies in Australia, one Melbourne Left groups proved crucial to Salvadorans‘ workshop run by Hispanic groups brought gradual civic integration, as these issues were together key facilitators for a discussion in subsequently brought into the Australian 2001 (LASNET 2009). These included a mainstream. Thus, in Australia, American Columbian trade union leader, an anti-mining anti-imperialism and mining sentiment is organiser from Bougainville, a ‗Free West translated into support for the Greens and Papua‘ representative, an Aboriginal leader, Indigenous issues amongst the general and an anti-uranium activist. This makes a Salvadoran community. very clear connection between Indigenous peoples, environmentalism and support for One example of a weekend visit to Hobart by community-based initiatives in Australia. senior FMLN politician, Jorge Schafik Handal Whilst it does so from the security of a widely- Vega, demonstrates the process of transferral. recognised ‗Hispanic identity‘, experiences in Having been welcomed by community Australia are seen as one part of a global members, Handal Vega then met Terry Martin, movement that comprises multiple localities. former independent member of the Tasmanian Each of these possess intersecting local parliament (who crossed the floor to oppose coalitions of interest. Within Australia, it is the Gunns‘ pulp mill). He also met Lisa Singh, space afforded by a sanctioned Hispanic ethnic ALP MLA, who was the only ALP member to identity that facilitated this. abstain on the pulp mill, and then went on to meet the key renegade trade union leader The 2001 Melbourne workshop strongly David O‘Byrne, before finally dining with Bill evoked Bhaba‘s comment that ‗political Harvey (a Green‘s alderman for Hobart). empowerment, and the enlargement of the multiculturalist cause, comes from posing Very clearly, reciprocity of interest exists questions of solidarity and community from between radical Hispanic sentiment, trade the interstitial perspective‘ (2003: 3). For unionism and environmentalism in Australia. Australia‘s Salvadorans, this constitutes an For the purposes of the paper‘s case study, this ever-broadening coalition of transformative is informed by events in El Salvador – where action situated simultaneously in both local American mining companies now threaten the and international contexts. The community country‘s sovereignty and are believed to was particularly gratified by Obama‘s electoral represent a continued form of American rally cry of ‗Yes We Can‘, for example. One imperialism. In their website, Tasmanian blogger rightly noted its origins in the 1970s Salvadorans draw the frequent motif that American Latino/a slogan – Sí Se Puede – and mining companies act as a proxy for American continued to note that the slogan ‗can only be economic imperialism in Australia, and offers transformative when ―we‖ is in a constant a similar foil for American cultural penetration process of widening‘ (Hardy 2009). A (Busch 2009). This is not a unique example, community leader made this even more and community sites typically redirect users to explicit in an interview, taking overt pains to a variety of articles on connections between endorse the fight for Indigenous and women‘s environmental exploitation and entrenched rights (which have a long genesis in El Salvador‘s Left), but also endorsed less 150 conventional points of overlap – such as FMLN Australia 2008, ‗Open letter from the vigorous support for Queer Rights (Interview FMLN Australia‘, Green Left, 13th B 2010, pers. comm., 1 August). September 2010, viewed 1st October 2010,
Acknowledgments Langer, B 1990, ‗From History to Ethnicity: El The author would like to acknowledge the Salvadoran Refugees in Melbourne‘, assistance provided by community members Journal of Intercultural Studies, 11(2): 1- during the preparation of this paper. 13.
References Langer, B 1991, ‗Multicultural Fictions: Salvadoran Women in Australia‘, Arena 2008, ‗El Salvador: FMLN's Jorge Schafik 96: 135-144. Handal Vega discusses the 2009 election‘, International Journal of Socialist Renewal, st LASNET 2009, Latin American Solidarity viewed 1 October 2010, Network, ‗Emergency Rally in Solidarity
151 Rodríguez, A P 2005, ‗―Departamento 15‖: Sanchez-Castro, O, & Gil, J 2009, ‗Two Cultural Narratives of Salvadoran Perspectives on Language Maintenance: Transnational Migration‘, Latino Studies 3: The Salvadorian Community in 19-41. Queensland the Spanish Community in South Australia‘, International Journal of Rodríguez, A P 2006, ‗Mozote Homeland: Language Society and Culture, 27: 36-47. Diasporic Memories of the Salvadoran Civil War in Testimonial and Filmic Santos, B, & Webber R 2009, ‗Starting Life Narratives‘, Istmo: Revista virtual de Anew: Resettlement Challenges of estudios literarios y culturales Salvadoran Refugees in Melbourne‘, Just centroamericanos, no. 13, viewed 6th Policy, 50: 30-39. October 2010, < http://collaborations.denison.edu/istmo/n13 Tavan, G 2005, The Long Slow Death of White /articulos/mozote.html>. Australia, Scribe, Melbourne.
152 Migrant Symphonies – the symphonic contribution of resident British composers to Australian musical life
Rhoderick McNeill ([email protected]) University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia.
Abstract showing evidence of her awareness of modernist composers like Bartok and others in During the period from Federation to 1960 a her works of the 1940s and 50s and for her significant number of British-born composers continuing development during the 1960s. worked in Australia, some for many decades. Of them, the following composers wrote symphonies Other figures who have been equally neglected which received their first performances in Australia: are Australian expatriates like Ernest Joshua Ives, George Marshall-Hall, Fritz Hart and Edgar Bainton. Should these symphonies and their Hutcheson, Arthur Benjamin, Hubert Clifford composers be considered British or Australian, or and Malcolm Williamson who featured both? Which country should ‗own‘ them, and who strongly in musical life in Britain or America. has the responsibility for archiving and preserving Australians have ‗claimed‘ as ‗Australian‘ their heritage? This paper will survey and evaluate Percy Grainger and Peggy Glanville-Hicks these works, with particular focus on the who, like the others mentioned above, spent symphonies of Ives, Marshall-Hall, Hart and the majority of their active composing years Bainton. outside Australia. However, our ‗claim‘ has
not extended consistently towards the Keywords relatively large number of British-born and Australian symphonies, British expatriates in Australia, Edgar Bainton, Eugene Goossens, Fritz trained professors, organists and conductors Hart, Joshua Ives, George Marshall-Hall, National who were the mainstay of Australian ‗ownership‘ of musical works university musical life until the 1970s. Some have written them off as second-raters offering a paler version of British music college SITUATING THE CANON education. But amongst them were composers of real distinction whose music deserves revival and representation in editions of scores Deconstructing or reconstructing canons is a and recordings. Joshua Ives (1856-1931), significant theme in recent music history George Marshall-Hall (1862-1915), Fritz Hart writing. However music historians of (1874-1949) and Edgar Bainton (1880-1956) Australian concert music lack a coherent were all here in Australia for more than twenty canon that one can reconstruct. With the years each – at the height of their powers. exception of Roger Covell‘s ground-breaking None of them are represented composers with work Australia‟s Music: Themes of a new the Australian Music Centre. Eugene society of 1967, no one to date has attempted a Goossens, who is represented with the comprehensive survey of the development of Australian Music Centre, remains a special Australian concert music. Covell considered case because of the remaining glow of his the new Australian music of his own period as 1947-1956 stint as conductor of the Sydney the first really significant body of Australian Symphony Orchestra. Nevertheless, his works; works by local composers like infamous and sudden exit from Australia is far Sculthorpe, Meale, Dreyfus, Werder and better known than his music, especially his Butterley who were tuned into the most recent two symphonies which were performed here developments in European and American during the late 1940s. The British immigrant music. Other commentators like James composers have fallen between the cracks of Murdoch (1973), and the contributors to the their home country and their adopted country 1978 compendium Australian Composition in in obtaining recognition for their music. And the Twentieth Century tended to agree. With a yet, analysed and set in their context, their few exceptions, the older composers of the works are of considerable artistic merit and in previous decades, several of whom were still advance of many locally-trained composers. active in the 1960s, were seen as derivative and old-fashioned. For example, John Antill This paper focuses on the Australian-based was hailed for one work, Corroboree in 1946; British conductors and professors who were Raymond Hanson was recognised 20 years too also composers of symphonies which were late to be influential in the 1940s and 1950s, performed in Australia since 1901 until 1956. and Margaret Sutherland was hailed for
How did these works influence the musical Shaw) was appointed the first Ormond scene here and who should take responsibility Professor of Music at the University of for maintaining and claiming their heritage Melbourne in 1890. Like Ives, Marshall-Hall today? was appointed as Professor as a young man with little established experience in the UK. BRITISH OR AUSTRALIAN Marshall-Hall composed two symphonies MUSIC? during his time in Melbourne, one in C minor dating from 1892 and a second in E flat major dating from 1903. Both scores are extant, with Five Cases the E flat symphony being published in Berlin, perhaps before the London performance of Joshua Ives came to Australia as the first Elder 1907 (Radic 2002). A recording made of the Professor of Music at the University of second symphony during the mid 1980s by the Adelaide in 1885. This was the first music Queensland Opera Orchestra demonstrates that professorial position in any Australian Marshall-Hall was far in advance of any university. Ives‘s musical training was at Australian-based composer of his period in Cambridge University and he set up the first terms of the quality of his work. Sadly, the music degree in Australia modelled on the controversies behind his dismissal in 1900 Cambridge pattern during the 1890s. He (almost contemporaneous with that of Ives) supplemented his income as Professor (in following the publication of alleged licentious contravention of his terms of employment) as verse two years earlier (Radic, 2002), have the Adelaide City Organist and with private overshadowed Marshall-Hall‘s real instruction. Unfortunately he was a poor achievements, like his music and his teacher and, during his tenure of 15 years only establishment of a professional symphony 7 students completed the Bachelor of Music orchestra in Melbourne which sustained an degree despite strong enrolments. Ives was existence for over a decade. Although he was dismissed from his post in December 1901 absent in the UK from 1912-1914 prior to his (Bridges 1983: 450-1). From there he moved short-lived reappointment to the Ormond to Melbourne and taught music privately, Professorship in 1915, he was active in eventually dying in the Melbourne suburb of Australia for over twenty years. Kew in 1931. Unfortunately, his spectacular dismissal and his vilification of both In recent years, owing to the research of Chancellor and Vice Chancellor and at a large Warren Bebbington, Therese Radic and public function is better known than his Richard Divall, there has been some renewed musical contribution (Bridges 1992: 15-18). interest in Marshall-Hall in Australia. This On Saturday, July 20, 1901, at the opening of may be due partly to Marshall-Hall‘s a new organ at Elder Hall, Ives conducted the reputation as a ‗larrikin‘ – a composer who premiere of his Symphony in D minor, knocked around with the great Australian L‟Australienne, which was hailed by The impressionist artists Arthur Streeton and Tom Advertiser as having ‗the unique distinction of Roberts and was painted by them, who was a being the first to be written by an Australian friend of both Lionel and Norman Lindsay, musician‘ and ‗written in honour of the visit of who jousted with authority and the the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall‘ representatives of the status quo, and who was (Advertiser, 22 July 1901). The four happy to consider himself Australian. Prior to movement work was hailed as a great success his coming to Australia, Bernard Shaw by the capacity audience. Despite the described him as ‗a representative of young existence of an autograph full score of the genius, denouncing the stalls, trusting to the work in the Barr Smith Library, University of gallery, waving the democratic flag , and Adelaide, the work is largely unknown today tearing around generally‘ (Radic 2002: page despite its closeness to the events of 7). Consider, for instance, his expansive Federation. The somewhat sketchy nature of program note to a 1908 performance of the the 64 pages of full score and the composer‘s Symphony in E flat at one of his concerts, as directions to himself about repeating certain preserved in the Grainger Museum, bars or adding instrumentation suggests that Melbourne: there was once a final fair copy of the score that was the basis of the orchestral parts. This This symphony was originally would require some substantial editing work to conceived of a summer holiday whilst get the score in shape for a modern camping out in Sydney Middle Harbour performance or recording. with a couple of congenial comrades. I found that in it I had unconsciously The status of Ives‘s symphony as the first gathered together as a harmonious written in Australia is open to conjecture. In whole the many heterogenous [sic] Melbourne, George WL Marshall-Hall (a impressions of Australian life and protégé of composer Sir Charles Hubert Parry scenery which my stay in this country and who was admired by music critic Bernard had engendered. Hence its buoyant 154 cheerful tone. For what have we song and orchestral music (Radic 1983: 219- Australians, in this fresh unattempted 20). land which absorbs all our energies, to do with the self-questionings, the too Hart left two large-scale orchestral works from often morbid introspectiveness, that the his long Melbourne sojourn, his five gloomy climate and cramped-life movement Symphonic Suite The Bush of 1923 conditions of our English ancestral and his three movement Symphony of 1934. home more and more tend to induce? The Bush was revived by conductor Richard Here we grow up under a genial Divall during the 1990s, its first performance Southern sun, amid an environment since a partial one in 1945. It can be heard at which makes it a delight merely to be the Australian Music database, ABC FM alive. In every direction new paths website in its entirety. The piece is open before us. Our every faculty, astonishing in its authority and superb finish. every energy, finds countless fields for The only orchestral work by an Australian of healthy exertion. For us the world is its general period which approached it was only beginning (Programme, Marshall- Grainger‘s The Warriors. Who would expect Hall Orchestra, 10 July 1908). that only three or so years after the premiere of Holst‘s The Planets (first complete public Additionally, the cover of the published score performance 1920) that a work of similar of the work bears the printed inscription idiom would appear in Melbourne? The fourth ‗Dedicated to my friends and comrades under movement has some uncanny resemblances to the Southern Cross‘. Holst‘s ‗Jupiter‘ from The Planets, although the big tune that emerges twice in the The optimistic energy and flamboyance of movement ambles along in a 5/4 gait that is Marshall-Hall‘s program note is reflected in intriguing. the outer movements of this three-movement symphony. In particular the first movement is Hart was convinced that the future of marked by a strong sense of flow and Australian music was to rest on a strong continuity. Its virility reflects the idiom of foundation of British music transplanted here. early Wagner, of Schumann in chivalric mood, And yet, the suite is undergirded by a program of Parry and early Elgar. By 1903 standards, which attempts to pierce the mystery and the the work is by no means as backward-looking terror of the bush (Forbes, 2007: 207). Hart as Alfred Hill‘s music of the same period. declares through this work his allegiance and This is music worth hearing now without emotional ties to the natural Victorian embarrassment. The work was performed in landscape. London in the 1907 Promenade series under the direction of the great British conductor Sir Despite his remarkable legacy to Melbourne Henry Wood, founder of the Promenade musical life, not least his championing of three concerts, but after a Sydney performance in emerging female composers Margaret 1917 (Orchard, 1952, p.93) was silent until the Sutherland, Peggy Glanville-Hicks and Ester 1980s. Rofe and the remarkable flourishing of opera that occurred at the Melba Conservatorium, Fritz Hart (1874-1949) trained at the Royal Hart was elbowed sideways from the centre of College of Music at the same time as his Melbourne‘s musical life by Australian friends, Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Bernard Heinze, an inferior musician but Williams, and was one of the many pupils of skilled and ambitious in forwarding his own the composer Charles Villiers Stanford. His agendas (Radic 1986). As Heinze muscled in musical style immediately sets off resonances to take charge of the Melbourne Symphony by with the British compositional generation after combining it with the University that of Marshall-Hall (who was just five years Conservatorium Symphony orchestra, Hart younger than Elgar) – composers like Hart‘s took on the role of guest conductor of the friends Vaughan Williams and Holst. Hart Honolulu Symphony Orchestra from 1933 first came to Australia in 1909 to conduct onwards and eventually left Melbourne to operas for JC Williamson. From there, he settle in Hawaii in 1937. He returned to took up the position of Director of the Albert Melbourne once in 1945. The fate of his 1934 Street Conservatorium that Marshall-Hall Symphony is testimony to his poor treatment founded after being kicked out of Melbourne in Australia. The autograph score of the work University. This institution blossomed under (174 pages of full score) in the State Library of Hart and was strongly patronised by Dame Victoria remained virtually unmarked in 2004- Nellie Melba, who supported Hart‘s 5, suggesting that it has never been heard. By leadership. Hart remained in Melbourne as Australian dimensions, the existence of an Director until the mid 1930s, was the unknown symphony like this one by a conductor of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra significant composer is akin to the existence of between 1927 and 1932, and composed a Vaughan Williams symphony that has never prolifically in the genres of opera, concert been touched. At the time of writing, Richard 155 Divall is editing the work in preparation, Sir Henry Wood, arguably the most important hopefully, for its first performance. Other British conductor of the period between 1900- champions of Hart at present are Phillip 1940, came to a different conclusion in his Tregear and Anne-Marie Forbes (for examples 1938 book My Life of Music. see Richards 2007). Edgar L. Bainton is a composer who Dr Edgar Bainton was appointed to the should have taken a more prominent Directorship of the New South Wales position than he has. I thought so well Conservatorium of Music in 1934 in of his [tone-poem] ‗Pompilia‘...I have preference to local contender, the veteran often met Bainton at Newcastle-on- Alfred Hill (Collins 2001: 78-83). Like Hart, Tyne where he was Principal of the Bainton was a product of the Royal College of School of Music (Wood 1938: 174). Music and a composition pupil of Stanford. From 1901 until 1934 he taught piano and Bainton had two major orchestral works composition at the Conservatorium of Music, selected and published by the Carnegie Trust – Newcastle upon Tyne, and was Principal from his choral symphony Before Sunrise and his 1912 onwards. His long service there was Concerto Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra. interrupted by a four year internment in His music appears six times in lists of new Germany during World War 1 owing to his works performed at the Proms in London presence at the Bayreuth Festival in 1914 at between 1903 and 1937 (Wood 1938: the outbreak of war. He was also conductor of appendix). Although he was not in the same the Newcastle Philharmonic Orchestra from ranking as Elgar, Vaughan Williams and 1911-1934 (Bainton 1977: 146-7). His role in Walton, his place in British music as composer the development of Australian musical life was not insubstantial. The trouble was, during the 22 years he lived in Sydney has moving to Australia removed him from the been grossly underrated: at 53 he was at the close music network of Britain and, after 1934, height of his powers as a composer when he he was relatively forgotten there. For Covell, arrived in Australia, and his music has not that was not a sufficient sacrifice to merit been evaluated fairly. Dianne Collins in her more than the following in his book: account of the history of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music suggests that Dr Edgar L.Bainton...is not a from the start he was considered a ‗second- sufficiently distinctive composer to rater‘ who had been recruited from the English require a claim from provinces. Australia...Bainton‘s more ambitious music, such as the symphony in C No one pretended that he was a minor he wrote in Australia, shows a musician of the first order. His career complete familiarity with the styles of was solid rather than inspiring...Bainton Elgar (as in some of the passages for arrived in Australia in 1934…A few strings and barking trombones) and decades before, Bainton was with the pastoral reflectiveness of photographed with Elgar and a group of utterance characteristic of a school of English musicians, all elegantly English composers; and to these he assembled in an English garden. When added a certain modest, woodland Bainton arrived in Australia, he came grace of his own (Covell 1967: 144). very self-consciously as an evangelist of these men and the pastoral musical In fact, he was probably the right person for tradition which they represented. As the job. David Tunley, a student of Bainton, his friend Neville Cardus later wrote: wrote: Bainton belonged ‗to a ripe period in English life – a period in which truly The versatility of Bainton‘s English thought and feeling seemed to musicianship brings to mind the best burgeon to an inexhaustible harvest‘. qualities of the 17th and 18th century But no amount of overblown tribute Kapellmeister. Composer, performer, could hide the fact that, in 1934, most conductor, teacher – in short, a master of musical Australia did not want him of his craft and, like so many of these (Collins 2001: 80-1). admirable men who upheld the standards of their art, Bainton enriched Collins later lists Bainton‘s accomplishments the repertoire of music without in any in turning around the fortunes of the Con and way altering the course of its restoring good relationships between it and the development (Tunley 1963: 55). Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC). Nevertheless this paper argues that she Bainton‘s most important works are, arguably, underestimated his ability and his status. the ones he wrote in Australia which is why Covell‘s comments seem so unfair. The one- movement Symphony No.2 in D minor was 156 composed during the late 1930s, and includes research paper from 2004 (McNeill 2004) are reference to birdsong that he heard at quoted in the record notes. Once again, the Bundanon while trekking (his principal form music demonstrates that Covell‘s assessment of recreation). The work was performed in of Bainton was underdone. Sydney in 1941 under the composer‘s direction and later recorded for broadcasting Eugene Goossens (1892-1962) is often by the ABC. The British recording company considered to be the major architect behind the Chandos released a recent digital recording of rise of Australian orchestras and composition this work which confirms it as the finest during the second half of the 20th century. In Australian-based symphony of its era in terms many ways this is a fair assessment given of its command of thematic material, its Goossens‘s ability as a conductor. As a scoring and its sense of continuity. composer, Goossens wrote in a more hard- edged idiom than Bainton (although he had the Bainton‘s opera The Pearl Tree was composed same teacher, he was influenced by Sergei and produced at the New South Wales Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky through his first Conservatorium (more commonly known as hand experience of directing their music), but the NSW Con) during 1944 and was awarded the superiority of his music to that of Bainton a glowing review in the Sydney Morning is not immediately evident to the listener. Herald by Neville Cardus (best known as Prior to arriving in Australia, Goossens had critic for the Manchester Guardian who was composed two symphonies for the Cincinnati resident in Australia throughout the war Symphony Orchestra in 1940 and 1944 years): respectively, as he was resident in the US for most of the period from 1923 to 1947. Both Dr Bainton‘s score is spontaneously these works were performed in Sydney during and sensitively composed. I would not the first few seasons of Goossens‘s tenure risk saying off-hand that any opera by (Sametz 1994) (The only recordings of these an Englishman since Delius is more works currently available are, curiously, continuously poetic in texture than Australian ones). His stature as conductor of ―The Pearl Tree‖...All in all, this was the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was a major probably one of the richest and most factor in creating an unsurpassed demand for potential seeds ever sown for the future subscription concerts. By 1950, every concert of music in this country (Sydney in the major series was given three to four Morning Herald, 1944, news clipping times to cater for the demand. held in the Bainton Collection, Mitchell Library). Another major contributing factor to this demand was the immigration of non-British Bainton was vastly overshadowed by his European people to Australia, both successor at the NSW Con, Eugene Goossens, immediately prior to the Second World War, who commenced his reign there in 1947. and after 1946 – especially Jewish refugees. Nevertheless, Bainton continued to compose, These people were familiar with high culture teach and examine, and was one of the three- in their home countries and formed a network member Australian jury of the Commonwealth of concert-goers, concert entrepreneurs and Jubilee Composers competition. His last music critics who backed the recent formation work, the four movement Symphony No.3 in of full symphony orchestras in every state of C minor, was composed between 1952 and Australia during the late 1940s. 1956 and only completed weeks before his relatively sudden death at Point Piper beach in However, despite the glamour of Goossens‘s Sydney. Although the idiom of the work time in Sydney, it is arguable that his teaching really belongs to the world of Bax and Walton was influential or that his compositions had of the 1930s, it is far more advanced and impact on local composers. Sixty years on, accomplished in its musical language than the Bainton‘s music compares strongly with that contemporaneous local symphonies of Hughes of Goossens and, given Goossens‘s notably and Douglas. The symphony is large, of shorter stay in Australia – 9 years against 22 – almost 40 minutes duration, and was suggesting the Australian claim to Bainton premiered in Sydney during the 1957 should be stronger. subscriber series of concerts by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and then recorded. In summary, Ives, Marshall-Hall, Hart and Owing to the score being held by the ABC in Bainton made strong contributions to Sydney, the work never received a Australian symphonic repertoire that deserve performance in Britain. In 2008, the Bainton to be recognised because their mark on Society in Britain financed the first digital Australian musical life was actually stronger recording of the work by Dutton recordings here than elsewhere. Their status as British and the music received strong reviews. Sadly, immigrant composers, however, has unfairly the existence of this CD is not widely known stained their reputation and the estimate of in Australia, but my references to it in a their relevance here. From our standpoint of 157 2010 it is easy to dismiss them as British Collins, D 2001, Sounds from the Stables: the rather than Australian, but prior to World War story of Sydney‟s Conservatorium, Allen & 2, Australian people still regarded themselves Unwin, Sydney. as ‗outriders of the Empire‘. British-born and trained professors and conductors were Covell, R 1967, Australia‟s Music: Themes of considered essential to lead the relatively new a New Society, Sun Books, Melbourne. tertiary music institutions. They have tended to be dismissed or resented as part of a Marshall-Hall, GWL, ‗Programme‘, Marshall- ‗reverse cultural cringe‘. When one inspects Hall Orchestra, Melbourne, 10 July 1908, the music, however, it is hard to avoid the Grainger Museum Collection, University conclusion that they composed most of the of Melbourne. best symphonic music on offer in Australia at that time. In the past 15 years, Bainton‘s McNeill, R 2004, ‗The Australian Symphony reputation has been reviewed positively in of the 1950s‘, Paper presented at Faculty of Britain as one of the unfairly ‗forgotten‘ Arts Research Forum, University of composers – probably due to the shifts in Southern Queensland. musical fashion that have occurred as a result of post-modernism. It is time that Australian Murdoch, J 1972, Australia‟s Contemporary scholars, did the same. Composers, Macmillan, Melbourne. Orchard, W.A. 1953, Music in Australia, References Georgian House, Melbourne.
Anon 1901, ‗Professor Ives‘ New Symphony‘, Radic, T 2002, G.W.L.Marshall-Hall: A Advertiser, 22 July, Barr-Smith Library, Biography & Catalogue, The Marshall- University of Adelaide. Hall Trust, Melbourne.
Bainton, H 1979, ‗Bainton, Edgar Leslie Radic, T 1986, Bernard Heinze: a Biography, (1880-1956)‘, Australian Dictionary of Macmillan, South Melbourne. Biography, 7, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne: 146-7. Radic, T 1983, ‗Hart, Fritz Bennicke (1874- 1949)‘ Australian Dictionary of Bridges, D 1983, ‗Ives, Joshua (1854-1931)‘, Biography, 9, Melbourne University Press, Australian Dictionary of Biography, 9, Melbourne: 219-20. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne: pages? Richards, F (ed) 2007, The Soundscapes of Australia, Ashgate, Aldershot. Bridges, D 1992, ‗Music in the University of Adelaide: A Retrospective View‘ Martin Sametz, P 1994, Play on: 60 years of music Comte (ed.) Doreen Bridges: Music making with the Sydney Symphony Educator, Australian Society for Music Orchestra, ABC Enterprises, Sydney. Education, Parkville: 12-22. Tunley, D 1963 ‗Thoughts on the music of Calloway, F and Tunley, D (eds) 1978, Edgar Bainton‘, Westerley, June 1963. Australian Composition in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, Wood, H 1938, My Life in Music, Purnell, Melbourne. London.
Cardus, N 1944, ‗Opera by Dr Bainton‘, Sydney Morning Herald, specific date unknown, news clipping held in Bainton collection, Mitchell Library.
158 Researching People Beyond the State: A Preliminary Study of German Expatriates in Hong Kong and Governance Performance
Thorsten Nieberg ([email protected]) University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia.
Abstract these social phenomena matter more today than ever before, not only because of their This paper provides some preliminary findings of widening reach and greater immediacy, but ongoing research about German ‗expatriates‘. also because of the enhanced acceleration and Specifically, it offers some initial insights into the increased frequency with which they occur2 demographic profile of the German migrant and because of the aggregate impact of those population in Hong Kong and a generic discussion factors on individual identity and collective about their concerns and needs in terms of the German government. The paper draws on the organisational conflicts that can be linked to author‘s recent fieldwork research conducted in the movement of people across international Hong Kong, including survey-questioning and borders. interviewing. The paper begins with a few introductory remarks concerning the current state Researching people beyond the state is of, particularly, German migration research and an specifically important because it firstly shows outline of the questions framing this paper as how distant components of a nation state‘s arising from the preceding considerations. This is society think about issues related to their followed by a short introduction of the materials belonging and security in the context of and data collection methods behind the paper. The paper continues by presenting an early overview of increasing human interactions worldwide. It the size and composition of the German expatriate also reveals the ability of state polities to population in Hong Kong. It then delves into some address the needs of associated populations governance issues pertaining to them. A located outside their sovereign territory by concluding section sums up the most important taking into account the concerns held by the findings of this research to date. core community with a view to a similar set of questions. And, finally, it helps to define Keywords principles and forms of governance that are Composition, expatriates, Germany, capable of dealing with the varying demands governance, of these populations and their overall well- Hong Kong, migration research, profile being, and to draw more general outlooks about human socialisation and especially about the role of states in such circumstances. GERMANY AND PEOPLE BEYOND THE STATE Academic research, to date, has dealt with people beyond the state and related issues ‗People beyond the state‘—that is, persons largely in terms of ‗non-privileged migrants‘ residing in a country other than the one of their from developing countries; only fairly birth for varying reasons and periods of time— recently, has attention been shifted to include constitute a distinctive phenomenon in events more ‗affluent movers from Western societies‘ of the present day. However, while the human (Fechter 2007: 53), and such other analytic movements behind such circumstances seem categories as ‗diaspora‘ (see Cohen 2008; to be ‗more geographically extensive than the great global migrations of the modern [i.e., preceding] era‘, they still appear to remain ‗on two and a half times the figure of 76 million in 1960 balance slightly less intensive [i.e., numerous]‘ (see IOM 2005: 379), it is still about the same (Held et. al. 1999: 326, italics added in percentage in terms of the world‘s overall 1 population—namely about 3 per cent—and Brubaker 2005: 9). Yet, one could argue that apparently no more than in earlier times. 2 A closer look at current developments in the field 1 Today it is generally agreed that the total number of more short-term movements and/or stays may of persons worldwide residing outside their country underline this argument. It shows that the number of of birth for more than 12 months ‗is most likely in tourist arrivals worldwide has risen to a remarkable excess of 200 million‘ (IOM 2008: 2). Some 850 million in 2006—up from around 440 million observers cite their number at around 230 million in 1990, and only 25 million in 1950 (see Wearing (see Esman 2009). While this total represents some et. al. 2010: 3; IOM 2008: 129).
Safran 2005, 1991) and ‗transnationalism‘ (see questions of concern in the overall research Pries 2008; Glick Schiller et. al. 1992). Since project, namely: then, new criticism has emerged about these notions deeming them to be insufficient in • What is the demographic profile of comprehensively describing all migrants‘ German expats in the HKSAR? experiences (see Brubaker 2005; Castles & • What are some of the governance Miller 2003: 30). In addition, some Western issues noted by German expats in the countries, such as the Federal Republic of HKSAR? Germany (hereafter Germany), have remained relatively neglected in terms of both generic RESEARCH AND DISCUSSION and, especially, more detailed academic research efforts (Sauer & Ette 2007: 5). So CONTEXT far, only limited statistical information has become available about the numbers, The materials on which this paper is based compositions, destinations, motivations and have been drawn from data primarily durations of German ventures abroad (see generated by the author through survey- Dumont & Lemaître 2005; StBA 2009; Sauer questionnaires, in-depth interviews and & Ette 2007). Moreover, only a few informal conversations. Information also has researchers have delved very deeply into such been collected through some expert interviews issues as the evolving identities, attitudes and with persons having a significant connection living conditions of specifically-located to the German population in the HKSAR and a German communities and their individuals, few extended dialogues with members of the such as in Indonesia, Singapore and England respective expat group that also included a (see Fechter 2007; Meier 2009, 2006), not to short visit to, and observation of, their actual mention their security and governance living conditions and views in this particular concerns or needs. Thus, there are several environment. themes that generally await deeper academic study (see McMillen 2007). Most of these activities were implemented as part of the author‘s research within a This paper is framed by the author‘s wider and conventional fieldwork site and during a ongoing doctoral research project at the personal visit he undertook to the HKSAR University of Southern Queensland, Australia, from 1 May to 11 July 2010. Some research, which aims to address some of the themes and however, took on the form of what the issues mentioned above. It is an early attempt anthropologist Louisa Schein (2000: 26) has to present a few initial impressions and called ‗secondary or ―armchair‖‘ fieldwork insights drawn from data primarily generated and was conducted from places outside the by the author‘s most-recent fieldwork research HKSAR both prior to and after the author‘s about German ‗expatriates‘ (expats) in the visit to that specific site. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People‘s Republic of China Therefore, a first round of short survey- (PRC) as well as preliminary archival- questionnaires was administered by the author documentary investigations of available from outside the HKSAR over a four-week information sources. period between 22 March and 18 April 2010. It targeted members of the German expat For the purpose of this research, German population residing in the designated site and expats are defined as both German citizens and was designed to generate initial profile data persons of another nationality with significant that was also utilised for subsequent ties to Germany who have ventured beyond interviewee selection. This questionnaire was the German state on a longer-term basis—that distributed by e-mail through a number of is, for periods of approximately one year.3 relevant research facilitators. These The concept of ‗expatriation‘ has been facilitators were comprised of both individual employed in the project congruent with actors as well as groups, primarily based in the renewed scholarly interest (see Fechter 2007; HKSAR, but also included some in Germany McMillen 2007) in this well-known idea and (and a few in other Chinese places having a its possible discriminatory power (see Cohen connection to the selected site), and were 1977), and to examine if the term can stand the either of partially or entirely of German test as an alternative theoretical framework to background, or had a completely different inclusively capture the diverse life-styles, nationality but maintained significant ties to conditions and attitudes of people beyond the the targeted expat population. They were state. While the present paper does not delve related to government bodies, public into this discussion in great depth, the limited institutions, private businesses, cultural purpose here is to focus on two of the many associations or other societal organisations. Completed questionnaires were returned
3 directly to the author. This is similar to the official definition of a long- term migrant by the United Nations (1998: 13). 160 The in-depth interviews (as well as the expert Given the limitations of this paper and the interviews, the extended dialogues and most of ongoing process of data analysis, the material the informal conversations) began after the presented in the following sections especially author‘s arrival in the HKSAR and lasted relates to the short survey questionnaires and throughout his stay there. During this period, some transcribed interviews. Therefore, these as additional research facilitators became findings must be considered only as identified and available, some further rounds preliminary. In addition, it should be noted of short survey questionnaires were distributed that the author only has had the time to by the author and were to be completed within calculate the frequency of results, and as yet four weeks by the participants. Responses has not been able to run cross-tabulations and were then applied to the continuing interview computer-based analyses—which will be done candidate selection process aimed at in the near future. identifying people of most-different social backgrounds and based on such criteria as PRELIMINARY PROFILE DATA gender, age, occupation, duration of stay, and attitudes towards the German government. OF GERMAN EXPATS IN THE HKSAR In addition, two sets of more comprehensive survey questionnaires were designed and The demographic profile of the German expat administered by the author. The first of these group in the HKSAR—as presented here—has was distributed amongst initial informants and been drawn from the short survey data and given to those participants who had engaged in obtained from the best available interview the short survey questionnaire and agreed to material reviewed to the present date. further involvement. The other was offered to Accordingly, nearly all respondents were new participants following the closure of the exclusively German citizens (93 percent). Just short survey questionnaire and after final a few persons reported holding an additional interviews had taken place. The latter survey citizenship to that of Germany and/or was made available for participation for some citizenships of a completely different twelve weeks until late September 2010. nationality (7 percent). While only two While comprehensive surveys of the first set respondents stated holding HKSAR and PRC- could be passed on to initial participants citizenships respectively (note that the directly by the author, questionnaires of the HKSAR citizenship was alongside a German second set were again distributed by research one), some longer-term venturers detailed in facilitators. personal communication with the author that they had obtained HKSAR permanent Of the 78 respondents who became involved in residency status in addition to their German the research through the several rounds of citizenship. This condition is granted by the short surveys administered by the author, 74 or HKSAR government after seven years of some 95 percent were identified as German continuous stay in its jurisdiction. It includes expats according to the above-definition.4 an unlimited permit to stay and enables people This represents a reasonable response rate of of different nationalities to participate in some 2-4 percent given the estimated total of communal politics and elections, if they wish. German expats in the HKSAR, officially said When long-term German citizens were asked to number some 2000-3000 persons (Nieberg in dialogues if they would consider taking up 2010, pers. comm. with the German HKSAR-citizenship, nearly all respondents Consulate-General in the HKSAR, 22 April).5 had refused to do so. Even those interviewees In addition, an overall number of 26 in-depth who strongly identified themselves with the and 3 expert interviews, as well as 2 extended HKSAR rejected such an option by referring dialogues, were conducted by the author in the to the fact that they therefore would have to HKSAR, while the numbers of returned give up their German citizenship demurred comprehensive survey questionnaires totalled because of concerns regarding the ―uncertain 36 at the time of writing.6 political status‖ of the HKSAR in relation to an ―undemocratic China‖ and ―possible limitations of basic rights‖ (especially relating 4 Note that for reasons of examining the threshold to the freedom of movement). This, and for long-term expatriation, respondents with further data provided below, concerning the duration of stay in the HKSAR of 7-12 month have duration of German venturers to the HKSAR been included in the analysis. indicates that this group of expats has only 5 It may be noted that, as the ultimate gross temporarily settled in this location. This, population which finally became involved in the however, does not necessarily mean that they survey remains unknown since mediating through intend to permanently return to Germany, as research facilitators and snowballing is nearly will be shown. untraceable, the actual sample could be higher. 6 Note that there may still come in some further The vast majority of respondents were born in completed surveys over the next few weeks as Germany (93 percent). Other reported participants mail their responses by post. 161 countries of birth included Belgium, Brazil, respondents stated that they were housewives China and the HKSAR, respectively. While or housemen, either currently unemployed, females constituted 46 percent of the German seeking employment or working on a part-time expats who completed the short surveys, males basis. During the interviews it became clear comprised 54 percent. These gender numbers that many expats who initially came to the are basically in line with recent official data on HKSAR accompanying their spouses/partners German emigration streams which noted that and bringing along their children have, over males have held a share of 53-59 percent of time, begun to engage in some form of work. the total group departing from Germany since This is made possible there due to the local 1990 (Sauer & Ette 2007: 40). housekeeping system, involving a considerable number of ‗maids‘ from across Southeast Asia. Seventy-six percent of respondents reported For other working German women, this being married or were living with a partner. system played a major role in the decision of Twenty-four percent stated that they were whether or not the family should move to the living in the HKSAR as singles. The HKSAR or to another location abroad. An predominant age group among respondents additional interesting finding in this regard is was 31-45 years of age (55 percent), but that housemen have started to organise another significant group was the 46-65 aged themselves into groups that are similar to the persons (31 percent). It can be proposed that classical spouse and women-groups. An these age groups constitute families and international association called ‗Home Alone individual persons who are most likely to have Dads‘ was identified by the author. completed their education and established an employment or career path. The latter group Nevertheless, data concerning the duration of may especially include couples whose children respondents‘ length of stay indicates that a fair are already grown up, thus providing such proportion of German expats tend to stay in parents with the opportunity for desired and the HKSAR on a rather long-term basis. possibly fairly uncomplicated experience Accordingly, 28 percent reported to have lived abroad as far as daily family responsibilities in this locality for more than 10 years which is are concerned. This aspect was noted in some far beyond the normal periods of corporate frequent responses of interviewees when they deployment to places abroad (which varies were asked about the reasons and between 2-8 years). Further information circumstances of their departure from drawn from interview dialogues suggests that Germany. Persons who have spent most of a considerable proportion of this group their work career abroad and have now been becomes involved in relationships with local sent to the HKSAR by their companies also partners that determine they should remain and may be a feature. For them, as with many switch their work contract from expat others, a concern about not finding deployment (in a pure technical sense) to local appropriately challenging or financially conditions. The author also was told by rewarding positions in Germany (as compared interviewees that they knew a fair number of to those in the HKSAR) seems to be a major people who had temporarily come to the driving factor. HKSAR as employees and had quit their job upon their return to Germany only to move A closer look at the occupations of back again (or elsewhere) to establish their respondents may support this view. Fifty-one own business for the reasons mentioned above. percent of the respondents reported working Others returned to find work with a local or for an employer in the public or private sector international company or simply because they and ones of German, local or international enjoyed the frequently cited ―convenient life‖ background. Some 20 percent stated that they of the HKSAR. Some older interviewees had either had their own company or business lived in the HKSAR or elsewhere for many (usually of smaller size), were engaged in a years of their lives and stated that they either joint-venture, or were self-employed. For this would not have the money to group, the business-friendly environment of repatriate/relocate to Germany or were afraid the HKSAR and the simplicity and non- of not again finding work there, considering bureaucratic ways of establishing business their age. They expressed an intention either there appears particularly attractive. The to stay in the HKSAR or to move on to some conservative Heritage Foundation, a US-based other place else in Asia where living costs are think tank, regards the HKSAR as the purest low enough for them to afford a comfortable market-economy worldwide and its income lifestyle. and company taxes remain the lowest in the world. Ten percent of respondents reported As indicated above, these circumstances raise being either students/trainees or pensioners. particular questions concerning official This data indicates that the HKSAR is only of assumptions that Germans who have lived fair importance in terms of education and is abroad for various periods will sooner or later not a major destination for retirement and return to Germany (Sauer & Ette 2007: 71-72). permanent stays. Nineteen percent of They also blur common notions of temporary 162 migration that imply back-and-forth governments in alerting citizens about an movements of people as pertaining to a upcoming election. As one interviewee noted particular place. As the preceding preliminary as view of the most-recent Federal election in discussion about German expats in the Germany: ―There was only one advertisement HKSAR has shown, movements of people to in the South China Morning Post—if one certain places may be limited, but not missed that, one would most-likely also miss necessarily involve a return to their country of the election if not constantly following up with origin, which raises questions about the news.‖ conventional conceptions of temporary migration. In a similar vein, as for the provision of information by the German government about SOME SUGGESTIVE the administrative consequences of venturing abroad—including electoral issues—there GOVERNANCE ISSUES seems to be room for considerable CONCERNING GERMAN improvement according to respondents. EXPATS IN THE HKSAR Hence, a notable 76 percent either disagreed or strongly disagreed when asked whether the A major concern of the author‘s overall information policies in this regard were research project is to explore issues related to adequate. the governance of German expats and especially the role of the German state in these Governance issues that were deemed to be circumstances. Such questions are considered managed well by the German government crucial in the face of heightened social included the protection of citizens abroad, in interactions worldwide and the resulting needs this case in the HKSAR. A majority of 54 and concerns not only of a country‘s core and percent expressed their agreement when asked distant populations, but also in terms of the this question. latter‘s respective host environments. The short surveys already sought some initial data While there was a widespread perception in this regard. Thus, respondents were asked among respondents (53 percent) that the whether or not they thought that the German German government does not really value its government recognises and sets policies citizenry abroad, 41 percent also think that it relevant to its expat population in the HKSAR. should care more about matters related to them A number of sub-questions addressed and their families (even though 43 percent did particular issue areas, such as those related to not think similarly). Among the most cited citizenship and voting. While a majority of proposals for action, was the establishment of respondents (32 percent) disagreed or strongly a central institution at Federal level in disagreed with the German government‘s Germany that could provide information and practices of citizenship, only 4 percent services to the country‘s population abroad. indicated their complete satisfaction regarding Particular worries concerned both highly these matters, though another 16 percent specific questions related to expats‘ inclusion showed principal agreement. Specific and rights in the social welfare system as well problems in this regard concerned citizenship as other rather minor issues, such as those and visa regulations as pertaining to non- regarding the treatment of drivers‘ licenses German partners. For example, interviewees and their renewal. repeatedly expressed their unease about the difficulties of obtaining long-term visas or CONCLUSION citizenship for their long-married non-German partners. In addition, anger was expressed This paper has outlined a preliminary profile about the treatment of non-German partners in of the German expat population in the HKSAR Consular matters, as in the case of visa and has pointed to a number of governance applications. Interviewees here pointed to issues particularly related to them—and instances of avowed ―racism‖, especially in perhaps also to Germans elsewhere. Among dealings with local Consular staff. the most interesting findings at this stage of the data analysis is the circumstance that While a majority of respondents (40 percent) nearly all respondents still held and wanted to agreed or strongly agreed that the German retain their German citizenship, even though government‘s policies concerning the voting- they did not necessarily intend to return to system applicable to expats was reasonable, it Germany. In this context, it is also notable is notable that 61 percent did not participate in that many expats simply do not know what a recent election pertaining to Germany. their next destinations will be and therefore Reasons drawn from interviews were not wish for an institution at German Federal limited to disinterest in German affairs, but state-level that could assist them in various especially expanded to include concerns about respects concerning matters related to their the complexity of the voting-system and poor country of origin. If a further review of the performance by both German Federal and state 163 research findings confirms that German Esman, M 2009, Diasporas in the elections inadequately, promoted abroad, this Contemporary World, Polity Press, could be an important issue area that needs to Cambridge. be addressed by the German government in the future. Fechter, A-M 2007, ‗Living in a Bubble: Expatriates‘ Transnational Spaces‘, in V Acknowledgments Amit (ed.), Going First Class? New Approaches to Privileged Travel and The author would like to thank the Universities Movement, Berghahn Books, New Services Centre at the Chinese University of York/Oxford. Hong Kong for their hospitality and access to its facilities whilst undertaking fieldwork Glick Schiller, N, Basch, L & Blanc-Szanton, research in the HKSAR. Further thanks are C 1992, ‗Transnationalism: A New Analytic owed to Prof. Don McMillen (University of Framework for Understanding Migration‘, in Southern Queensland, Toowoomba) and Prof. N Glick Schiller, L Basch, & C Blanc- Thomas Noetzel (Philipps-University Marburg, Szanton (eds), Towards a Transnational Germany) for their continuous support as Perspective on Migration. Race, Class, academic supervisors. The same goes for all Ethnicity, and Nationalism Reconsidered, those scholars who have kindly taken their time Annals of the New York Academy of to consult about the project, including Prof. Sciences. Ludger Pries, Prof. Jochen Oltmer, Prof. Bettina Westle, Dr. Ian Weber and Dr. Lars Meier, and Held, D, McGrew, A, Goldblatt, D & Perraton, to Dr Robert Mason and Dr Anna Hayes—the J 1999, Global Transformations. Politics, latter of whom also has greatly contributed to Economics and Culture, Polity Press, the supervision of the project. Additionally, Cambridge. gratitude is extended to the Australian Endeavour International Postgraduate International Organisation for Migration Scholarship Award and the Faculty of Arts at (IOM) 2008, World Migration Report 2008, the University of Southern Queensland for their IOM, Geneva. funding of this research—as none of this output otherwise would have been possible. Thanks also include the numerous previous and future International Organisation for Migration facilitators of, and participants to, the project (IOM) 2005, World Migration Report 2005, for their cooperation and time. And, last but not IOM, Geneva. least, it goes without saying that love and thanks should extend to my wonderful partner, McMillen, DH 2007, Australia and “People beloved family and dearest friends. Beyond the State”: Expatriate Identities, Citizen Security and States‟ Jurisdictions – References Case Studies of the People‟s Republic of China and the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region, Research Paper, Brubaker, R 2005, ‗The ―diaspora‖ diaspora‘, Toowoomba (unpublished). Ethnic and Racial Studies, 28(1): 1-19.
Meier, L 2009, Das Einpassen in den Ort. Der Castles, S & Miller, M 2003, The Age of Alltag deutscher Finanzmanager in London Migration: International Population und Singapur [The Adaption to Place. The Movements in the Modern World, 3rd edn, Everyday Life of German Finance Managers Palgrave Macmillan, in London and Singapore], Transcript, Houndmills/Basingstoke. Bielefeld.
Cohen, E 1977, ‗Expatriate Communities‘, Meier, L 2006, ‗On the road to being white – Current Sociology, 24(3): 5-129. The construction of whiteness in the
everyday life of expatriate German high Cohen, R 2008, Global Diasporas: An flyers in Singapore and London‟, in H Introduction, 2nd edn, Routledge, Berking, S Frank, L Frers, M Löw, L Meier, London/New York. S Steets & S Stoetzer (eds), Negotiating
Urban Conflicts, Transcript/Transaction Dumont, J-C & Lemaître, G 2005, Counting Press, Bielefeld/New Brunswick/London. Immigrants and Expatriates in OECD
Countries. A New Perspective, Organisation Pries, L 2008, Die Transnationalisierung der for Economic Co-Operation and sozialen Welt. Sozialräume jenseits von Development, Social, Employment and Nationalgesellschaften[The Migration Working Paper no. 25, Transnationalisation of the Social World – Organisation for Economic Co-Operation Social Spaces Beyond National and Development. Communities], Suhrkamp, Frankfurt-Main.
164 Sauer, L & Ette, A 2007, Auswanderung aus United Nations 1998, Recommendations on Deutschland – Stand der Forschung und Statistics of International Migration – erste Ergebnisse zur internationalen Revision 1, Statistical Papers, no. 58, Migration deutscher Department of Economic and Social Affairs Staatsbürger[Emigration from Germany – Statistics Division, New York. State of Research and Initial Findings concerning the International Migration of Wearing, S, Stevenson, D & Young, T 2010, German Citizens] , Bundesinstitut für Tourist Cultures: Identity, Place and Bevölkerungsforschung, Wiesbaden. Traveller, Sage Publications, London/Thousand Oaks/New Schein, L 2000, Minority Rules. The Miao and Delhi/Singapore. the Feminine in China‟s Cultural Politics, Duke University Press, Durham/London. Safran, W 2005, ‗The Jewish Diaspora in a Comparative and Theoretical Perspective‘, Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland (StBA) Israel Studies, 10(1): 37-60. 2009, Statistisches Jahrbuch 2009[Statistical Yearbook 2009], Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland, Wiesbaden.
165 A Pacific migrant experience: A case study on the impact of alcohol on migrant Niuean men to Auckland, New Zealand
Vili Hapaki Nosa, Peter Adams & Ian Hodges University of Auckland, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand.
Corresponding author: Vili Hapaki Nosa ([email protected])
Abstract environment (with greater access to alcohol) has influenced the way Niuean men consume The Niuean population has been migrating to New alcohol. This paper suggests that alcohol Zealand for well over sixty years. The migration consumption was a significant part of men‘s shift to New Zealand has depopulated the first experiences when they arrived in New population of Niue to an extent that there are more Niueans living in New Zealand than Niue. Over Zealand. Men were enthusiastic that alcohol 22,000 live in New Zealand compared with 1,500 was not restricted in New Zealand and they people in Niue. Auckland has a Niuean population were influenced by the New Zealand drinking of 17,667 (Statistics New Zealand 2006). culture.
Little is known about how Niuean men use alcohol. PACIFIC MIGRATION TO NEW Although anecdotal evidence suggests that Niuean men tend to drink heavily, few empirical studies ZEALAND have examined alcohol-related behaviours and beliefs among Niuean men. This paper aims to Pacific people have been in New Zealand for examine how and why Niuean men living in more than 100 years. Many Pacific people Auckland drink alcohol and the impact of migration migrated to New Zealand to seek a better on their health, social, mental, and physical well- lifestyle for their children and extended being. A sector model using four topics was used to family. Fairbairn-Dunlop and Makisi (2003) interview participants. The model consisted of five describe the stories of Pacific people who topics: history of alcohol, migration to New Zealand, social and festive celebrations, gender and migrated to New Zealand, with male and alcohol, alcohol abuse and dependency. A content female contributing writers aged between 30 and thematic analysis was used to analysis the data and 40 years (9 from Samoa, 2 from Tonga, 3 with multiple readings to determine key similarities from the Cook Islands, 1 from Niue, 1 from and differences. Tokelau, and 1 from the Solomon Islands). Fairbairn-Dunlop and Makisi suggest that a Alcohol has become integral to the culture of number of young Pacific males migrated for contemporary Niuean men. Historical and schooling and employment in New Zealand contemporary factors have influenced the way prior to the 1960s. These young men Niuean men use and view alcohol. The introduction of alcohol to Niue, the colonial influence, migration encouraged other family members to join them to New Zealand, cultural expectations, and in New Zealand for a better lifestyle. contemporary New Zealand drinking styles all Husbands migrated first to find employment contribute to the drinking patterns of Niuean men and then save enough money to send for their living in Auckland. Heavy drinking styles that children and wife. Many Pacific people lived originated in Niue are prevalent among Niuean men with their relatives before establishing a home in Auckland. Their stories about alcohol practices, for themselves. uses, and beliefs form the basis of this presentation, coupled with participant observation, literature In the 1960s and 1970s there was a rapid reviews, and community consultation. increase in the number of Pacific people Key words migrating to New Zealand. This was due to the Niue, Niuean migration, Alcohol patterns, Pacific, demand for industrial production in New Cultural expectations, Zealand. Many Pacific people were recruited to fill gaps in the New Zealand labour market. INTRODUCTION Auckland had an abundance of employment opportunities for Pacific peoples. Many worked in low paid manual jobs and worked This paper aims to discuss the impact of long hours. Many Pacific people were not able alcohol for migrant Niue men living in to communicate in English nor were they able Auckland, New Zealand. This paper explores to read or write. A number of people who how heavy alcohol consumption by men was migrated at this time found living in an urban reinforced after migrating to New Zealand. environment difficult, as they had lived in The transition from living in Niue (with low alcohol access) to a new sociocultural
rural centres prior to migrating to New be peer pressure, so migrants drink in order to Zealand. be accepted as ‗one of them‘.
From the late 1970s, the Pacific community Stanhope and Prior (1979) examined the became well established in New Zealand, with quantity of alcohol consumed in Tokelau and many different Pacific cultures represented. A the impact of migration to New Zealand. They number of Pacific people gained tertiary conducted a longitudinal survey of health and qualifications. The Pacific Islands Presbyterian disease among Tokelau people in Tokelau and Church was no longer the only church for in New Zealand. Nine hundred and seventy- Pacific people, as different ethnic groups four people participated in Tokelau between established their own churches such as 1968-1971 and 807 people participated in Samoan Congregational Christian Churches. 1976. They were asked about their current and previous drinking status and how much beer, The 1980s and 1990s saw a decline in the New wine, and spirits they consumed per week or Zealand economy. Many Pacific migrants month. In New Zealand, the same survey was were affected by price freezes, high interest conducted with 356 Tokeluans in 1967-1970, rates, restructuring and the stock market crash 1034 people in 1972-1974, and 1177 people in (Fairbairn-Dunlop & Makisi 2003: 35). Many 1975-1977. Pacific men were made redundant and were not able to gain employment without formal Stanhope and Prior (1979) found that, qualifications. This led to an increase in compared with females, males consumed more employment among Pacific women, as the alcohol both in Tokelau and New Zealand. In struggle to support a large family became a Tokelau women did not admit drinking at all. burden. Poverty was frequent in Pacific However, Tokelau women did drink while homes, with family commitments, church living in New Zealand. The rate of female obligations, and education costs. Some drinking increased from 2 percent in 1967- families lived in overcrowded conditions 1970 to 5 percent 1975-1977. In New Zealand, which created a number of health problems. 15-19 year old men were the heaviest drinkers, whereas 20-24 year old females were At this time there was also a ‗backlash‘ against identified as the heaviest drinkers. Over the Pacific people, with some New Zealanders ten-year study period, heavy drinking expressing the belief that Pacific Islanders increased from 2.2 percent to 3.8 percent of were lazy and living on social welfare people in Tokelau and from 4.3 percent to 6.7 payments from the government. There were percent of Tokelauans in New Zealand. Most arguments that Pacific people should return to people in Tokelau consumed toddy or the Pacific Islands. During ‗dawn raids‘ imported alcohol. In New Zealand, beer was Pacific people who did not have a permit to the preferred beverage, although by the 1975- remain in New Zealand were targeted as 1979 surveys Tokelauans had started to drink overstayers and their homes raided by the spirits and wine. Overall, the findings police. suggested that alcohol consumption was increasing during this period, although some men also stopped drinking as they got older. THE IMPACT OF ALCOHOL This research is now 25 years old. The study AND MIGRATION was developed from a medical perspective and the authors did not discuss the implications in Matatumua‘s (1969) ethnographic thesis any depth. examined the attitudes and the impact of alcohol on migrant Samoans living in Wessen et al. (1982) stated Tokelau migrants Dunedin, New Zealand. All 20 of the who came to New Zealand had a number of participants were men born and raised in lifestyle and dietary changes. Coconuts, Samoa and residing in Dunedin. The breadfruits and fish were replaced by bread, interviews were conducted in Samoan and potatoes and cheaper cuts of meat. The participants were asked to talk about their prevalence of drinking also increased. The upbringing, work, health, home situation, prevalence of drinking in Tokelau was religion, recreation, and their attitudes towards constrained for a number of reasons such as alcohol. Matatumua outlines how Samoan the lack of availability, the high costs of migrants earned more money in New Zealand alcoholic beverages and the strong social and and could therefore afford to purchase alcohol. religious beliefs. When Tokelauns migrated to Alcohol had been limited in Samoa due to a New Zealand, alcohol consumption increased. ‗points system.‘ On arriving in New Zealand As Wessen et al. (1982) comments, ‗social many Samoans felt that they could drink as drinking has become woven into the fabric of much as they liked without any restrictions. the culture‘ (1982:310). In 1984, Wessen Matatumua suggests that migrant Samoans are found that Tokelauans residing in Wellington more prone to consuming alcohol because it is tended to be infrequent social drinkers. Thirty the custom among their associates. There may percent of Tokelauan men and 8 percent of 167 women reported drinking on more than one twice. All of the New Zealand born men were day per week. Ninteen percent of the men born and raised in Auckland. English was their drank more than two days a week. Of those first language. who drank, 64 percent of men preferred to consume beer. Seventy percent of women and RESULTS: NIUEAN MIGRATION 12 percent of men preferred spirits. Wine was AND ALCOHOL USE not a popular beverage, preferred by only 11 percent of women and 4 percent of men. When Tokelauns consumed alcohol around 60 The mass exodus of Niuean migrants to New percent of the men drank heavily. Zealand started the depopulation of Niue as early as the 1940s. Migration has been Tokelauans in the Alcohol Advisory Council influenced by push and pull factors. Push of New Zealand (1997b) study indicated that factors motivate people to leave the island of migration provided opportunities such as Niue. A lack of employment, land tenure employment, education, and better lifestyles. problems, political problems, and slow Tokelauans worked in manual jobs such as economic development led Niueans to seek a factories and building sites where they were better lifestyle so they moved to large influenced by European and Maori workers‘ metropolitan countries such as New Zealand drinking behaviours. Tokelauan men spoke (Kingi 1996; Nosa 1995; Talagi 1991). In about using alcohol to fit in and adapt to the 1974 Niue became self-governing New Zealand culture. They also used alcohol (independent). The people of Niue became to reinforce their own identity and sense of New Zealand citizens, which further increased community: ‗For men, drinking together and migration. telling stories of their homeland and families helped to draw them together, broke down the Pull factors are the conditions and resources competition between atolls and helped lessen which attract people to settle in other countries feelings of homesickness and isolation‘ such as education, employment, and a better (Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand lifestyle. Some of the men interviewed said 1997b: 4). that access to alcohol was a ‗pull factor‘ that influenced them to migrate to New Zealand. Similarly, Stanhope and Prior (1979) comment METHODS on how access to tobacco and alcohol was important in the Tokelau migrant experience. Qualitative face-to-face interviews were used. The Niuean writer Talagi (1991) suggests that The interviews were audiotaped and took one of the pull factors to migrate to New between 45 minutes to 2 hours. Field notes Zealand was for recreational activities such as were also used. A sector model using four the cinemas and pubs. McDonald‘s (1973) topics was used to interview participants. The work also supports the idea that one of the model consisted of five topics: history of reasons for migrating from Niue to New alcohol, migration to New Zealand, social and Zealand involved alcohol. festive celebrations, gender and alcohol, alcohol abuse and dependency. A content and thematic analysis was used to analysis the data Individual freedom from traditional with multiple readings to determine key and communal activities, the relative similarities and differences. Ethical approval excitement of urban life, alcohol and was approved by the University of Auckland films, and the supposed lack of Human Participant Ethics committee. hardship, had appeared attractive while still on the Island (McDonald PARTICIPANTS 1973:19).
Thirty-two Niuean men born in Niue and Auckland participated in interviews for this Some Niuean men migrated to New Zealand research. Their ages ranged between 18 and 80 partly to consume alcohol. The older men years. Their occupations varied from interviewed stated that they were restricted in secondary students, university students, office obtaining alcohol in Niue. They felt that they workers, factory workers, church ministers, were not able to purchase alcohol in Niue pensioners, and unemployed individuals. Half because of their status within the community. were Niuean born and the other half were born Men who were seen drinking in public or even in New Zealand. All of the Niuean born men had an odour of alcohol on their breath could said they came to New Zealand for a better be arrested and put in prison for three months. lifestyle and Niuean was their first language. These men were tired of being arrested. They They had migrated to New Zealand at an wanted to migrate to a place where they could average age of twenty. Some of these men had consume alcohol and not be arrested for not visited Niue since they came to New having a drink. For instance, one older man Zealand. Others had been back to Niue once or stated that he came to New Zealand solely for 168 the purpose of consuming alcohol. He felt that friendly and helpful. They helped one he was restricted by not working in a high another. When they arrived here they status job and therefore access to alcohol was looked out for one another. They take limited. them to get a job. There were a lot of Hoko mai ke he motu nei koe Niu jobs in those days. They were not sila. Fiafia loga fiafia to lahi e fiafia short of jobs. They would take you in he inu e kava. [I arrived here in (New and then give you money for you to Zealand) and I am so happy that I can get by when you first arrive here. consume alcohol] (Niue born man, 50 They were very good and they were 1 yrs, pers. comm.) very kind (Niue born man, 64 yrs, pers. comm.). When the men arrived in New Zealand alcohol consumption increased. For some the frustrations of not being able to drink in Niue Generosity and kinship are important cultural encouraged them to consume large quantities obligations for many Niueans. The older of alcohol, to drink more often, and on more Niuean men spoke about their first experiences occasions in New Zealand where there were with alcohol when they arrived in New no restrictions. Zealand and how their relatives used alcohol as part of the welcoming process. For Migrating to Auckland in the 1940- example, many visitors were (and continue to 1970s be) greeted by being taken out to sample the nightlife. This involves alcohol consumption From the 1940s onwards, large numbers of in bars and nightclubs. Home parties are also Niueans began to arrive in New Zealand. They popular. travelled on boats and then later on aeroplanes. Some of the people who migrated were young When I came to New Zealand I found teenaged men. Another group were fathers alcohol was like a big thing. It was the who had young families. These men were able sort of thing you look forward to to find jobs and save money to bring other especially when my brother rings and members of their family to New Zealand. The says I will come and pick you up and most desirable place to migrate and settle was we will go on a pub crawl (Niue born Auckland. This was due to job opportunities man, 48 yrs, pers. comm.). and the presence of extended family members who had already settled. Men lived with extended family members until they got Another participant who was born in New established. Zealand spoke about how his father had arrived in New Zealand to further his Some of the older men spoke about their first education. However, his father‘s decision to experiences when they arrived in Auckland. remain in New Zealand was influenced by the One man, who arrived in the 1950s, spoke availability of entertainment and alcohol. about how friendly the Niuean people were. They were helpful, they looked out for one another, and they provided financial support. When my father came to New People already settled in Auckland arranged Zealand he came here for a six-month jobs for those who had recently migrated. secondary school scholarship. His first There were plenty of job opportunities. place where his relatives took him was the old Gluepot in Ponsonby and once he saw the Gluepot in Ponsonby, I came here in 1954 and there were he did not want to go back to Niue not many Niueans in New Zealand at since he was able to drink as much as that time. I think there was 500 he could without any restrictions Niueans in Auckland at that time here. (New Zealand born man, 26 yrs, pers. The Niuean people were very friendly comm.). amongst themselves. They were very
1 Another man spoke about how alcohol became All interviews referred to in this paper were integrated into his day to day life. He arrived undertaken between 1998-2004. However, as in New Zealand in 1970 as a single man. He there is a possibility that these men may be found employment and started to consume identified, and due to confidentiality being a major concern for the researcher and among the alcohol with his work colleagues every Niue/Pacific communities in New Zealand, the payday. This man felt that drinking was part of year and date of each interview is not included in the New Zealand culture. In order not to feel this paper. left out, he participated in these drinking sessions. He stated:
169 When I came to New Zealand it was After work I go for a little beer. In 1970. New Zealand was a very those days it was 6 o‘clock closing so strange place I had heard a lot of after work about 5 o‘clock we rush to stories about New Zealand, Auckland the station hotel in Auckland city and a lot of bright lights and a lot of try an‘ get there about half an hour partying and so on I felt strange. and have a couple of drinks and it When I was working with my started from there (Niue born, 61 yrs, employer in town I got mixed up with pers. comm.). some good guys. We then started having Friday night regular drinks you know drinking down in the pubs and it In 1967 hotel and pub drinking was extended becomes a habit. You are still young until 10pm, and binge drinking declined. you know you want to go along with From 1967 onwards the tradition of binge the culture then because you don‘t drinking continued in big beer barns and rugby clubs. Around this same period many New want to be left out so drinking started Zealanders who had visited overseas and every Friday especially pay week you experienced the European model of drinking head down to the tavern and that in moderation and including wine with food becomes a regular event you are doing began to establish an alternative perspective at that time (Niue born man, 52 yrs, on alcohol consumption. This may have pers. comm.). changed many New Zealander‘s drinking styles, but many Niuean men continued to 1940s - 1960s: 6 o‟clock swill follow the principle of drinking large quantities with the aim of becoming The 6 o‘clock swill emerged when hotel bars intoxicated. closed at 6pm. Workers would converge on the pub and drink as much as they could 1970s - 1980s: Drinking at pubs before the pubs closed. The 6pm closing time was introduced as a temporary measure around the time of World War I, largely to stop From the 1970s, access to alcohol became soldiers at training camps between heading more liberalised with alcohol advertising, the into town for heavy alcohol consumption. This reduction of the drinking age, increase in also meant that men took part in heavy binge youth drinking, and alcohol use among women drinking. After finishing work at 5pm, men and the elderly. There was also a continuing would attend the pubs and consume as much emphasis on high alcohol consumption alcohol as they could until closing time at amongst certain groups especially young men 6pm. New Zealand historian Keith Sinclair and young women. All of these components of described 6 o'clock swill as ‗the most New Zealand society influenced the way barbarous drinking custom in the world‘ Niuean migrants and their families consumed (Watkin 2003). alcohol. The media in the 1970s and 1980s became an important way of promoting The interviews suggest that the 6 o‘clock swill alcohol consumption in New Zealand. influenced the drinking styles of Niuean men, Advertising may have reinforced the encouraging them to drink large quantities of importance of drinking for Niuean men. For alcohol in camaraderie with other men. Six example one man spoke about his experience o‘clock swills were major social occasions with alcohol in the 1970s when there was an where large amounts of alcohol would be increase of advertising for alcohol at consumed during a short period. entertainment venues such as movie theatres.
The 6 o‘clock swill the pubs were By the [19]70s or the mid [19]70s opened from 4-6 and then it was jam they started showing alcohol on the packed in those pubs because nothing intermission at the movies. Every time else was opened after 6 o‘clock. we went to the movies at the That‘s what they use to call it because intermissions intervals was about there was a swell of people, like a advertising alcohol. The way the wave, like a wave of people coming media portrayed alcohol had a lot to into a bar and drinking as much as do with it as well (Niue born man, 61 they can hard and fast. It use to be a yrs, pers. comm.). social event going to the pub, some In the 1970s and 1980s alcohol regulations talk and you know from an European became more liberalised in New Zealand and perspective for our people it was more alcohol was more freely available. Some of the of an acceptance and was doing what Niuean men spoke about their experiences of the New Zealanders do (Niue born drinking at pubs when they arrived in man, 57 yrs, pers. comm.). Auckland during the 1970s and 1980s. They 170 would congregate at the pub after work or Niuean men used pubs to bond with other men during the weekends. There were specific pubs in a new country and share their experiences. where men from the same villages in Niue They were also able to support each other with drank together. Drinking with members from family issues, employment, and the same villages may have offered social accommodation problems. If someone did not solidarity amongst these men. Family support have a job then other Niuean men would help structures may have also been renewed and them look for a job within their own work established within these drinking places. Some Niuean men may have become environments. The pubs were seen as a place homesick and turned to other Niuean men for where men were able to communicate in social support. Pacific people often found it Niuean and enjoy each other‘s company. The difficult to adapt to a new country (Fairbairn- pub may also have been used as a place where Dunlop & Makisi 2003). For families who had Niuean men drank for the purpose of coping lived in rural villages, the shift to the city had with anxiety and stress related to adapting to a a number of challenges, including more new city. people, highly urbanised housing, bigger buildings, more entertainment facilities and a The New Caledonian was a Niuean larger commercialised area. Some Pacific pub where the Liku‘s, Avatele‘s and people may have struggled to cope with the Alofi‘s drank and the Mutalau's used high demands of living in the New Zealand to drink at the Family and Naval bar. environment. It was a village interrelation. Later on back in the [19]80s as it got on the Since the pubs were male dominated, Niuean more Niueans started to congregate men were also able to forge new relationships together in the pubs. Yeah it was sort with other men. They became acquainted with of a meeting place because we had no men from other cultures. Communicating in English may have also been practised in the club rooms you know for the older pubs, leading to new friendships. Niuean men ones it was the Schooner tavern the became more aware of the way they expressed older ones who had been drinking for and presented themselves in the public a long time some of the men here domain. Pubs also allowed Niuean men to since 1947 even earlier than that you express their masculinity. In the 1970s and would see them down at the Britomart 1980s pubs were male dominated arenas. Men which would be open at 7 o'clock in could talk freely about women, sex, and sport. the morning and would close at 5 Swearing was also acceptable. In some cases, o'clock in the afternoon (Niue born Niuean men were introduced to drinking man, 61 yrs, pers. comm.). games such as sculling and these activities continue in Niuean men‘s contemporary drinking styles. One man suggested that Niuean men who worked together often drank together at a 1990s - 2000s: POST MIGRATION particular pub. For example, the Schooner Pub was located near the wharf and the railways. A PERIOD lack of transport to other pubs may have influenced these men to attend the closest pub. Changes in the advertising and promotion of For some of these men the pub was close to liquor may also have contributed to the their work premises and it was easier to walk drinking patterns of Niuean men living in to at lunchtimes and after work. Some of these Auckland. For example, the late 1980s and men had a strong ethos of working hard and 1990s saw the deregulation of broadcast ‗playing hard‘ (or drinking hard) whilst in advertising in New Zealand. There was a focus Niue. This may have been reinforced by the on brand advertising where ‗the idea in simple New Zealand working class culture of working terms, was to gain customers for life by hard and drinking hard. branding the product as a ―lifestyle choice‖. Alcohol was not just another product but a ―lifestyle choice‖ and a natural part of our The Schooner was the closest pub to daily life‘ (Alcohol Advisory Council of New the wharf you get the ones that work Zealand 2003:1). hard and they drink hard which is from the wharfs. Especially the ones By the late 1990s there were further changes who worked at the railways they to alcohol rules, including allowing alcohol to always drank hard. They connected be sold in supermarkets and reducing the legal minimum purchasing age from 20 to 18 years. and everybody knew everybody in This led to increased alcohol consumption in Niue (Niue born man, 45 yrs, pers. New Zealand, with young people binge comm.). drinking large amounts of alcohol at each drinking session (Alcohol Advisory Council of 171 New Zealand 2003:1). These changes in The sailors, traders, and convicts introduced alcohol availability and access may also have alcohol to New Zealand and there were no contributed to the way Niuean men consume restrictions on early liquor licenses. This alcohol allowed a number of drinking venues to open, creating a culture where large amounts of From the late 1990s, Pacific males became alcohol would be consumed. more educated. This meant that some Niuean men were able to move into middle class jobs, Up until the 1970s, pubs closed at 6pm in New which in turn provided more income to Zealand, leading to the term ‗6 o‘clock swill‘ purchase alcohol. Some of these men were as people rushed to consume alcohol before influenced by the drinking patterns of their the pubs closed. Niuean men participated fully work colleagues. Drinking commonly took in this culture. They would finish work at 5pm place after work at a pub or with ‗happy hour‘ and converge on pubs to consume as much drinks at work (where an employer would alcohol as they could before closing time. provide free drinks on a Friday afternoon for Heavy binge drinking was encouraged by the the workers). Wanting to fit in with New early closing hours of drinking environments. Zealand‘s heavy binge drinking culture may have encouraged some of these Niuean men to Alcohol consumption is an important part of consume large amounts of alcohol. New Zealand life. The stereotyped traditional New Zealand culture revolves around ‗rugby, In the interviews most of the Niuean men saw racing and alcohol consumption‘. Most of the alcohol as part of the New Zealand culture and Niuean men interviewed saw alcohol as part of they wanted to fit into this culture. An older the New Zealand culture. The men felt that person commented that alcohol consumption is drinking is a common and accepted practice in as much a part of the New Zealand culture as New Zealand and wanted to be part of this. having a barbecue. Niuean men‘s drinking may have been influenced by other broad trends in New Alcohol plays a major part at peoples‘ Zealand society. For instance, there has been party. You have to have alcohol there. an increase in alcohol advertising and in media It‘s just way of life you know when portrayals of drinking. These environmental you have a barbecue and any social factors may have influenced the drinking events such as hair cuttings. Even if patterns of Niuean men. If new immigrants see you have a birthday party alcohol is drinking as a normal and acceptable part of the always there. Parties are just another culture, they may wish to do this for enjoyment, relaxation and to ‗fit in‘. way to have alcohol (Niue born man,
45 yrs, pers. comm.). In summary this paper identifies alcohol is an integral part of the lives of Niuean men living DISCUSSION in Auckland, New Zealand and that a number of changes have occurred since migration. Participants suggested that when they arrived Alcohol awareness strategies are urgently in New Zealand alcohol consumption tended needed. Detailed examinations of how the to increase. This was because they had greater Niuean population could best be educated access to alcohol, were earning more money, about alcohol issues would be fruitful. We and were able to get rid of the ‗frustrations‘ of need to focus on programmes that may be not being able to drink in Niue. Often men effective for Niuean people. We also need to would be encouraged to drink from the time examine how to incorporate these programmes they first arrived in New Zealand. For into Niuean community groups, churches, and instance, relatives would take new arrivals to youth groups. There may be a lack of alcohol the pub to have a drink or they would offer education awareness programmes by health them alcohol within their homes. This may providers outlining the effects and impact of have been a hospitality gesture, as being alcohol consumption. As highlighted, older generous is part of ‗being Niuean.‘ On the Niuean men‘s drinking behaviours is heavily other hand, alcohol may have also been used influenced by the New Zealand binge drinking for integrating the new arrivals and getting culture. Education programmes might usefully them used to the New Zealand drinking target Niuean teenagers since they are more culture. Some informants indicated alcohol prone to risky behaviour while drinking and may also have been used to cope with the often consume large amounts of alcohol. anxiety and stress of a new lifestyle. The church is an important part of the Niuean Some of the Niuean men‘s drinking patterns community. The church could potentially were influenced by New Zealand drinking implement strategies to reduce drinking and culture. New Zealand culture was built by alcohol related problems. This potential needs migrants who ‗worked hard and drank hard.‘ further investigation. The church may also 172 have a more explicit role to play in changing Nosa HV 1995, The flight from the homeland: values towards alcohol in the Niuean Niue - an evaluation of the consequences for community as a large proportion of Niueans the Niuean political economy, MA attend church. dissertation. Auckland, University of Auckland. References Stanhope MJ & Prior MAI 1979, ‗The Tokelau migrant study: alcohol consumption Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand in two environments‘, New Zealand Medical 1997. Inu Pia. The place of alcohol in the Journal, 28: 419-21. lives of Tokelauan people living in Aotearoa, New Zealand, report prepared by Sector Statistics New Zealand 2006, Niuean People Analysis, Ministry of Health for the Alcohol in New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand. Liquor Advisory Council of New Zealand, Talagi F 1982, ‗Early European Contacts‘, in ALAC research monograph Series: No 3, T Chapman (ed), Niue: history of the Island, Wellington, New Zealand. University of the South Pacific, Institute of Fairbairn-Dunlop P & Makisi G 2003, Making the South Pacific, Government of Niue & our place: growing up in New Zealand, Fiji. Dunmore Press, Palmerston North. Wessen A 1992, Migration and Health in a small society: Tokelau, The Claredon Press, Kingi T 1996, Migration policy of Niue: a Oxford. strategic focus, MBA dissertation, University of Auckland, Auckland. Matatumua A 1969, Alcohol and the Islander: A study of the problems associated with alcohol amongst Samoans in Dunedin, MB.ChB dissertation, University of Otago, Otago.
173 Changing culture, changing practice: Securing a sense of self
Eleanor Peeler ([email protected]) University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia.
Abstract language strangeness we experienced was complicated by the fact that the Entering new landscapes is a current day cultures from both landscapes were phenomenon with recurring migration flows across changing rapidly (He 2002:301). national borders. Teachers who shift between cultures, languages and education landscapes require resilience and persistence to navigate The migrant‘s journey is one of departing, changing circumstances as they seek acceptance crafting, becoming, changing and forever among current space inhabitants. seeking. He (2002) likens it to exploring new opportunities in an ongoing search for Crafting a balance between the old and familiar in meaning. Moving between cultural landscapes new places with new faces in a new culture of work where language and traditions differ is no easy is a complex task. Those who make such transitions must bridge the gulf between the workplace feat. Those who cross boundaries to enter practices left behind and those accepted in the new unfamiliar environments feel cut off and alone. environment. As they navigate new ways of doing They are vulnerable to hostility from members and seeking acceptance they are crafting a new of the dominant cultural group whose social workplace identity. In educational workplaces traits and ways-of-doing oppose the migrant‘s colleagues born overseas may feel threatened by our tradition (Kostogriz & Peeler 2004). Entering Anglo-Australian culture and ethics of work, our new workplace traditions they walk the relationships and the language we use. Such hyphen (Fine 1994) between past and present, problems are exacerbated for those whose first old and new. They require resilience, language is other than English. The need for migrant teachers to unlearn their previous persistence and courage to navigate their perceptions of professional and make huge cultural changed circumstances as they re-establish leaps to adapt to local standards indicates failure on themselves professionally. the part of institutions and colleagues to value their prior knowledge and skills. Pressures to adapt The paper addresses issues faced by a group of confuse migrant teachers‘ perception of being migrant women who shifted between professional. languages, cultures and systems of knowledge to teach in schools in Victoria, Australia. It This paper draws on a study of female overseas identifies difficulties they faced, their born teachers who recalled their transitions to the culture of work in the education system in Victoria. strategies to cope and faith in the skills they Using interviews, focus group discussions and could offer. Though the teachers came from journal entries the study exposed the teachers‘ sense diverse ethnic backgrounds, teaching of loss, anxiety and emotional insecurity. The words experience and systems of knowledge each of three women exemplify their determination to found ways to translate their understanding of gain recognition, satisfaction and sense of teaching to comply with local convention. professional wellbeing. They reveal the need to Despite trauma and insecurity each found support other such teachers and for more inclusive strength to draw on her cultural knowledge policies that explicitly welcome their bicultural and and had courage to maintain her ethnic identity bilingual competence. and use it to her advantage.
Keywords Educational landscape Migrant, women, teachers, education, workplace, professional wellbeing, transitions In Victorian educational environments, migrant teachers have remained a minority LANDSCAPES OF CHANGE group. Although forty years ago Minister Thompson idealised that all students would achieve ‗full development of their spiritual, Entering new cultural landscapes mental, physical and creative powers … regardless of colour, class, race or creed‘ and As we moved between languages and anticipated ‗true equality of educational cultures, the cultural, educational and purpose‘ (1970:4,5), the needs of migrant
teachers were not apparently addressed. Today Nina: And you had nothing to lose. we continue to question the success of such goals as school communities become Kim: […] I had nothing to lose even increasingly multicultural and ponder the though I‘ve got the overseas situation of migrant teachers who have qualification […] I came here and then continually struggled for workplace equity. As started again and I put a lot of effort newcomers they have been caught between into what I‘ve achieved now. (Kim & cultures, educational policies and subjected to Nina 2002, pers. comm., October 1). a barrage of negative forces and implied racist attitudes (Kostogriz & Peeler 2004; Santoro, Kim described the austerity of classrooms in Reid & Kamler 2001; Viete, 1999). Their Vietnam; extreme insecurity impacts on their sense of self worth and professional efficacy (Peeler & you‘re not allowed to talk in the Jane 2005). Cochrane-Smith (2000) warns of classroom you know […] so before you nonchalance among policy makers and go to the classroom there‘s supposed to curriculum designers, and their blindness to be silence, not making noises (Kim the dilemmas of migrant groups. She identifies 2002, pers. comm., April 3). the trauma of their upheaval and their struggles to adapt to the practices of locally Young Mi recalled the hierarchical system in educated and longer serving colleagues. Korea; Despite qualifications and experience in their countries of origin migrant teachers face In Korea they‘re hierarchy of teachers pressure to become ‗more like the majority‘, and students so like students always forgo old values and replace them with new follow and respect their teachers. But in (Kamler, Reid & Santoro 1999:67). Although Australia there‘s not this kind of they are keen to comply they are positioned relationship so I feel like I don‘t know marginally (Kostogriz & Peeler 2004) and what I have to do, like what I have to professionally isolated (Santoro et al. 2001). In cope with this kind of situation (Young their new environments difference is perceived Mi 2001, pers. comm., October 1). as deficit (Arber 1996) and their skills and experience are undervalued (Inglis & Philps Making adjustments to the local culture of 1995; ABS 2003). work Nina reflected on the process.
The experiences of Kim, Nina and Young Mi recognising and exploring a new illustrate how migrant teachers in Victorian language, new words, new country educational landscapes navigated change in and just re-establishing everything you order to uphold their aspirations and attain a had there here too sense of professional well-being. Kim from you win respect for your self too Vietnam and Young Mi from Korea were both not only from others teachers of Science while Nina from Armenia it‘s respect for yourself too was a teacher of Maths. Kim had taught for [its] really rewarding just three months before her refugee to just being given that opportunity to experience began in 1980 and Young Mi who win that respect arrived in Australia in 1997 as an international it‘s not assumed because you look student had taught for three years in secondary different schools. Nina arrived in Australia in 1994 because you speak differently having taught upper secondary and university it‘s not assumed that respect levels. Neither Kim nor Nina spoke English on because you are winning that respect arrival and Young Mi‘s spoken English was every time not strong. Each teacher had passion to teach in your new workplace and your study but was required to complete additional place or whatever (Nina 2002, pers. training in Australia. comm., November 12).
The discussion between Kim and Nina typifies YOUNG MI‟S STORY the courage of migrant women to pursue their aspirations to teach. On arrival in Melbourne Kim worked in a factory and learnt English at Problems Young Mi encountered in her first night. She became an assistant at a language year teaching Korean as a Language Other school while she completed a Graduate Than English (LOTE) at a regional secondary Diploma and then a Masters in Teaching college were typical of those facing migrant English as a Second Language (TESOL). teachers. Newly qualified with a Masters in LOTE from a university in Melbourne, Young Kim: I came here as a refugee person Mi felt on top of the world when she received with nothing […] a twelve-month contract. In retrospect she realised she was unprepared for the culture of 175 secondary schooling and attitudes in the behaviour was placed under scrutiny. Young school community towards a young Asian Mi‘s esteem faded completely. Divorced from female who taught a ‗low priority subject‘. her Korean community she felt ‗alien‘. Young Mi confronted different professional Though less than a decade has passed, the ethics and social conventions in her regional regional community now has greater cultural school. She was unfamiliar with the use of first diversity. She had found it ‗quite difficult to names among colleagues rather than formal experience Korean, Asian culture‘ until she titles, and idiomatic language in conversation met an older Korean couple who offered used during work breaks (Hawthorne support (Young Mi 2001, pers. comm., 1994:123). Younger and older teachers formed December 8). They had no knowledge of social groups and she belonged to neither. teaching so offered emotional rather than Differences acted like borders between practical help, knowing and not knowing between herself as a newcomer and colleagues who belonged to the but, psychologically they just like make dominant social group (Kostogriz 2002) and me very warm … sub-cultural groups in her school. Unable to sometimes I was very weak and like find common ground to reach accord led to after praying … despondency, a common occurrence among then I feel like I can do again the migrant teachers, who began to ask ‗Why we just talk in Korean … bother?‘ (Duff & Horne 1997) we feel like more safe to chat in Korean (Young Mi 2001, pers. comm., Teaching in Korea, Young Mi recalled, December 8) ‗everybody respect teacher‘. There ‗I have no problem‘ but teaching in a Victorian country NINA‟S STORY school is ‗quite difficult, it‘s more tough‘ (Young Mi 2002, pers. comm., December 8). Not long into her first term she began to doubt Ideally in any workplace community her teaching ability and despite local inhabitants interact harmoniously, tolerating qualifications and positive practicum results difference and valuing diversity. Such ideals she realised her ‗first time to teach as a teacher are appropriate in Victoria‘s multicultural is like facing a wall‘ (Young Mi 2001, pers. school communities where twenty-five per comm., December 8). Young Mi‘s school was cent of students come from language in ‗an Anglican dominant area‘ that exposed backgrounds other than English. Despite her to ‗that kind of culture‘, ‗Australian migrant teachers‘ bicultural and bilingual students‘ attitude‘ and ‗classroom skills they are an underestimated resource; environment‘ (Young Mi 2001, pers. comm., instead they are perceived in a negative light. December 8). Korean LOTE was considered Migrant teachers find it easier to engage the ‗lowest interesting subject‘ and she positively in multicultural school recalled teaching classes where ‗students don‘t environments (Viete 1996) or working with listen - [they] play games and throw paper international students who have shared their planes‘ (Young Mi 2001, pers. comm., anxieties and hold comparable ways of December 8). thinking, motivation and work ethic (McAllister & Jordan 2000). Young Mi was unfamiliar with the informal language used in the school. She was Nina identified her cultural identity as an asset distressed by colleagues‘ impatience and in her multicultural workplace. She knew that inclination to abandon her in conversation. teaching was in her blood but was tentative Passing in the corridor she remembered, ‗I just about teaching in Australia. She reflected, say hello … but they didn‘t even be polite, ‗you don‘t have sufficient English to respond to my hello (laugh)‘ (Young Mi 2001, comfortably enter a classroom of 26 students pers. comm., December 8). However, ‗some who are normally unmotivated‘ (Nina 2002, teachers were very kind‘ Young Mi recalled pers. comm., July 4). Unsure of herself, Nina and ‗some very strict‘ but ‗they [all] treat me began teaching Computer Technology in the as a child‘ (Young Mi 2001, pers. comm., Technical and Further Education (TAFE) December 8). She continually felt as though sector. As many teachers do when the subject they were ‗watching me, then they assess me, is unfamiliar she began to ‗teach myself, and instead of helping me‘. She recalled one of her then teach the students‘ (Nina 2002, pers. colleagues who ‗always complained about my comm., July 4). The experience boosted her class‘ so began to sit at the back of the room to self-confidence but she regretted not utilising maintain discipline (Young Mi 2001, pers. her Mathematics skills, ‗I‘m not using it, I‘m comm., December 8). Students were sort of losing a very big subject‘ (Nina 2002, disinterested in learning Korean and did not pers. comm., July 4). She was aware that respond to Young Mi‘s efforts. Her inability to Computers and Maths ‗have their own understand the culture of teaching and learning language; they are not so language specific‘ as left her open to criticism and her professional other subjects. While she recognised the 176 advantage of this and maintained a positive whether American, Asian or European, attitude to teaching, she remained conscious of affected the degree of acceptance or rejection her accent. (Corson 1993). Given the embrace of cultural and linguistic diversity (DOE 1997), the I do have that accent multicultural nature of classes in Victorian that I will never lose schools and migrant teachers‘ bicultural and and my poor students have to cope … bilingual skills, this issue requires further that‘s the fact I can‘t change debate. Ideally, school communities should be let‘s try to concentrate on things which aware that language and culture are closely I can change … aligned (Crozet et al. 1999), and diversity and I will be a good teacher difference a valued resource (Kostogriz & I will try to do my best to teach them Peeler 2004). Crozette et al. (1999: 4, 5) argue, Maths (Nina 2002, pers. comm., October 1) Without a linguistic experience of difference, a cultural experience of Returning to teach Maths in a private difference cannot reach the same secondary college, Nina taught highly depths. Difference is the central aspect motivated international students. She of intercultural communication and explained, ‗it‘s a very demanding class,‘ such difference must be lived in because ‗everyone wants to achieve their best‘ communication. (Nina 2002, pers. comm., October 1). Discipline was not an issue as her students McAllister and Jordan (2000) maintain that aimed to succeed. Nina understood their teachers from language backgrounds other thinking, language difficulties and ‗anxiety than English understand the worldviews of when they don‘t know a particular word‘ ethnically diverse students than native English (Nina 2002, pers. comm., July 4). She speakers. Their intercultural sensitivity enables recognised that now ‗they were taught in a them to support their students appropriately. In different culture … with different methods‘ the era of globalisation Crozet et al. (1999: 6) (Nina 2002, pers. comm., July 4). Working argue the need for tolerance and understanding alongside other overseas born teachers it was to cope with the ‗manifold ways the nations ‗like the whole of Australia, it‘s very and populations of the world [that] are multicultural‘ (2002, pers. comm. 4th July). becoming enmeshed in a single interconnected She appreciated how other Armenian teachers global system‘. Here lies a dilemma, for while had supported her in the past so now it was her migrant teachers hone in to understand the turn to support other Armenian migrants to culture of schooling and develop their English establish themselves. Nina realised ‗you are competence, they risk losing their own culture not alone in your own world‘ (Nina 2002, and language. Language loss is a dilemma pers. comm., July 4). according to hooks (1994: 168) who argues that standard English is ‗the mask which hides When Nina arrived in Australia she could only the loss of so many tongues‘. The conversation imagine becoming a teacher. between Kim and Nina reveals their awareness of this. I thought myself I would never become a teacher in Australia Kim: It‘s much easier to use English how could I stand in front of the than to translate that in your language classroom speaking English that‘s why now I‘m thinking I‘m losing explaining the lesson, so I gave that Vietnamese because I speak English idea away … every day I know that at the age of 23 I teach English every day I would have to start from the I‘m really real typical Vietnamese beginning but they say I speak funny Vietnamese I was thinking maybe I should get into I speak Vietnamese with a funny accent an ABC class to study English (Nina now 2002, pers. comm., July 4). Nina: I speak three languages In Victoria, the Department of Education and all the three languages I speak with (DOE) requires teachers to have appropriate an accent qualifications, knowledge of schooling and my English has a Russian accent standard of English, as student success was a my Armenian has an English accent key concern (Kalantzis, Cope, Noble & and my Russian has Armenian Poynting 1990; Viete 1992, 1996, 1999). Caucasian accent Teachers‘ language use should be sufficiently so I belong to the world flexible to communicate effectively and I don‘t have a proper language now convey knowledge and in broader social (Kim & Nina 2002, pers. comm., contexts however the variety of English, October 1). 177 KIM‟S STORY 2002, pers. comm., November 9). Although they said, ‗don‘t let it get you down‘, Kim Competence is commonly used in education to responded, mark ability levels. It conjures visions of tick the box lists of attainment but competence also I‘ve learnt over the years not to take it denotes the literacies of social practice. This personally concept aligns to cultural models as defined by but I still feel like I was doing the right Gee (1999: 43) which are ‗rooted in the thing practices of socioculturally defined groups and I‘m not really going to change my people‘. Specific routines and traditions give thinking meaning to the social and cultural practices, just to suit other people values and behaviours. To be fully operational You know you are here to teach them in a particular context one must align one‘s to see that you pass the message on self with the group‘s philosophies and pass on the knowledge emotionally embody its ideals. Gee‘s warning and you want them to carry the that adopting models appropriate to another knowledge (2002, pers. comm., group can cause one to pay the price of change November 9). was appropriate to the migrant teachers‘ classroom and linguistic experience. Determined to gain recognition, satisfaction and sense of professional wellbeing Kim Looking at the situation from a dominant maintained her Vietnamese ethic of respect. cultural stance, one realises the difficulties She said, ‗we show respect for people in the involved in reversing one‘s inherent beliefs to authority … and in the family too‘ (Kim 2002, view minority perspectives. Cochrane-Smith pers. comm., November 9). She emphasised (2000) recalled with shame the power of her commitment, ‗I had to adjust myself whiteness and racist attitudes she unwittingly otherwise I can‘t get into the system … I‘m held. Taking a minority stance she realised the only making myself sick so if I don‘t adjust ‗tension, contradiction, difficulty, pain, and myself and especially in Australia … where do failure‘ group members underwent (2000: I stand?‘ (Kim 2002, pers. comm., November 161). This raised awareness her of ‗how we 9). Despite this Kim did not, stating: are positioned in terms of race and power vis- à-vis others has a great deal to do with how we give up some of my strong thinking see, what we see, and what we are not able to (laugh) see‘ (Cochrane-Smith 2000: 161). In a similar or ideas but, yeah (laugh) vein Farrell (2000) urged one to orient self to a they‘re still there but they‘re not as group‘s ethos and actually appropriate its strong as before (laugh) beliefs and values in order to understand. they‘re probably falling off However, Gee cautioned that embodying a falling into a black box (laugh) group‘s ideals and behaviours, one pays the I lock it up there (laugh) (2002, pers. price of change (2000/2001). It is a fine line comm., November 9) that divides one‘s decision to assimilate or maintain one‘s self identity (Wyn, Acker, & After twenty-five years in Australia Kim held Richards 2000). As Fine (1994) argued, thus firm to Vietnamese ways, securing her was walking the hyphen. traditions in her metaphorical black box. She admitted that adapting to a different tradition Kim‘s story reveals tensions she experiences of teaching caused immense dissatisfaction. living and working in a new culture. Although Like Nina, Kim looked ahead and saw new she had completed teacher education courses possibilities in the niche-teaching field of and had taught for several years in Australia, Information Technology, an area that her she held firm to Vietnamese ethos. She colleagues bypassed believing it was too lamented laxity in grading students in her difficult. Kim‘s black boxes signified loss language studies workplace, in contrast to while her purple pyjamas showed hope for Vietnam where ‗we are more stricter with our migrant teachers such as herself to explore grading and with our discipline in the new possibilities. She discussed it with me. classroom‘. Kim believed ‗we need to recognize our students hard work and their Kim: I give up some of my strong achievement. There was no value giving thinking (laugh) or ideas (laugh) everybody the same piece of paper‘ (Kim 2002, pers. comm., October 1). She supported Self: Are they still there, those ideas? distinguishing high and low achievers to identify reward for effort. Students‘ lack of Kim: They‘re still there but they‘re not commitment caused conflict between Kim and as strong as before her colleagues ‗because I‘ve got a different They‘re probably falling off, falling point of view and different thinking‘ (Kim into a black box (laugh) I lock it up there (laugh) 178
in ten years time I‘ll probably still be I am more settled now [but] I‘m teaching … homesick very, very often I probably will see myself teaching full I feel a bit guilty I took my kids away time from what they had there … otherwise I think I will drop it down to what they gained is most significant part time living in a safe and secure country or even some of it could be online having better education teacher having conditions in terms of housing a lot of people are saying about online just generally the country and Western teaching is good … values what they call ‗learning in purple but you always make your choices in pyjamas‘ (2002, pers. comm., life, don‘t you - November 7). you lose something, you gain something REFLECTION and make decisions before you come (Kim 2002, pers. comm., November 7). The process of becoming a teacher in a new educational culture is an evolving While Kim, Nina and Young Mi moved transformation, whether layer upon layer between languages and cultures, as described (Goodson & Cole 1993), as a continuum of by (He 2002), they were cultural, educational growth (Quintero 1977; Seah & Bishop 2001) and language strangers. Though resilience and or a trajectory of development. As a minority determination carried them through they group migrant teachers encounter tension gained from the growing ethnic complexity of between upholding their cultural identities and Australia‘s population and increasing complying with pressures to adapt (Foster globalisation. In 2010, Young Mi‘s Asian 1996; Kamler et al. 1999). The opportunity appearance would no longer be isolated in the cost of accepting another‘s social norms regional community, and teaching Korean at a caused ‗[o]nce familiar and comfortable ways Defence Academy in a nearby suburb she is of knowing, behaving, and communicating highly regarded. Kim has crafted a unique may seem strange and unenlightened, or niche, continues to teach adult migrants and become discontinued entirely‘ (Foster 1996: offers professional development to all staff in 216). In the face of such tension, migrant the TAFE Institute. Nina has continued her teachers must find ways to bridge the gulf career in her multicultural workplace and her between past and present, juxtaposing their passion to pass on Mathematical knowledge. own self-knowledge with another‘s social Looking back on their journeys one must norms (Crozet et al. 1999). In the nexus of reflect upon Thompson‘s idealised ‗equality in change they feel ‗uprooted from each and not educational purpose‘ (1970: 4-5) and at home in any‘ (Sarup 1996: 11), struggling to contemplate it in regard to migrant teachers. cope with pressures to adjust to the dominant More recently Rizvi (1991: 166) argued the norms while attempting to maintain their own ‗right of ethnic groups to maintain cultural traditions (Bishop 1990). identity; the promotion of equality of opportunity; and the need to ensure social Nina regarded her pathway to teaching in cohesion‘. These ideals must apply to Australia as a ‗journey of recovery and Victoria‘s multicultural policy that aims to discovery‘ (2002, pers. comm., November 7). foster ‗a sense of self-worth … and optimism It began when she entered the profession in for the future … in a socially cohesive and Armenia and continued in Australia where she culturally rich society‘ (DETYA 1999). spent a year learning English before Offering migrant teachers possibilities to draw completing a Diploma of Education. She on their cultural knowledge to sensitively reconstructed herself professionally to resume encourage positive learning of those they teach her career, recovered her status and created enhances their sense of self-worth and new possibilities to pursue. As Goodson and professional wellbeing. Cole (1993) describe, she underwent a time of adjustment while she reoriented herself and Though the study of migrant women teachers redefined her role. Nina took time to reflect, was undertaken five years ago it is recover, move on and discover. enlightening to educational workplaces today. It revealed lack of tolerance by colleagues, Though the migrant teachers‘ experiences students, school community members and varied Kim Nina and Young Mi were each policy makers towards them and their ideals, uprooted from families and familiar practices. and exposed blindness in the Australian Nina‘s thoughts speak for the others as she community towards their skills and reflected her on the process of change and of knowledge. Increased flows of international what she lost and what she gained. students have helped the cause of migrant teachers who share understanding and 179 empathy with other newcomers. While this paper has related to education, migrant women Farrell, L 2000, 'Ways of doing, ways of in other workplaces can be equally concerned being: Language, education and "working" for their cause when they are marked by identities', Multilingual Matters, 14(1):18- difference. In the near future may the veils of 36. blindness be lifted, and multicultural workplaces nationwide become harmonious Fine, M 1994, 'Working the hyphen: landscapes of equity and respect. Reinventing self and other in qualitative research', in N Denzin & Y Lincoln (eds), Acknowledgments Handbook of qualitative research, Sage, Thousand Oaks CA. Thank you to the migrant teachers who took part in the study and willingly shared their Foster, M 1996, 'Like us but not one of us: stories. 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181 Negotiating locals in Britain: The relationship between asylum seekers and the local British community in East Anglia
Sophia Rainbird ([email protected]) University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, 5001, Australia.
Abstract government dispersal program rather than by choice. To some extent this heightened the This paper explores the ways in which asylum feelings of animosity and camaraderie, both seekers negotiate their relationship with British within and across the local and asylum seeker locals, who form a majority white indigenous communities. British population in the rural region of East Anglia. Asylum seekers were dispersed to the region from Over the past fifty years British Governments London by a government program where accommodation was more readily available, and have provided refugee resettlement programs access to services could be localised. However, the to Polish, Ugandan Asian, Chilean, reception provided by locals was not always Vietnamese, Bosnian and Kosovan refugees welcoming. Fuelled by the media, there was a which have all been logistical exercises in general negative perception that asylum seekers redistributing refugee populations (Robinson were linked to terrorism, gang violence and welfare et al. 2003a:121-180). Asylum seekers began exploitation. This resulted in a fear of violence by arriving into East Anglia in the mid to late asylum seekers and locals, from each other. This 1990s with Kosovan and Albanian asylum paper illustrates that it is very difficult for asylum seekers. The London boroughs also borrowed seekers to engage with locals without ‗giving weight to their cultural background or ethnic the idea of population redistribution from the normative standards‘ (Fuglerud 1999:105), Government dispersal program. In November particularly for those identifiable as Muslim or of of 1997, over 40 asylum seekers were sent by Iraqi origin. To locals then, an outsider has ‗no the City of Westminster to Great Yarmouth, in social markers other than [their ―otherness‖] and the East Anglia, in order to relieve the strain on fact that they are understood to be ―asylum services in this London borough (Norwich and seekers‖‘ (Fuglerud 1999:105). In response, asylum Norfolk Racial Equality Council 1998). seekers draw on a situational identity which may circumvent the asylum seeker aspect of their Then, in 2000 the British Government, identity according to the context. This paper explores such identity reworking that is evident in through NASS (National Asylum Support the coping mechanisms of blending in and avoiding Service), initiated another dispersal program. interactions with locals. These coping mechanisms, Asylum seekers were dispersed to areas employed by asylum seekers, allow them to throughout England, including East Anglia, negotiate their interactions with locals. where accommodation was more readily available, and access to services could be Keywords localised (see Anie et al. 2005; Boswell 2001; Asylum seekers, Britain, East Anglia, identity, Robinson et al. 2003b; Bloch 2000; Bloch & local community, tensions Schuster 2005; Griffiths et al. 2006; Griffiths et al. 2005; Hynes 2009; Schuster 2005; Zetter et al. 2005). Ultimately, this tactic aimed to NEGOTIATING LOCALS IN reduce the strain on services in London. Many BRITAIN asylum seekers were dispersed to parts of the country which were not in close proximity to This paper is based on field work undertaken the supportive networks of their own ethnic in 2002-2003 with asylum seekers, support communities. These asylum seekers were a organisations and locals in Norwich, Great diverse group of Iraqi, Iranian, Kenyan, Yarmouth and Peterborough, East Anglia, Albanian, Guinea Bissau, Angolan, Armenian Britain. In this region, asylum seekers wait for and Kosovan, Congolese, Lebanese, and their application for refugee status to be Senegalese origin. So, the ethnic diversity of assessed by the Home Office amidst local asylum seekers arriving into East Anglia insecurities about the potential threat of the meant that they did not have the numbers to ‗other‘. Such concerns were also experienced form any substantial ethnic communities. by asylum seekers who were wary of local responses fuelled by the media and the war in There are a number of additional factors that Iraq. However, these asylum seekers often impacted on the context of asylum seeker arrived into East Anglia as part of a arrivals into East Anglia. East Anglia is a rural
region of England containing a predominantly This paper explores the ways in which fears of white Anglo-Saxon population. According to violence are experienced by asylum seekers the 2001 census statistics the white population and locals alike. However, more importantly, of Norwich is 96.8 per cent, with Great this paper identifies the ways in which asylum Yarmouth at 98.6 per cent (National Statistics seekers have had to negotiate their relationship 2003a), and Peterborough at 89.7 per cent with local Britons. Namely, by attempting to (National Statistics 2003c). These areas are blend in or avoiding interactions with locals. quite low in their ethnic populations in comparison to London which has a white MUTUAL FEARS OF VIOLENCE population of 71.2 per cent (National Statistics 2003b). During field work I was informed by locals of Great Yarmouth is also characterised by the perceived presence of ‗no-go areas‘ or significant deprivation – it is ranked the ghettos in Great Yarmouth that were number one ‗hot spot‘ of significant controlled by large gangs of asylum seekers deprivation within Norfolk. When weighted and refugees. I was warned to be careful against other towns ranked most deprived in because it was very dangerous and some locals their region, areas of Great Yarmouth rank in asked me if I felt ‗frightened‘ working with the top 10 per cent of most deprived in the asylum seekers. Although these assertions national Index of Multiple Deprivation 2007, were nothing more than rumours borne from making the town one of England‘s most fear generated by the media, political and economically deprived (Department of the nationalistic discourses and propelled by Environment Transport and the Regions socioeconomic disadvantage, these types of (DETR) 2000:31). questions and comments dominated the public rhetoric surrounding immigration in Britain. Additionally, the war in Iraq and the fear of terrorism brought the issue of immigration to Despite the fact that the input of asylum the fore of public and media attention. Fears of seekers in local conversations and mainstream violence threatened to disrupt attempts for a media discussions went largely unheard, they smooth integration of asylum seekers and were nonetheless prevalent amongst asylum refugees into the wider community. This is the seekers. These discussions often centred on the context within which asylum seekers must immigration system and fears for their future negotiate their interactions with local members political status. However, there was a strong of the East Anglian community. current of discussions from asylum seekers about the fear of violence and attacks by This paper draws on the experiences reported locals. One Congolese asylum seeker, Mr E, by 37 asylum seekers. Of these informants, spoke of his Iraqi friend‘s treatment by locals: eight are couples with children, while seven asylum seekers have children but have been I mean, they [the locals] see the faces either widowed or have lost contact with their you see? […] When they don't feel like partner. Fifteen of the 37 asylum seekers are you're different, they treat you alright. single, having arrived in Britain But where I was living, I was living independently. All of the asylum seekers in with Iraqis. And when they see the this study are aged between 18 and 35 and are Iraqis, they know that they are asylum at various points in the immigration process, seekers. For them Iraqis just means from waiting for a decision to appealing straight asylum seekers. So, they just against a negative decision. The majority of do their best to get the Iraqis in trouble. these asylum seekers had been smuggled into Or, to make their life harder, you see the country without the visa documents […] And I feel sorry for the guy required. Participant observation was carried because I know […] how difficult it is out at a drop-in centre for asylum seekers in (Mr E, 2003, pers. comm., 13 August). the towns of Great Yarmouth and As Mr E points out, for locals, that which is Peterborough, and in the local library and different is considered a threat. Iraqis bore the cafes of Norwich. Interviews were carried out brunt of such perceptions of danger. The fear at a later stage in informants‘ homes in East of terrorism in East Anglia meant that Anglia as well as London. Many of the ‗foreigners‘ were watched with caution, and informants had been in Britain for at least frequently abused in the street. Iraqi men three years, and had a good grasp of English. began to limit their time out in public as they Often, these asylum seekers experience the were aware of the local unease and threats of severe loss of their immediate and extended violence. An Iraqi man described two attacks families, as well as isolation from their that a friend and he had experienced: communities and ethnic groups that are established in larger cities such as London. […] a friend of mine was punched by a group of men. He was punched badly. I was attacked by a group of teenagers. 183 When the police finally came they said is a response to a feeling of alienation and that they are only young. The teenagers fear. were across the road shouting ―yes it was us‖ and the police did nothing (Mr A police community liaison officer in Great J, 2003, pers. comm., 13 August). Yarmouth conveyed to me that the local community was becoming increasingly For recipients of violent attacks, such as Mr J, concerned about the threat of terrorism. She the perception that the police are complicit in told me that the impending war in Iraq was such attacks further fuels a need to keep a low having very noticeable repercussions in Great profile and to avoid the possibility of being Yarmouth: targeted in the future. Indeed, Mr E, a Congolese asylum seeker, was aware of I check the custody and crime records avoiding certain places and assured in the everyday and I‘m surprised to see no knowledge that the police would be unlikely to Iraqis there. Usually there are Iraqis assist in the event that an attack took place: with driving offences [...] They‘re all keeping their heads down. I suppose I There are areas in Peterborough where would react in the same way if I were you don‘t go because you will be living in Iraq, I would do the same […] attacked. I am always aware that I We‘ve had a few calls from locals might be attacked. There was a asking us how they would recognise a pregnant woman being harassed and terrorist (Police Community Liaison had her windows broken. The police Officer, 2003, pers. comm., 14 were called and arrived about eight February). hours later. In the end the priest from the church went to the station himself She explained that the locals felt insecure and to complain (Mr E, 2003, pers. comm., feared an imminent terrorist attack. And yet, at 13 August). the same time, the Iraqis were beginning to feel fearful of the locals, to the point that they Another asylum seeker, Mr A, a Kurdish Iraqi, tended to go straight home after work rather located himself at the outskirts of local society than gathering to meet with friends in public for fear of retribution. At the same time he locations. positioned locals as misinformed and also refers to police inaction as indifference: SITUATIONAL IDENTITY
A few weeks ago in all the newspapers The questions remain: How do asylum seekers and TV news it was about asylum respond to the construction of themselves as a seekers and how they could be threat by the wider community? How do they terrorists. People believe this and then transcend a fixed identity as prescribed by the it creates problems. I have experience majority British? In response to this external of this felt from local people who are labelling and attitude, many asylum seekers very careful of me. I will not go […] employ coping mechanisms by shifting anywhere at night because people may between aspects of their identity based on a get violent because they are afraid of hierarchy of need. Cohen calls this situational who I might be. I feel this everyday identity, whereby a person may embody ‗any (Mr A, 2003, pers. comm., 28 May). one of a number of possible social identities, depending on the situation‘ (1994:205). For Mr A had himself suffered a violent attack example, in response to negative perceptions from locals. He had been walking out on the of asylum seekers in relation to alleged threats street when three people punched him, of terrorism, asylum seekers may emphasise knocked him to the ground and then kicked another aspect of their identity which may be him because, as he perceived it, he looked like far removed from asylum seekerness. a ‗foreigner‘ (Mr A, 2003, pers. comm., 28 May). Identity consists of several ‗axes of difference‘ which form multiple rather than singular These discussions above by asylum seekers positionings (Gillespie 1995:11). highlights the rupture between their identity as Consequently, ‗differences are gendered and people seeking safe haven, and an imposed sexual, class based and regional, as well as identity, that of violent terrorist or ‗foreigner‘, ethnic and ―racial‖‘ (Gillespie 1995:11). Hall‘s which identifies them as being a potential discussion is useful here in understanding that threat. Both asylum seeker and local are identity is ‗not an essence but a positioning‘ distanced from the ‗community‘ aspect of each (1990:226), as differences ‗locate only to others identity and instead highlighted that dislocate one another‘ (Hall 1993a). This is which alienates, stigmatises and differentiates. exactly as Laclau argues: ‗every identity is Much of this imposed stigmatisation on others dislocated insofar as it depends on an outside 184 which both denies that identity and provides The college wants me to be in their its condition of possibility at the same time‘ newspaper as someone because they (1990:39). It is through interactions with say I am an asylum seeker who has others that one is positioned and located achieved so much at college. I don‘t through differences that simultaneously want to be known as an asylum seeker! position and disrupt (Said 1978:7). They can say I‘m a black woman, an Furthermore, within the space of disruption African immigrant who is at college, and ambiguity ‗new spaces of contestation‘ are but not an asylum seeker, innit! Why opened up, affecting ‗a momentous shift in‘ should they say that? (Miss P, 2003, relations (Hall 1993b:2). pers. comm., 18 June)
The relationship between asylum seekers and Miss P was outraged that her success was locals can be correlated to Fuglerud‘s attributed to her asylum seeker identity, rather understanding of Tamils in the Norwegian than other aspects of her identity which she community, in that it is very difficult for felt were more congruent to her sense of self. asylum seekers to engage with locals without But in situational circumstances not all locals drawing attention to their ethnic and cultural will recognise an asylum seeker or refugee. backgrounds (1999:105). To locals then, an outsider has ‗no social markers other than There are two ways that asylum seekers can [their ―otherness‖] and the fact that they are negotiate the perceptions of locals and thus the understood to be ―asylum seekers‖‘ (Fuglerud constraints of being an asylum seeker through 1999:105). In a similar way to Malkki‘s social practices that are evident in their description of Hutu refugees in the town speech-acts. Firstly, by blending in and setting of Kigoma, asylum seekers can also drawing on positive relationships with locals deny ‗that they were‘ asylum seekers, ‗a pose and avoiding disclosure of their asylum seeker made credible (or at least hard to disprove) by identity. Secondly, by keeping a low profile the plurality of identities available in their and having little contact with locals. complex urban context‘ (1995:156). While in the case of Norfolk the urban areas are not ‗complex‘ and ethnicity is visually obvious, BLENDING IN asylum seekers can nonetheless rely on other assumptions of labels such as ‗migrant Asylum seekers‘ engagement with the local worker‘ or ‗student‘. community is something that can be tentative or embracing if the constraints of ‗asylum There are some situations, however, where an seeker‘ cannot be concealed. One example of asylum seeker identity cannot be avoided. For this is to immerse oneself into the local some asylum seekers, this identity is the community. I was told with great enthusiasm embodiment of difference that is experienced. by one young woman from Angola, Miss P, As one Iraqi asylum seeker attending a course about how she takes pride in using the Norfolk at college was starkly aware: greeting of ‗You alright?‘ (Miss P, 2003, pers. It was the students, you see, we were comm., 17 February). She said that when she asylum seekers, you got no clothes, you goes to London to get her hair styled, she likes got a lot of things missing, and you get to think of herself as a Great Yarmouth girl to a class where they‘re alright, they from Norfolk. Miss P said she likes to go to feel okay, they are confident. You don‘t the pub with her (local) girlfriends and call out feel confident (Mr L, 2003, pers. ‗Alright?‘ to the boys and they will call back comm., 13 August). ‗Alright, darl‘n?‘ (Miss P, 2003, pers. comm., 17 February). This comment is typical of an asylum seeker who feels distanced from the kind of identity Such a tactic is what de Certeau refers to as a that would prefer to engage with – one where ‗way of operating‘ in the space and ‗terrain acceptance and confidence prevail. Instead, imposed‘ on the other (1984:xix,37). In which there is an intense feeling of dislocation of the case such a ‗tactic is an art of the weak‘, that self from a stable and normalised environment. is, an asylum seeker or refugee has to adapt to Thus, the asylum seekers constantly attempt to the situation and ‗make do‘. However, within negotiate and contest their asylum seeker label the constraints of a place tactics may operate despite the lived-reality that binds them during with some creativity to a degree (de Certeau this liminal period. The interaction with locals 1984:37,30). Scott (1985) also points to the is one of suspicion and difference. For everyday forms of resistance, but in the example, Miss P, an asylum seeker from context of peasant communities. He refers to Angola, was starkly aware of this despite her such forms of resistance as ‗weapons of the efforts to move beyond the constraints of an weak‘. These are social tactics that operate in asylum seeker identity: forms that, Scott argues, follow the ‗line of least resistance‘ and that create a constant 185 dialogue between forms of resistance and their no I don‘t. Unless maybe you work intent (1985:35,38). with asylum seekers then I will feel more comfortable to discuss that (Mrs Consequently, Miss P‘s tactic is, to use K, 2003, pers. comm., 8 September). Voloshinov‘s words, ‗dialogical in nature‘ (1986 [1929]:102). She is orientating herself to Feeling ‗comfortable‘ in any given situation is the cultural perspective of the locals through paramount to one‘s behaviour – it is about her very speech-act. Miss P‘s use of the feeling at ease. Blending in is a tactic used by expression ‗Alright?‘ also strengthens her many asylum seekers. I noticed that, unlike in understanding of the local British identity. cities with larger populations of ethnic Miss P is aware of the significance of this communities such as London, newcomers to greeting as a colloquial expression with Norwich and Great Yarmouth discard the working class origins. Thinking of herself as a clothes worn in their homeland and tend to ‗Yarmouth girl‘ does two things. Firstly, it is a wear similar clothing to the locals. So, in spoken expression of the embodiment of an Norfolk, obvious differences which may identity that transcends an asylum seeking distinguish a person as an asylum seeker are identity. Participation in this banter also avoided. Incorporating the local clothing and emphasises her sexuality and allows for an dialect becomes another opportunity to attempt acceptance into the local community that to blend in and remain inconspicuous. In doing negates her refugeeness. Secondly, it localises so, an asylum seeker feels less apart from the an identity to a regional area and recognises a local community, and begins to feel a part of set of relations and meanings that are specially the local community. localised and unique, therefore reinforcing her identity when outside her local district. By LOW PROFILE participating in the banter and exchange of localised expressions, this makes her feel part However, for some asylum seekers avoiding of an in-group, and a local. Consequently, in interaction with locals is one way of avoiding her hierarchy of identities, drawing on stigmatisation. The external categorisation Britishness over that of Angolan, African, or makes many asylum seekers sensitive to asylum seeker, is much more conducive to interactions, therefore causing them to limit belonging to a British culture. and control such contact. As Fuglerud points out, ‗It is when someone has to speak…that Mrs K is also exuberant about blending in with conflicts flare up‘ [his emphases] (1999:105). the locals and participating in local customs. For example, when I asked Mrs F, an asylum She is actively involved with a local church seeker from Kosovo, if she thought that people group in Great Yarmouth. No one, except the in Great Yarmouth were friendly, she seemed church minister and his wife, are aware of her to think that this was a silly question. She said status of asylum seeker. I discovered this when it was the same anywhere. But when she I attended a birthday celebration at the church. elaborated, I realised that she was able to One of the local churchgoers asked me how remain on good terms with locals by keeping a Mrs K and I had met. I said that we met at the low profile: ‗gym‘, the asylum seekers‘ word for the drop- in centre run by the local refugee support I think that some friendly and some are organisation. Mrs K overheard me say this and not. But mostly friendly. Always I am I saw the flicker of concern cross her face that quiet and smile and say ―thank you‖, I may have revealed too much. Fortunately the then there is no problem. Some churchgoer assumed my meaning of gym to be refugees only want to make trouble. I that of the local fitness centre. Later, no make trouble if I am quiet and smile ironically, the conversation happened to turn and say only ―please‖ and ―thank you‖. to the popular topic of ‗asylum seekers‘, which I do not want trouble so I say, ―no, led me to realise he had no knowledge of Mrs sorry my English is not good‖, or ―I no K‘s predicament. Later, I asked Mrs K if she speak English‖ because I only want to tells anyone that she is an asylum seeker: say ―hello, you alright?‖ and ―goodbye‖ (Mrs F, 2003, pers. comm., I don‘t think I say it if it‘s not necessary 19 June). [….] I think it‘s comfortable to say I am, [when] I am among other asylum One day, I observed Mrs F‘s behaviour to be seekers or immigrants for that matter. distinctly altered when speaking to a That‘s the way I look at it. […] People, Zimbabwean student from when she had been all people are affected by immigration speaking with a local. I observed the local in one way or another, whether that it‘s speaking in English, very slowly and carefully a student here, or working permit, or to Mrs F in a manner that emphasised her asylum seeker, you‘re affected by English as a marked point of difference. In immigration. So it‘s easier to response, Mrs F indicated that she could not understand that. So if it‘s not necessary, understand what the local was saying and 186 avoided interacting. Later, I observed Mrs F CONCLUSION chatting away very easily in English with the student, who even commented on her excellent Identities are not entirely self-defined, but use of English. Mrs F had no difficulty in rather, are relational and dynamic. This is why understanding the student who spoke to her in the context of mutual fears is particularly a relaxed and casual manner, and yet she chose interesting, because it heightens the degree of not to understand the local at all. interactions and therefore tensions. It is because of this context that the speech-acts of Consequently, Mrs F employs a low profile for asylum seekers are far more pronounced, with the majority of the time when interacting with an air of insistence and urgency. Asylum people who reinforce her asylum seeker seekers were the subject of much interest by identity through their communications with locals in East Anglia and in Britain generally her. Her identity becomes situational, moving at the time of my fieldwork. As I have within a hierarchy of need depending on the discussed, the war in Iraq and a fear of particular way that she is communicatively terrorists posing as asylum seekers greatly approached. So, Mrs F‘s situational identity heightened negative attitudes toward asylum can be attributed to the perceived external seekers. This must be understood as additional concretisation of an asylum seeker identity to the already contentious immigration debate (Cohen, 1994:205). A Kurdish Iraqi, Mr J, and taking place in Britain at the time. On the a Congolese asylum seeker, Mr E, discussed whole, these speech-acts, inciting moral panic the use of such labels: and fear, are provoked by the media. As we Mr J: …. if you say that you are a have explored, asylum seekers assert the refugee or an asylum seeker, they will coping mechanism of situational identity treat you differently. within a hierarchy of need in order to manage these interactions. Depending on their Mr E: Differently. circumstances, asylum seekers shift between Mr J: Yeah, we either say we are you aspects of their identity in an attempt to know like immigrating to here, or we conceal their asylum seekerness. It is this are students. That's all. So we don't say strategy which allows them to negotiate their ―oh we have student visas‖, that‘s all. interactions with locals and to ensure that they maintain the ability to safely navigate this Mr E: But people can be good. But, period of seeking asylum. they‘ll be treating you like you were poor, and they‘ll always want to help References you and stuff. I want to…
Mr J: ..which is quite annoying. Anie, A, Daniel, N, Tah, C & Petruckevitch, A 2005, An exploration of the factors affecting Mr E: It is annoying! Because I want the successful dispersal of asylum seekers, to live normal, you know. Research Development and Statistics Mr J: Yeah. Directorate, Home Office, London.
(Mr E and Mr J, 2003, pers. comm., 13 Bloch, A 2000, ‗A new era or more of the August) same? Asylum policy in the UK‘, Journal of Refugee Studies, 13(1):29-42. When attending a local college, calling oneself a ‗student‘ is one way of avoiding the negative Bloch, A and Schuster, L 2005, ‗At the connotations and concretisation of the label extremes of exclusion: Deportation, detention ‗asylum seeker‘. Other people tend to avoid and dispersal‘, Race and Ethnic Studies, the label as much as possible when interacting 28(3):491-512. with locals, and only communicate this identity with selected people. The example of Boswell, C 2001, Spreading the costs of the exchange highlights asylum seekers‘ asylum seekers: A critical assessment of efforts to either blend in or to keep a low dispersal policies in Germany and the UK, profile work to avoid an asylum seeker label. Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Cohen points out that although it is ‗relatively Industrial Society, London. easy to change a religion or one‘s clothes‘, there are ‗limits to the manipulative use of Cohen, R 1994, Frontiers of identity: The situational identity‘ (1994:205). Therefore, British and the others, Longman, London. considering the context of the impending war in Iraq, the fear of terrorists by Britons and the De Certeau, M 1984, The practice of everyday impact of the media and the state, adjusting life, University of California Press; one‘s identity to fit the context holds a crucial University of Minnesota Press, Berkeley. purpose.
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Hynes, P 2009, ‗Contemporary compulsory Scott, JC 1985, Weapons of the weak: dispersal and the absence of space for the Everyday forms of peasant resistance, Yale restoration of trust‘, Journal of Refugee University Press, New Haven. Studies, 22(1):97-121. Laclau, E 1990, New reflections on the Voloshinov, VN 1986 [1929], Marxism and revolution of our time, Verso, London. the philosophy of language, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Malkki, LH 1995, Purity and exile: Violence, memory, and national cosmology among Zetter, R, Griffiths, D and Sigona, N 2005, Hutu refugees in Tanzania, University of ‗Social capital or social exclusion? The Chicago Press, Chicago. impact of asylum-seeker dispersal on UK refugee community organizations‘, National Statistics 2003a, Census 2001 - Community Development Journal, 40(2):169- Profiles - Great Yarmouth, Office for 181. National Statistics, UK Government, viewed May 1, 2010,
188 Exploring transnational sentiment through embodied practices of music and migratory movement
Kerri-Anne Sheehy ([email protected]) University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, 4350, Australia.
Abstract doctoral thesis. More specifically, it explores bodily being in the world in relation to music This paper employs ethnographic material from an and migration as embodied practices. Such a anthropology doctoral thesis that explores the focus hinges on the place related meanings of relationships between music, place and embodiment music among these migrants, particularly how in the context of transnational migratory movement. music links people and people to place. This More specifically, the study brings place into focus paper describes how emotion is entailed in through practices of migration and music as embodied practices. Phenomenological lenses articulating the relationships between body assist in exploring how relationships between body and the social world, especially in terms of and the social world are forged through music. The migration occasioning reflection on habitual fieldwork for this study was conducted among being. These emotional links to place involve migrants from a diversity of ethnic backgrounds in bodily practices of music and migratory a major regional inland city. For these migrants, movement. Emotional connections forged music links people and people to place. Employing through music in such situations of crisis are, Jackson‘s view of metaphor (1983), these migrants for these migrants, means of linking into, verbally articulate the unity of bodily being in the improvising on, and transcending the world in the recurring metaphorical correspondence between music and life. Such a correspondence constraints of the social world. articulates part-whole relations in the most frequent and recurring statement that ‗music is part of life‘. THE ETHNOGRAPHIC SETTING In this paper, I focus on migratory movement and music as occasioning reflection on habitual being The ethnographic material employed was involving transnational sentiments through gathered during twelve months of fieldwork in emotional links to place. Persson‘s recent critique the regional city of Toowoomba, among (2007) of Casey‘s phenomenological perspective migrants from a diversity of ethnic (1993) in which the void occasions anxiety would backgrounds. Toowoomba is the largest appear to suggest space as a more appropriate regional centre both of Queensland and concept, especially in consideration of the fluidity Australia, with a population of a little over 90 of migratory places. However, these migrants‘ metaphorical correspondence between music and 000 people, approximately 10 per cent of life demonstrates the instrumentality of music, whom were born in an overseas country, and restoring unity to disruptions of habituated ways of an Indigenous population of about 3 per cent being. Music and migration are mutually (Toowoomba.org 2008; ABS 2006). Current occasioning bodily practices of place, for which I figures detail that the majority of the argue that the principal emotion is desire. Taking population of Toowoomba is Australian born, Persson‘s work as a point of departure, and around half of the migrant population are from following Casey (1996), such practices entail a English speaking countries, while a majority series of interconnected places, linking part and of the non-English speaking migrants are from whole, autonomy and unity, isolation and connection and constraint and freedom. Northern European countries such as the Netherlands (Upham & Martin 2005: 6). The Keywords previous census registered a significant Place; embodiment; emotion; habit; migratory increase in overseas born arriving in movement; music phenomenology; practice Toowoomba for that census period, particularly people from African countries, owing the previous Federal Government‘s INTRODUCTION broadening of its regional settlement program (2005: 4).
This paper explores connections between Prompted by economic imperatives, the bodily affect and the social world, affective previous Federal Government expanded its links which are forged through music in the regional settlement scheme, including a policy context of transnational migratory movement. of dispersing migrants around the country to The way in which music links body to world counter fears of creating a social and cultural provides the underpinning for an exploration divide between regional and major centres of place, the broader focus of my anthropology
(Carrington & Marshall 2008: 117&125-126). 202-242). Displacement is made problematic Toowoomba instituted a similar settlement through a phenomenological focus on the policy, dispersing refugees throughout the city ways in which these migrants‘ emotional to counter fears that enclaves would emerge relationships to music link them to place. (Carrington & Marshall 2008: 125-126; Thomas regards the spatiality of migrant Carrington et al. 2007: 121-122). The embodied experience to be significant on increased arrival of migrants under the scheme account of the fact that ‗migrants are always in coincided with reports of racial conflict, some sense ―out of place‖‘ (1998: 75). settlement difficulties for some Muslims in According to Casey, being out of place what is a predominantly ‗Christian city‘, and occasions profound anxiety (Casey 1993: ix- feelings of isolation, particularly for refugees x). In response to this sense of estrangement, (Carrington & Marshall 2008: 124-125; our inability to imagine ‗no place at all‘ entails Upham & Martin 2005: 17). The migrants a simultaneous ‗filling‘ of the void; in with whom I conducted the series of situations of impending placelessness, ‗we ethnographic conversations for this study came resort to elaborate strategems to avoid the to Toowoomba at different times and from void‘ (1997; 3-22;1993: ix-xi). There is a many different countries, which includes some correspondence between the phenomenon of of the countries of Africa, South-Asia and the placelessness and its emotional indicators, Asia-Pacific, of Northern Europe, the Middle such as homesickness (1993: x). However, due East, and North and South America. to scope, the specific concern here is that of place-related emotions that are entailed in MUSIC AS LIFE – BEING IN THE filling the void. It is a process that can be MUSICAL PLACE-WORLD summed up in the statement made by some of these migrants, that ‗music makes me happy‘, The main analytical focal point in my paper is thus involving responses which are integral to these migrants‘ metaphorical correspondence place‘s emotional power to move (Casey between music and life. The analysis has 1996: 23). involved employing Jackson‘s (1983) perspective of metaphor as giving verbal This view is contradicted in a recent expression to the fundamental unity of body anthropological critique by Persson (2007) of and world. According to Jackson, a Casey‘s (1993) philosophy of place. The metaphorical link that is normally taken for scope of this paper does not allow for a granted becomes instrumental in a crisis or detailed examination of the critique. ‗double-bind‘ situation, resolving the tensions Generally, the critique argues against the of social situations, and verbally articulating notion that the void always evokes anxiety the potential to restore a sense of unified being (Persson 2007: 49). While I do not discount (1983: 132-134 & 138). This process resolves the significance of cultural ideas such as tensions related to social situations attributed ‗void‘, the ethnographic material I take for to bodily distress as it ‗mediates transference analysis in this paper unsettles Persson‘s from the area of greatest stress to a neutral assertion that the concept of space is better area which is held to correspond with it‘ suited to an analysis of her informant‘s (Jackson 1983: 138). The most frequent and statements, rather than place (2007: 45-46 & recurring statement regarding the importance 51). Her arguments do not present a full of music is that ‗music is part of life‘, account of the significance of Casey‘s suggesting a part/whole metaphorical relation emphasis on the priority, and specifying between music and life. Jackson notes that the character of place, that spaces, as well as practice of forging relationships between parts times, are always experienced in, and arise and wholes implies that they are mutually from, a particular place (Casey 1996: 13-19 & occasioning influences (1983: 128 & 144n). 36-38; 1997). Place is not simply the specific For example, these migrants listen to and/or ‗occasion for‘ what happens in space, but perform music to ‗relax‘ or to relieve ‗stress‘ place itself is what happens, and this ‗event‘ in their everyday lives. Verbally articulated in provides the occasioning influence for such metaphorical correspondences between multiple spaces and times (1996: 38). Emotion music and life is the body‘s habitual is centrally involved in such musical ‗events‘ relationship to the world, a relationship for among these migrants. Following Crossley which music has the potential to restore in (2001), I argue that the principal emotion situations of crisis and double-bind. involved in emplacement in the social world is desire. A number of the migrants in this study It is the centralising of the body in forging associate an absence of music with death , connections between person and world that which is encapsulated in a statement made by requires the use of phenomenological lenses. I a migrant from India who says that ‗without have employed Casey‘s phenomenological music I am, like, dead‘ (2009, pers. comm., account of place because it privileges the 18 March). Following Fernandez (1986: 9- body-place relationship (1993; 1996; 1997: 10), this placing of music on a continuum between life and death aligns with 190 metaphorical strategies, which is movement Crossley maintains that such a along a continuum between desirability and phenomenological perspective gives bodily undesirability. Music articulates the desire for grounding to the agent in its emphasis on the social connection among these migrants ‗circuit‘ between body and world, and resolves because it is the occasioning influence for life, some of the conceptual weak points of habitus and a strategy for filling the void of (2001: 3-5). From this perspective, Crossley displacement, the undesired aspect of the addresses the wide gulf which he says continuum. Bourdieu (1990) posits between incorporated habits and the capacity to turn back upon those Persson‘s analysis rests on the conscious habits and inspect them as a basis for attention paid to the body in Satyananda Yoga improvisation (Crossley 2001: 115-119; 140- practice in Australia, involving the movement 160). Improvisation thus comes about of consciousness inward, as well as outward according to the reversibility, or the ability to away from the habitual life-world (2007: 44- be conscious, of our habits, as ‗our capacity to 45 & 51). Migratory movement occasions a turn back upon and inspect ourselves derives crisis and, therefore, conscious attention to from an incorporation of the perspective of habitual life-worlds. For Persson‘s informants, others into our habitus‘ (2001: 6). This is an conscious attention to habits involves a important perspective from which to view movement between the small of embodied these migrants‘ practices of constituting place. grounding and the large of expansion, as well Through the reflective possibilities of habit, all as ‗a series of similarly dyadic experiential concepts, including those linked to emotion, relations‘, such as ‗autonomy-unity, are grounded not just in the body, but in the insulation-connection, [and] discipline- body‘s interconnection with the world (2001: freedom‘ (2007: 46-48 & 51). Such a series is 45). This is what Dennis refers to as the also relevant to the statements about musical ‗embodied sociality‘ of emotion, which is practices among the migrants in this study. fundamental to musical connectivity as the Following Casey (1996: 41), and taking place social connectedness of emotion expresses to be the ‗collocation‘ of a series of relationships between persons as well as interconnected places, the series entails the person to place (2007: xvi-xxiii). collocation of part and whole, as well as autonomy and unity, isolation and connection, A way of conceptualising emotion is required constraint and freedom. for purposes of linking emotion and speech about music, one which accords with these EMOTION, CRISIS, AND migrants‘ own emotional senses of the musical GETTING BACK TO BEING IN facilitation of social bonds. Wierzbicka (1999: 2) is critical of anthropological concepts of PLACE emotion as ‗bodily thoughts‘. She prefers to consider emotions in terms of ‗feeling‘ and The remainder of this paper focuses on the ‗thought-related feeling‘ in order to avoid the involvement of bodily affect in conscious English classification of emotion with the attention to habitual life worlds occasioned by body, which does not occur, for example, in transnational migratory movement, for which the French term ‗sentiment‘, which links music is mutually occasioning. The focus is thought and feeling (1999: 2-3 & 24-31). She bodily practices of place in which emotion is maintains that emotions should be centrally entailed. Migration encourages conceptualised according to universal concepts reflection on habitual being, a tension which is – such as ‗feel‘, ‗want‘ and, ‗know‘ – as these resolved through music. It involves a crisis in occur across different linguistic communities the sense of a double-bind situation for and are acquired through socialisation migrants as they seek to establish and maintain processes (1999: 8-9; 24 & 28). links to two or more places at the same time (Basch et al. 1993). Anthropological studies The arguments made by Wierzbicka (1999) such as those by Thomas (1998; in contrast to are useful because they highlight how social Warin and Dennis 2005; McKay 2005), which interaction is the basis of emotion concepts. view migration through lenses of migrants‘ However, they are limited in terms of habitual interaction with the world, provide opposing bodily habit by recourse to ‗habits of substantial ethnographic evidence for the mind‘ (1999: 31-34). Crossley‘s (2001: 42-45) critical strengths and weaknesses of the view of emotion concepts as socially concept of habitus. The limitations of the referenced rather than ‗―inner worldly‖‘ concept of habitus are most significant in view corresponds to the requirement for connecting of migration as occasioning a crisis of habitual emotion to these migrants‘ talk about music being. and their reflections on music. As he notes (2001: 84), speech is a bodily habit grounded A sociological study, by Crossley, employs in the relationship of speech and affect, or the Merleau-Pontian phenomenology as means of embodied voice that is ‗singing the world‘ addressing such critiques (2001: 120-139). (Merleau-Ponty 1962: 187). Crossley states, 191
We tend to think of emotions as No matter what type of song you sing, feelings and we think of feelings as it has a message in it. And that inner occurrences. This is because the message is needed by somebody language by which we refer to somewhere … and my message to the emotions is predominantly a language world is … mainly about freedom. So of ‗feeling‘: that is, we claim to ‗feel‘ really, freedom for me is living without happy, sad, jealous, angry and so on. fear. It [music] must be able to erase When we ascribe emotional feelings to every kind of mental slavery, ourselves we do not describe those psychological slavery, emotional feelings…however, rather, we attribute slavery and spiritual slavery. a cause or meaning to them … which, Therefore, my type of songs of freedom in itself, need be neither physical or is not all about nations getting mental and will, in all likelihood, independence, it‘s all about people and identify a social situation which the situation they find themselves in. occasions the feeling (2001: 42-43). (2008, pers. comm., 9 June).
The body is always intertwined in a social From part of the song, or the ‗message‘, context, Crossley remarks, and it is that to musical affect links people and places, which a sensation or particular sets of connecting to ‗somebody somewhere‘, and sensations and bodily disposition is referred, connects also with larger entities, such as and to which the cause of bodily sensations is ‗freedom‘. As Casey (1996: 37) remarks attributed; as such, the linking of sensation to ‗relations and occurrences of much more social context is means of making sense of considerable scope collect around and in a bodily states rather than defining them (2001: single place‘. ‗Songs of freedom‘, for this 45). This conception of emotion resonates informant, has the capacity to remove fear, an with affective links to place through music as emotional response to a particular situation described by a migrant from Saudi Arabia, for and a simultaneous filling of the void. He told whom the meaning of music is expressed in of an example of how when he had lost his ‗music without lyrics‘. He says that in music job, he got into his car and began to ‗reflect‘ without words, ‗you can feel it‘s sad, just sad, on a Bob Marley song, and the lyric, ‗when and because you are sad‘ (2008, pers. comm., one door is closed, many other doors are open‘ 2 April). This migrant specifies the social (2008, pers. comm., 9 June) He remarked, ‗It context to which the feeling is referenced, set my conscience free … just that word, that saying that such music is ‗expressing how line, from the song that Bob Marley made, set you‘re feeling – exactly...yeah, so [in a song me free‘ (2008, pers. comm., 9 June). with words] if they are talking about how you Through the song, this informant saw losing broke up with your girlfriend...[…] it‘s not the his job as an ‗opportunity‘ to be available for same as what you are feeling‘ (2008, pers. his family at a time when his wife needed to comm., 2 April). Crossley‘s (2001: 42-45) get to hospital appointments in the lead up to way of conceiving of emotion concepts as the birth of their baby. Affect is integral to linking bodily feeling to a social context relations of part-whole, as well as the relation assists in understanding how, for these of constraint and ‗freedom‘, here being migrants, being in the musical place-world ‗freedom‘ from the constraints of fear. He involves affective embodied links to musical states, and extra musical social contexts. And what are some of the most Music is viewed among these migrants as important situations that music having the capacity to influence a person‘s touches? From sorrow to joy, from this relation to the social context through affect. experience of disappointment to hope, For a Liberian refugee and musician, Wallace, from discouragement to courage, from a key informant of the study, who writes what loneliness to living with people, from he refers to as ‗Negro spiritual songs‘ (2008, being isolated to joining together with a pers. comm., 2 April), the most important family or with friends, poverty to aspect of music is the ‗message‘ and the most riches. Music sharpens your mind. important kind of songs are ‗songs of freedom‘ When you think you can‘t do it, you‘re (2008, pers. comm., 9 June).1 The ‗message‘ gonna remain this way, the musician of ‗songs of freedom‘, for Wallace, come and tell you that there is hope exemplifies dyadic relationships involved in somewhere. And you listen to the song attending to one‘s embodied habits of being in and say, ―look, I‘ve got to put what the the world. He says that, songwriter says into practice‖, and from there you see yourself moving on. 1 Any names appearing in this paper have been Like, I gave you an example of Bob changed, with the exception of Wallace, who Marley‘s songs – when one door is wishes for his name to be used. closed, that many other doors are 192 opened. That has come true in my life the rock music he prefers. Rock music, he today (2008, pers. comm., 29 June). remarks, ‗gets down to the nuts and bolts and the driving instincts of humanity‘, a process Such bodily practice of place through music involving, ‗primal emotions‘ (2008, pers. involving the affective senses also entails the comm., 3 July). For this Irish informant, rock relation of isolation and connection. Music music is bodily practice of place because it brings people together into a larger whole in provides a way of ‗getting back into place‘ its capacity to converge with affect, and thus is (Casey 1993). Engaging in ‗EGT‘, or ‗electric an integral part, or ‗most important situation‘ guitar therapy‘, the ‗primal emotion‘ connects for the process. According to this informant‘s and transcends two alternative dimensions of reflection on his own experience of Bob self. He says, Marley‘s songs, ‗freedom‘ involves reflection on affective habits of being for people in such It‘s like there‘s two different aspects of situations, facilitating movement between a myself. There‘s the, I suppose, rather place of isolation to a place of connection. intellectual, political economic, social Such movement is the event and the justice person. But then there‘s the ..., occasioning influence for space, which are ultimately, the punk thrasher that‘s bodily practices of place. Putting the part of been in me for…from whenever (2008, the song, the ‗message‘, into practice, pers. comm., 3 July). facilitates ‗moving on‘ into a unified space of connection with family and friends. His ‗electric guitar therapy‘ provides connection between two aspects of self that The overarching relation of part and whole is involves movement inward as well as outward, illustrated by a migrant from Northern Ireland, away from the habitual life world. ‗Electric who also is a musician and songwriter. He guitar therapy‘ works through emotion and remarks that, from such ‗primal emotion‘ arises ‗transcendence‘. The constraints of emotional the condensation of what a lot of songs tension, specifically ‗anger and frustration‘, a can do is just condense a lot of situation involving the tensions of emotions and feelings and experiences simultaneous links to two places, are relaxed, into just a few short lines, which, with he says, through ‗really loud music‘, which is the power of music, can create ‗cathartic‘. He comments, something profound (2008, pers. comm., 3 July). playing really, really loud music…is cathartic in that it is a very [pause] Another sense of the series of dyadic positive expression of anger and relationships, particularly autonomy and unity, frustration […] I‘ve actually cracked is the way in which this informant employed ah, my guitar from ah, doing a version music in order simultaneously to set himself of ―Won‘t get fooled again‖ by The ‗apart‘ and to connect with people. Having Who, which is…a song at the end of moved to Australia in the early 1970s, he which Pete Townsend used to smash adopted strategies, including musical his guitars […]. I was playing, and at strategies, in the attempt to abandon his ‗Irish the end of it I just…in my exuberance roots experience‘ and to ‗integrate‘ both with just sort of threw my guitar up in the the place and the young people in Australia. air…just let it come down wherever it Music assisted this migrant to form social landed. […]. I think that‘s it...is that...it connections with other young people by takes you out of yourself (2008, pers. listening to the music that they were listening comm., 3 July). to, which at the time, he remembers, was Daddy Cool‘s Eagle Rock. But even as he was I was interested in this sense of music being engaging with music that linked him with able to ‗take you out of yourself‘, and he people and with place, he was searching for elaborated in saying that ‗playing the guitar music that would set him ‗apart from the rest‘, [...] y‘know, I do occasionally get lost – it‘s a listening to Double J and music that the others transcendental experience, as such‘ (2008, had never heard, which he says was ‗all part pers. comm., 3 July). ‗EGT‘ facilitates for and parcel‘ of the process. (2008, pers. this informant a ‗positive expression of anger comm., 3 July) and frustration‘ as it transfers such tensions into the domain of music, reconfiguring these This migrant from Northern Ireland dislikes emotions as ‗exuberance‘, and moving from the ‗stereotyped Irishness‘ of Irish constraint to ‗transcendence‘ from habitual contemporary folk music, and is ‗irritated‘ by being. ‗Transcendence‘ arises from ‗primal what he sees as the ‗Irishness‘ of all musics emotion‘ and the desire to transcend the associated with world music (2008, pers. constraints of the social world, a process comm., 3 July). To him, these are all ‗just linking two or more places, and for which like folk music‘ and lack a ‗visceral‘ base like 193 music and migratory movement are mutually is co-constituted through embodied practices occasioning influences. of migratory movement and music. This process is articulated through the affective It was in relation to the recent social and voices of these migrants as a series of political responses to movements of people interrelated places along a continuum of occurring locally, nationally and globally that desirability and undesirability. Movement is prompted the establishment, in 2006, of what towards ‗life‘, through music, and through would be a key site of fieldwork, a choir of desire for being in the place world. migrant and non-migrant women ‗singing songs from around the world‘. The choir‘s Acknowledgments musical practices involve movement along a continuum between isolation and connection I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor and autonomy and unity. As an exclusively Bryce Barker. I would also like to thank the women‘s choir, it formed with a view to School of Humanities and Communication, the bridging the social isolation of migrant women Faculty of Arts, and the Public Memory at the time the choir was established, with the Research Centre, USQ. unanticipated outcome of drawing many non- migrant members who also were experiencing References social isolation. A Filipino member spoke of the ‗isolation‘ of living in a different country. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006, The choir is a ‗chance‘ for her, through a Toowoomba (C) (Local Government Area), shared ‗passion‘ for music to ‗share my viewed 4 June, 2009, culture, and also to learn other cultures‘ (2008,
In this paper, I have presented ethnographic Casey, ES 1997, The fate of place: a material that demonstrates the body‘s philosophical history, University of California interconnection with the world in and through Press, Berkeley. music. These migrants‘ metaphorical linking of music and life, expressed through a relation Crossley, N 2001, The social body: habit, of part-whole, entails emotional connections, identity and desire, Sage, London. which are bodily practices of place in relation to music and migratory movement, Department of Immigration and Citizenship occasioning reflection on habitual being. Place 194 nd. Living in harmony, viewed 9 January Thomas, M 1998, ‗Estranged bodies and 2009,
Persson, A 2007, ‗Intimate immensity: phenomenology of place and space in an Australian yoga community‘, American Ethnologist, 34(1): 44-56.
195 ‘Repatriation is a Must’: The Rastafari in Ethiopia
Maria Stratford ([email protected]) RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia
Abstract the Rastafari1 Movement on the island of Jamaica. In 1916, the Afro-Caribbean activist This project examines the outcome of repatriation to from Jamaica, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, moved Ethiopia on members of the Rastafari Movement to the United States where he continued to who are descendents of the transatlantic slave trade. promote an organisation he founded in The word ‗repatriation‘ in the Rastafari context Jamaica called the Universal Negro reinforces the concept that they, the Rastas, and Improvement Association (UNIA).2 The their ancestors, were forcibly removed from Africa and are now returning to their rightful home; the UNIA promoted black pride and African continent. The Rastafari mantra, consciousness amongst African Americans ‗Repatriation is a Must‘, has been reinforced and other African descendants of the through Reggae music over the past 50 years. transatlantic slave trade. His message also Reggae is an important communication tool for the reached colonised Africa. Garvey is Movement, however the message it promotes considered by the Rastafari Movement to be a misinterprets the reality and harshness of life in prophet who foretold the coming of a black Ethiopia and many repatriates arrive totally king in Africa. Garvey, in a speech he made unprepared. The connection to Ethiopia is twofold; prior to departing Jamaica for the United most (but not all) Rasta claim Haile Selassie, the last Emperor of Ethiopia, as their ‗God and King‘ States, is said to have told his followers, ‗Look and secondly, Selassie granted land (in to Africa for the crowning of a Black King, he Shashamane, Southern Ethiopia) to the African shall be the Redeemer‘ (Barrett 1977:67). In Diaspora in order for them to return to Africa and 1930, Ras Tafari was crowned Emperor of also requested them to help modernise the country. Ethiopia and took the title, ‗His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, The Elect of God, There have been mixed attitudes towards the The Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Rastafari from the indigenous Oromo people of King of Kings and Emperor of all Ethiopia‘ Shashamane and recent local government building (Brus 1975). regulations are imposing conditions that may find many Rasta moved from the land they currently 3 occupy. The government of Ethiopia has reduced The Garveyites who lived in the hills and the land grant substantially and no Rastafari has ghetto areas of Jamaica, considered Haile been granted citizenship. Children who are born in Selassie‘s crowning as Emperor as the Ethiopia to Rastafari ‗foreigners‘ are also fulfillment of Garvey‘s prophesy and considered ‗foreigners‘. Although, some Rasta are thereafter named their movement ‗Rastafari‘ confident that the government intends to give after Selassie‘s original aristocratic name. eligible members permanent residency. Rastafari is more than a spiritual belief; it is a
way of life and has a number of variations The project will be a documentary film. Research to date has been via personal interviews in Ethiopia within their doctrine. Some Rasta see Selassie with members of the Rastafari Movement. I as God, some see him as a prophet, but there is a universal affinity to the land of Ethiopia Keywords and Selassie‘s position as the African leader of African Diaspora, Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, the only African country never to be colonised Ethiopian Land Grant, Rastafari Movement, by Europeans. It is also one of the oldest Reggae Music, Repatriation independent countries in the world with a continuous history spanning thousands of
„REPATRIATION IS A MUST‟: THE RASTAFARI IN ETHIOPIA 1 There are a few variations on the name Rastafari including Rasta, Rastafarian and Rastafarianism. Many Rasta prefer to be called either Rasta or Brief History Rastafari. Within this paper, I will be using both the preferred names. There were two significant people in the early 2 The original name of the organisation was the 20th Century who influenced the creation of Universal Negro Improvement Associate and African Communities League, but he shortened the name once reaching America. 3 The term used for followers of Marcus Garvey.
years. These two facts have been a source of later made to the Rastafari living on this land, pride for members of the Rastafari and other the total size of the grant of 500 hectares is black consciousness movements. estimated to currently be 55 hectares.
Repatriation to Africa by Rastafari members is not exclusively to Ethiopia. In fact the Afro- What constitutes „a better life‟? Caribbean people descended from slaves taken from predominantly West African nations and People migrate around the world for many many decide to settle in countries such as reasons; to escape war and poverty, to search Ghana in the West, but also Uganda, South for a better life for their children and Africa and other countries on the continent. themselves giving them a higher standard of The reason why many of the repatriating living. In the case of many members of the Rastafari choose Ethiopia as their destination Rastafari Movement, these reasons are not rather than one of the West African countries relevant, although escaping from persecution is due to its association with Haile Selassie is a reality for some who repatriate. and the land he granted to the African Diaspora. For many Rasta, the issue of identifying Africa as their home and ‗nationality‘ rather than the The Land Grant West Indies, UK or from the country of their birth, has often fractured family ties. Children From 1935-41 the Italians invaded and as young as 12 years old, have been alienated occupied Ethiopia for the second time in its from their families for growing dreadlocks and history.4 Although Italy was the aggressor, converting to the Rasta faith/movement. The Ethiopia was given little assistance from conservative societies within the Caribbean Europe or the League of Nations. However, have also alienated the Rastafari, seeing them there was a groundswell of moral, and to a as dirty, subversive and anti-social. One lesser extent, financial assistance from the Rastaman who was interviewed for the film, African-American community. Thousands of relates the early days in Jamaica under the Afro-Americans wanted to join the Ethiopians government of Prime Minister Alexander and fight for the freedom of the country but Bustamante. According to the Rastaman, were prevented by the United States law Bustamante sanctioned the ‗wiping out of banning citizens from participating in a war Rastafari‘ and police rounded up many against a nation currently at peace with the Rastafari and imprisoned them. The elder United States (Scott 1978). In Harlem from suffered water torture flooding and he believes 1935, a number of organisations were created it was only through Jah Rastafari (God) that to collect funds for the Ethiopian cause. The his life was saved. Ethiopian World Federation was one of the organisations created in the mid-1930s for this I‘ve been through some terrible things purpose and is still an important organisation there [in Jamaica]. Sometimes when I for the Rastafari Movement. try to remember them, water rolls out of my eyes….very terrible. In the year After the Italian army was defeated by the 1963, the Government of Jamaica, they Ethiopians with assistance from Britain, say they want to kill out Rasta. I was Selassie granted 500 hectares of his personal very badly beaten, badly badly beaten land in Shashamane, a farming area in (Rasta ‗A‘ 2008, pers. comm., 12 Southern Ethiopia, to the African Diaspora to September). thank them for their assistance during Ethiopia‘s time of need. It is to this land that From first hand experience, living and many Rastafari have ‗repatriated‘. The studying in Jamaica in the mid 1970s, there administration of the land grant was managed were many cases of human rights abuses by by the Ethiopian World Federation which has the authorities of members of the Rastafari offices in the West as well as a number of Movement. These included false members living in Shashamane. imprisonment, beatings, shaving of their dreadlocks and other forms of humiliation. In 1974, Selassie was deposed and later murdered by Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam Another ‗bredrin‘5 from the island of who introduced a Marxist government into Dominica reinforces the human rights Ethiopia. He nationalised all the land of violations carried out by governments within Ethiopia which included taking back the land the Caribbean islands who were against the grant given to the African Diaspora by Rastafari. He states: Selassie. Although some concessions were
4 The first time was in 1896 and the Ethiopians 5 Members of the Rastafari Movement refer to each successfully expelled them. other as ‗bredrin‘ and ‗sistrin‘. 197 Well in Dominica, it was blood and discourse within West Indian society for over fire. In Dominica, there was a dread 40 years. Reggae has also had a recurring act; anywhere you saw a Rastaman you narrative promoting repatriation to Africa. could shoot him and kill him […] and no civil action would be taken against you. Under that law, 120 of us were Repatriation to Africa is a strong desire of jailed and about, oh, 50 to 60 of us many Rastafari who have been aware of the were killed. Personally, I was sent to greatness of Africa and the African continent hang and spent seven and a half years through the music of Reggae artists. Many in solitary confinement before I people think that life will be easier in Africa escaped on a framed up charge because and that the information disseminated by the I was teaching about Rastafari and most West in regard to Africa is propaganda. of the youth were taking to the culture. However, the realities of life in Ethiopia don‘t So the colonial powers set up and frame match the message of the Reggae lyrics and in I up and send I to hang. (Rasta‗B‘ a lot of cases, Rastas repatriate without being 2008, pers. comm., 14 September) fully prepared for what they are going to experience in Ethiopia. The reality for some is It could be argued that the Rastafari ‗migrant‘ very hard and they leave the country and experience to Africa is unique. Their desire is return to the West. to return to the continent from where their forefathers and mothers were brutally and The facts are pretty stark; Ethiopia‘s forcefully removed during the 400 years of the infrastructure, health facilities and educational transatlantic slave trade. In this way, they are standard are low compared with the levels completing the circle by returning the spirit of available in the West. The average wage is their ancestors to their rightful ‗home‘. As one approximately USD250 per annum, infant of the Rastas interviewed for the documentary mortality is 79 per 1,000 births in Ethiopia and states: life expectancy in Ethiopia is 20 years less than in the West Indies. I‘m proud to be an African and right now, my foreparents, like my great But for many who ‗return‘, identity and great grand dad and great great grand belonging are paramount to them and the mum a say, ―Bwoy! Bauxite! One part statistics are not relevant. Another bredrin of the family make it forward here still! interviewed for the documentary said that (Rasta ‗S‘ 2009, pers. comm., 22 nowhere else in the world would the local May).6 community greet you each day by hailing you with the greetings, ―Jah Rastafari! Hail THE POWER OF MUSIC AND ITS Selassie-I!‖ In the West, it is only Rastas who RELATIONSHIP TO MEMORY greet each other this way, whereas it‘s quite common for Ethiopians to greet Rastas in this way. Many African societies have a rich musical tradition that serves as a vehicle to remind […] You don‘t get that in the West. their communities of important historical We still get the fight from there. Even figures and events, as well as disseminating the elder ones get the fight and we now information about current social and political 7 get the fight and our children will get issues. The Rastafari have continued this the fight, but being here [in Ethiopia], practice in the Caribbean and beyond with a they accept us (Rasta ‗R‘ 2009, pers. music form that originated in the 1960s called comm., 20 May). Reggae. Reggae is not exclusive to the Rastafari but most music written by members This acceptance is vital to the success of of the Movement is written and performed to repatriation. In general, the Ethiopians are the Reggae beat. The lyrics sung often warm and hospitable and although they do not reinforce the message of important historical share the same belief in the divinity of Haile leaders and events that are significant to their Selassie they respect the Rastafari‘s belief and philosophy. Leaders such as Marcus Garvey will not offend them by debating the issue. and Haile Selassie I are referred to in Reggae songs, and social and political issues are also discussed and debated in their music. Reggae Acceptance and Security music has held an intrinsic position in the development and continuation of Rasta In the early days of repatriation, the land grant was a contentious issue with some of the local Oroma people who live on the surrounding 6 ‗Boy! [Exclamation]! One part of the family has land. The region is primarily a farming returned to Africa!‘ community and there was initially some 7 The Griot music of West Africa is a good resentment that free land was being given to example. foreigners who were not utilising the land in a 198 productive way. Over the years the Unfortunately, there is a very low level of Repatriates have come together in their small tourism in the area, however the Rasta community and worked on projects to benefit hoteliers host business conferences and NGOs the local community and win their trust and who work in the region and are making a acceptance. From the Repatriate‘s point of modest, but real contribution to local Oroma view, the relationship is much more cohesive people by training them in the areas of hotel than in earlier times. administration and related service industries. Other industries that many of the repatriates One of the most significant undertakings by enter into are small cottage industries in the the Rastas in Shashamane was the building of areas of hospitality, arts and crafts, clothes and an elementary school for the local children. It shoe manufacturing and teaching. Due to the currently caters for children from kindergarten low level of tourism and the low level of through to Year 8. The School is managed by income of the local Oroma people who are an organisation set up by the Rastas called the mainly farmers, the level of income generation ‗Jamaican Rastafari Development for the Rastas is, in many cases, barely Community‘ (JRDC) with financial assistance sustainable. from Rastafari groups and individuals from the West.8 The School has been open at its When Mengistu came into power, he changed present location since 2004 and has the Ethiopian flag by removing the Lion of approximately 500 students. The majority of Judah from the flag. His intention was to these students are local Oroma children with a remove any symbol of Empire from the small population of Rastafari children. There identity of the Ethiopian nation. The is a combination of Oroma and Western Ethiopian flag with the Lion of Judah is an teachers, some of whom are Rastafari. The important symbol to the Rastafari and education standard at the JRDC School is discussions have taken place with the local comparable to that of many schools in the government in regard to the legitimacy of the West and there are several advantages in Rastafari in displaying the old flag. A sending children to this School rather than the compromise has been agreed and the Rasta are local ones. The classes are considerably allowed to continue flying the old flag with the smaller, the children are exposed to the Lion of Judah, as long as the Ethiopian flag English language and many are proficient in it, flies higher. and the sanitation at the School is far superior to the local schools. The plan is to eventually Although there was a successful compromise be able to educate children through to with the flag, there is another issue that has University level. With the opening of the arisen which has caused some Repatriates in JRDC School and the employment being Shashamane a level of anxiety. The local offered to the local indigenous people by government is implementing a ‗Master Plan‘ several small to medium sized businesses, for the area which includes Shashamane. Part there is greater harmony with the Oroma of this plan is a new ruling involving the people. height of buildings in the area and land distribution and use. Many of the small Another project that the Rastafari have enterprises that are run by the Rastafari undertaken in Shashamane is the building of repatriates are situated along the King‘s water tanks for the local farming communities. Highway; the only graded road in the area. This is managed by the Ethiopian World These are mostly modest one-storey buildings Federation with funds donated by a foreign often brightly coloured in green, gold and red. agency. Although Shashamane is a relatively The local government has changed the fertile region in Ethiopia, it does suffer from building height regulations along the King‘s periodic drought. The water tanks have been a Highway to four- storey and given the welcome addition to the small number of occupiers of the ‗front line‘ four years to farming communities who have had them built complete the construction and comply with the on their land. new regulations.
The businesses that the Rastafari have Many properties that are not abutting the predominantly concentrated in are the service King‘s Highway, but are occupied by the industries and education. There are two major Rastafari community have also been advised hotels in Shashamane and both of them have that their landholdings must be used to been built by Rastafari from the Caribbean accommodate more buildings and in some islands of Trinidad and Tobago. cases, newly planned roads will take precedence over existing structures. The
8 regional Master Plan is creating a financial One of the organisations that assists with ongoing burden that may result in some people losing, finance is the The Shashamane Settlement or having to reduce the land they occupy. Community Development Foundation which was established in Washington, DC in 1998 as a 501(c) Currently a lot of the land used by the (3) nonprofit corporation. Rastafari is cultivated with fruits and 199 vegetables, encouraging families to be self number of foreigners, including Rastafari, sufficient in their food supply. With the have applied for and been granted a business reduction of land available to cultivate, this visa but the proposal they submitted has not practice will also be affected. materialised.
Legal Status and Citizenship Although for many years the Rastafari who have already repatriated to Ethiopia have Even though there are some difficulties as called on their community in the West to come stated above, the Repatriates are keen to be ‗home‘ and to come home quickly, the idea of good citizens of the nation they have adopted permanent repatriation for some Rastafari as their ‗home‘. They are keen to show that business people seems too daunting. The they are willing to work with the authorities in infrastructure of the country is not developed such matters. One obvious reason for this is to a standard that many can run a business due to the residency status in Ethiopia of many without the constant interference caused by Rastafari. unreliable water and electricity supplies. These and other reasons have encouraged an One of the practices of the early Repatriates innovative compromise. was to throw away their passports once they had reached ‗Zion‘, which is one of their An alternative style of repatriation has names for Ethiopia. They considered emerged which involves living part of the year passports to be a ‗babylon‘9 document not in the West and part of the year in Ethiopia. relevant to Africa. But all countries around This is an attractive idea to many Rastafari as the world track the movement of people it still fulfils their dream of having a presence through the passport system and the on African soil but not at the total cost of unintended consequence of this ‗political permanent repatriation. This helps to generate statement‘ was to leave some Rastas unable to the finances needed to build a new life in a travel in and out of Ethiopia and in some new country and maintain a comfortable cases, left them without a means of standard of living at the same time. identification. With this new approach to Repatriation, the The Government of Ethiopia refers to all small community of Rastafari may see a more people who are not indigenous Ethiopians as livelyand diverse number of bredrin and sistrin ferengi (foreigners) and this refers to the take up the call of ‗Repatriation is a Must‘ and Rastafari as well. Children born in Ethiopia to ‗Africa Awaits its Creators‘. Repatriates are also categorized as ferengi and unable to obtain citizenship. However, the References situation is different if one parent is an indigenous Ethiopian; their children are Barrett, L 1977, The Rastafarians: sounds of automatically citizens. cultural dissonance, Beacon Press, Boston.
No Rastafari has obtained Ethiopian Scott, WR 1978, ‗Black Nationalism and the citizenship, although residency permits have Italo-Ethiopian Conflict 1934-1936‘,The been granted to some Repatriates who are not Journal of Negro History, 63(2):129. in violation of their visas. However, violations can be rectified by paying substantial fines Brus, R 1975, ‗Ethiopian Crowns‘, African based on the number of years the person has Arts, 8(4):8. overstayed their visa. Dirty Harry Selassie: One Rastas Journey The other form of visa open to anyone who „Home‟ 2008-9, DVD, (documentary film wants to migrate to Ethiopia is the Business in production). Written, produced and Visa. Many of the new Repatriates consider directed by Maria Stratford. this a good alternative. Foreigners are able to submit a business proposal to the immigration department and are able to obtain a Business Visa that needs to be renewed each year. Where appropriate, the visa holder can also be granted a tract of land to be used for their business. This is especially relevant if the business is connected to agriculture. However, the government is being more selective when issuing such visas since a
9 Babylon in Rastafari language refers to police, soldiers, Western government systems and domination 200 Investigating the role of Australian media in making Sudanese refugees feel ‘at home’: A case of advocating online media support to enable refugee settlement
Kitty Van Vuuren & Aparna Hebbani University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, 4300, Australia.
Corresponding author: Kitty Van Vuuren ([email protected])
Abstract In Australia, ethnic broadcasting is considered an important vehicle to facilitate the Since 2001, Australia has accepted more than integration of migrants into mainstream 22,000 refugees from Sudan, with over 3,000 society. The sector was established by the settling in South East Queensland. Sudanese culture Whitlam government with the specific is vastly different from Australian mainstream intention to reach the growing number of non- culture with respect to cultural norms and gender English-speaking Australians. It comprises the roles, especially as it applies to the youth. Such differences, in addition to many other factors, have Special Broadcasting Service (SBS, led to negative stereotyping of the Sudanese in the established in 1978), and the non-profit ethnic Australian mainstream media and caused conflict community broadcasting sector (first within the Sudanese community. established in 1973). The ethnic radio sector broadcasts in 95 languages and on more than For 30 years, ethnic community broadcasting has 125 radio stations across Australia. been important in facilitating integration of migrants into Australia, assisting with cultural According to Meadows, Forde, Ewart, and maintenance, supporting community networks, Foxwell (2007: 72-76): providing news and information about the host community, and about the homeland. For many refugee communities, the opportunities to access ethnic community media provides community broadcasting are limited, and important functions, including the broadcasting more generally is being displaced by maintenance of ethnic culture and digital media. With over 60 per cent of Sudanese languages, the maintenance of under the age of 24, it is likely that they will more community connections and networks, readily adopt digital media, in line with Australian provision of news and information youths. However, it is unclear whether digital about the homeland, and the provision media can assist the integration process as of local community news and successfully as has been the case for ethnic broadcasting. In this paper, we interrogate the information. contribution of ethnic media to the successful integration of new migrants into mainstream Thus, ethnic language programs provide a society, and explore the uses and possibilities of cross-cultural communicative function, as well online media for the Sudanese community in south as an essential service for new migrants. east Queensland. Indeed, ethnic broadcasting has served the Keywords needs of established ethnic communities very Integration, Ethnic media research, Media well (Greek, Italian, Chinese), which often technology, Refugee settlement, Sudan broadcast from metropolitan full-time ethnic radio stations, and have also established full- time ethnic language commercial radio INTRODUCTION stations. However, SBS managing director Shaun Brown claims the national multicultural ‗Without a paper, a journal of some broadcaster ‗significantly under-serve[s] major kind, you cannot unite a community‘ and growing language communities‘ (Sharp (Ben Kingsley as Gandhi, in Gandhi, 2010). Similarly, Meadows et al. (2007) dir. Richard Attenborough, 1982, indicate that securing airtime to deliver Columbia Pictures). community–specific content is especially difficult for many new and emerging communities, and those that do manage to gain access find that a weekly one-hour program is
insufficient to meet their needs. They suggest technologies can exacerbate this by enabling the solution lies in ‗providing more greater on-going contact with the country of broadcasting opportunities‘ (Meadows et al. origin as well as with transnational ethnic 2007: 87). communities (Cunningham & Sinclair 2000). The popularity of on-line media, however, also Our observations of the Sudanese community suggests new opportunities for facilitating in South East Queensland confirm difficulties integration into the host culture, and thus with securing access to established community contributes to diminishing social segregation. and ethnic media and suggest the solution lies in developing online services. Indeed, to be According to Hao and Zhu (2004), online is increasingly becoming a necessity as communication at both mass and interpersonal more and more of society‘s functions and levels is important to the integration process, processes are transferred to the internet but the factors that contribute to this process (Weiskopf & Kissau 2008: 97). Being online are unclear and not easily located. The enables access to information, social determinants and conditions that give rise to communication, and participation in the potential for media to facilitate integration employment, government, and commerce, all or segregation appear to be located external to of which are essential for successful the provision of media technology, and give integration (ibid: 96). emphasis to an understanding of media, not only as a social space and tool that enables In this paper, we interrogate the contribution formation and maintenance of community of ethnic media to the successful integration of (Georgiou 2006: 134), but also as an extension new migrants into mainstream society, and of social relations. Consequently, an analysis explore the uses and possibilities of online of the potential for the internet as a tool for media for the Sudanese community in South integration must include the host country‘s East Queensland. migration and media policies, ethno-cultural positioning of the migrant group, age, gender, ETHNIC MEDIA RESEARCH education achievements, and access to and use of media technologies. We will explore each Although ethnic broadcasting and media of these dimensions with reference to the provide a positive function that may ultimately experience of the Sudanese in South East lead to migrants‘ full participation in society Queensland. as ethnic-Australians, in Australia there has been a tendency to accept this function MIGRATION AND SETTLEMENT uncritically. Akin to the community POLICIES integration and cross-cultural functions identified by Meadows et al. (2007), Elias and Dhanji (2009) suggests successful integration Lemish (2008) distinguish between ‗inward‘ depends on the policies and services provided integration, where media focuses on intra- by the host government: how the host community content (also referred to as community perceives and receives refugees, ‗bonding‘ social capital), and ‗outward‘ and, how the refugees adapt to the new integration, where media content is directed country. Others emphasise that integration is towards facilitating adaptation into the host only possible when the host society is open community (or ‗bridging‘ social capital). But and inclusive toward cultural diversity (Berry Elias and Lemish (2008) warn that migrant 1997; Colic-Peisker & Walker 2003; uses of mass and community media act as a McMichael & Manderson 2004). double-edged sword. Their investigation of migrants‘ uses of ethnic and host media Until the 1950s, Australia‘s migration history suggests that those who are heavy users of has largely been premised upon a ‗White media in the host language tend to adapt to the Australia Policy‘. Post-war migration saw an host society more easily. However, host media increase in numbers of migrants from southern that spread negative stereotypes can give rise Europe, and by the mid-1970s, Australia to greater alienation among new immigrants experienced a wave of migration from Indo- and contribute to greater social segregation China as a result of the Vietnam War, with the (see, for example, Bowd, Green, Richards, result that assimilationist policies were Nicholas-Sexton & Posetti 2005). Similarly, replaced by ‗multi-culturalism‘ and media that broadcast in a community‘s ethnic ‗integration‘. The terms ‗integration‘ and language can encourage greater understanding ‗assimilation‘ are often confused, yet they of the host society, and assist with integration, have vastly different meanings and lead to but ethnic language programming can also vastly different outcomes. According to Berry preserve an immigrant community‘s cultural (1997), ‗assimilation‘ refers to full adoption of identity, strengthen intra-group solidarity and the host culture and total rejection of the thus also contribute towards social original culture. By contrast, ‗integration‘ segregation. Online communication 202 refers to participation in the host culture whilst community broadcasting services (Community maintaining aspects of the original culture. Broadcasting Foundation [CBF] 2010).
We recognise that a fuller discussion is Clearly, there is a need to re-examine required of current migration and settlement community media policies and put support for policies, especially with respect to refugee and online ethnic media services at the top of the humanitarian programs, and support services agenda. available to new migrants. Migration policy, particularly where this concerns refugees, is ETHNOCULTURAL- politically sensitive, and although official POSITIONING migration policies do not discriminate on the basis of race and religion, the sentiments of a white Australia policy still linger, as Successful integration depends on the evidenced, for example, by the popularity of characteristics of the migrant group, including Pauline Hanson in the mid 1990s, and the their specific ethnic and cultural origins, as more recent Cronulla riots, which were partly well as the stage of their adaptation. Moreover, fuelled by local media coverage. there is lack of agreement on measures of ‗successful integration‘. One definition Emerging migrant communities are well aware suggests this has been achieved when a person of the problem of media stereotyping. With successfully participates in employment that respect to the Sudanese community, Australian reflects their educational and professional media has presented a biased and inaccurate status (Masquefa 2003). Others regard it as portrayal of Sudanese settlement in Australia one stage in a longer cultural adaptation (Journalism in Multicultural Australia 2005; process, with people experiencing different Roberts 2005). Participants in a pilot study kinds of needs, depending on the length of undertaken by Hebbani and Obijiofor (in time they have settled in their new country press, 2010), considered the Australian media (Hao & Zhu 2004). The initial stage is often responsible for the negative image associated characterised by excitement and the discovery with the Sudanese community. One man of the new, but this often gives way to acknowledged that Australia was a country frustration and stress or ‗culture shock‘. New built by migrants: settlers may then move into the ‗reorientation‘ phase where they recognise the differences in When I first came, I got the impression values, beliefs and behaviours, and look for about how media demonised other solutions to recognised problems. The final migrant groups. For example, since the stage is the ‗adaptation‘ phase in which Second World War when migrants migrants seek to actively engage with the host came from Europe, the media targeted society. According to Berry (1990, cited in Greeks. Afterwards media targeted Hao & Zhu 2004), it is within this final phase Lebanese and Chinese and Vietnamese. where the processes of assimilation, And now it‘s our turn. So, if another integration, separation (or segregation) and community had problems, the media marginalisation (where a person rejects both would move from us to that the host and their own culture) are located. community. Yeah, what media is doing This adaptation process, however, does not really is destructive and not helping point to culture-specific dimensions that can (2008, pers. comm., 18th September). account for differences between particular ethnic groups in the process of integration. The key point is that ‗mutual accommodation is required for integration to be attained‘ A comparative study by D‘Haenens (2003) (Berry 1997: 10) and recognising and analysed the use of online media by three understanding cultural practices, including groups of ethnic minority youth in the media practices, to improve communication Netherlands. The study applied the concept of and be more culturally accommodative is ‗ethnocultural position‘ comprising ‗position important for migrant and refugee groups, acquisition‘ referring to the extent to which a such as the Sudanese, as well as the Australian member self-identify with a particular group, community at large. and ‗position allocation‘, referring to the extent to which the majority assigns specific As mentioned in the introduction, ethnic media group membership. The quantitative have made an important contribution towards component of the study showed that standard mutual accommodation. However, current demographic variables could better explain ethnic media policy remains focussed on old ownership of personal computers (PCs) and media—television, radio, and the press—but their use among ethnic youths compared to does not address the potential of online media ‗culture-specific markers‘ (D‘Haenens 2003: (see Ethnic media 2010; FECCA‘s SBS policy 408). However, her study did reveal that 2008), except where this extends existing religious involvement among Turkish youths was a significant variable in explaining 203 personal ownership of a PC and online equipped with culture-specific skills to activity. She concludes with an exploration of appropriately aid the refugees. This situation the extent to which media content fulfils a creates difficulties not just for the refugees need to construct ethnic identities. We suggest themselves, but also for local economic such an approach directs us towards a Uses growth and development, as community-wide and Gratifications study that we propose to negative perceptions hamper refugees‘ undertake in partnership with the Sudanese attempts at gaining employment. community of South East Queensland. Sudanese culture is vastly different to THE SUDANESE COMMUNITY Australian mainstream culture with respect to IN SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND gender and young people (Preston 1996; Puoch 2006; Wal 2004). Gender determines roles within the family with men seen as Since 2001, Australia has accepted more than responsible for social interaction, and 22,000 Sudanese refugees who have been therefore representing their family within the displaced owing to two decades of civil war public sphere; women on the other hand (Department of Immigration and Citizenship dominate the private sphere and are [DIAC] 2008). Approximately 3,100 Sudanese responsible for running the home, caring for refugees live in Queensland, predominantly in the children, elderly and others in need within the south-east including the areas of Logan, the extended family (Wal 2004). Children Brisbane and Toowoomba, with a small follow these gendered roles, with boys number also living in the north of the state learning from the men and taking on public (Department of Communities 2008). The responsibilities and girls learning from the Sudanese community comprises two language women and working in the home. Thus, groups, Sudanese Arabic and Dinka, and they socialisation of boys and girls is distinctly are also divided along religious beliefs. different compared to families in Australia. Sudanese families still consider their daughters Sudanese integration into Australian society as a source of wealth and they expect their has not been without problems. Much of the daughters to be respectful and responsible, and negative sentiment, particularly towards the to be married and to make the family proud of Sudanese refugee settlement program, has her. Therefore, in Sudanese culture, girls are appeared in the Australian media for the past not allowed to have boyfriends. Families also several years (see Roberts 2005), and was highly value their boys as they will carry on exacerbated when former Immigration the family name and traditions (Preston 1996). Minister Kevin Andrews admitted that cuts to Boys move from childhood to adulthood the intake of African refugees were based on through the rites of initiation, which is seen as perceptions that ‗some groups don‘t seem to a great honour and provides status and be settling and adjusting into the Australian privilege for these young men and their way of life‘ (Farouque, Petrie & Miletic 2007). extended family.
The Sudanese appear to be experiencing more Some Sudanese youth try to maintain their difficulties with integration than other groups culture in Australia; however, others reject due to the challenges of resettling in a culture elements of Sudanese culture and traditions vastly different from the one from which they and willingly adopt Australian traditions, came (Harrison 2007). In spite of various which results in intergenerational conflict. A federal and state government departments and study of Sudanese refugees in South East local community agencies setting up services Queensland, conducted by Hebbani, Obijiofor to aid this particular group, several studies and Bristed (2009), found the issue of have found that Sudanese refugees experience discipline was of particular concern with discrimination (Colic-Peisker 2009; Dhanji Sudanese youth challenging their parents‘ 2009; Milner & Khawaja 2010). For instance, values as a result of ideas they learned from a Toowoomba study, found almost ‗one-third their Australian peers at school. of participants reported a real or perceived experience of racial discrimination‘ (Upham & Differences in levels of English language Martin 2005: 31). proficiency within a family also affected traditional family structures, as well as Much of the difficulty in settling these hampered adaptation into the mainstream refugees stems from their lack of cross- Australian society. In the pilot study, children cultural communication skills in their were more proficient in English than their interactions with local community agencies, parents, a common experience among non- potential employers, and education institutions English speaking migrant communities and these hinder their integration into the (Hebbani, Obijiofor & Bristed 2009; Australian culture. Workers dealing with this Santisteban & Mitrani 2003). While this community face similar issues as they too lack helped to bridge the communication gap cross-cultural sensitivity training and are not between Sudanese parents and members of the 204 Australian society, owing to their poor a day on their computer. By contrast, this age command of the English language, Sudanese group spent just over one hour a day on music parents depended a great deal on their and radio, and they spent three quarters of an children, which further widened the hour a day on their mobile phones. The generational gap. research also found significant gender These findings become all the more important differences: more girls than boys participate in given that a significant percentage of the online communication activities such as Sudanese settlers are aged 24 years or messaging and chatting, email, and visiting younger. Further, those aged younger than 18 social websites. For boys, playing online years of age are likely to access Australian games was the only internet activity where education facilities (DIAC 2007: 7). As a they had a higher participation rate than girls. result, Sudanese parents are concerned about ACMA‘s research suggests preferred their children losing touch with Sudanese communication and media technologies used culture and traditions (DIAC 2007; Khawaja, by young people are mobile telephones and White & Schweitzer 2008). Sudanese youths online media, and these can therefore be are reluctant to express their views and expected to be attractive to young migrants unwilling to turn to their community, nor do who are seeking to be accepted by mainstream they feel they are part of Australian society, society. and this results in their isolation. Furthermore, because they are highly visible, given their ACCESS TO AND USE OF MEDIA physical appearance, and their custom of TECHNOLOGY moving in groups, Sudanese youths, especially males, are seen as a threat by some people in Australian society, thus exacerbating As mentioned earlier, many emerging migrant intercultural conflict. communities experience difficulties with gaining access to traditional ethnic media, but The community therefore faces significant online access is also not without difficulties. cultural hurdles in achieving integration, Given that more than 60 per cent of the suggesting that this community is very much Sudanese community in South East in need of online media and communication Queensland are under the age of 24, we would support. also expect that the Sudanese community would prefer online and mobile media compared to traditional ethnic community MEDIA AND YOUNG PEOPLE media. Nevertheless, it is unclear to what extent members of the Sudanese community According to the Australian Bureau of have access to online and mobile media. Statistics (2008), in 2007, the median age of Research examining the Digital Divide has Sudanese-born residents was 24.4 years: the shown that low-income, less educated, and youngest median age of any overseas-born rural communities tend to have less access to residents. Furthermore, 25 per cent of all information and communication technology Sudanese in Australia are under 14 years of (D‘Haenens 2003; van Vuuren 2007), age (ABS 2008). This community‘s age profile D‘Haenens (2003) indicates this to also be the strongly indicates that media and case for ethnic communities, but for socio- communication support should embrace online economic reasons, rather than on the basis of and mobile media. Although community ethnicity, and this has been confirmed by Elias media, and particularly radio, have long been and Zeltser-Shorer (2006), and Weiskopf and recognised as providing an important Kissau (2008). Nevertheless, given the integrative function for migrant communities importance of religion, gender and age in the (Husband 1986 as cited in Riggins 1992), social organisation of the Sudanese there have been significant changes in media community, we anticipate that specific ethnic habits since the introduction of the internet and and cultural practices will find their expression the widespread adoption of PCs and mobile in conventional socio-economic categories. telephones. We therefore suggest that it can For example, we would expect that the no longer be taken for granted that community Sudanese community would organise their broadcasting is the preferred means of media practises along gender, as well as community and ethnic communication, language differences. particularly amongst young people. CONCLUSION Nationwide research undertaken by the Australian Communications and Media Authority [ACMA] (2007, 2008) found that At present, the Sudanese community in South although TV remains the medium of choice for East Queensland does not have access to teenagers aged 15-17, with nearly two hours a community media, and this situation offers a day spent watching TV, the internet ranked unique opportunity to undertake participatory second, with young people spending 1.5 hours action research and observe and interrogate the impact of a media intervention. Local 205 Sudanese community leaders have expressed a Berry, J W 1997, ‗Immigration, acculturation, desire to set up a website, and have sought the and adaptation‘, Applied Psychology: An assistance of the University of Queensland‘s International Review, 46(1): 5-68. School of Journalism and Communication. They consider the establishment of their own Borland, H & Mphande, C 2008, media of benefit to their community and to ‗Communicating with Victoria‟s Emerging assist with the integration process. We suggest African Language Communities: Issues that a project of this nature provides the and Response‟, Public seminar, Institute opportunity to explore the pre- intervention for Community, Ethnicity and Policy needs and expectations of the community; Alternatives, Victoria University, Victoria insights into their choices of preferred media University, Footscray, 27 June, viewed 23 to facilitate their cultural adaptation, and the January 2009, rationale behind these choices; how the
D‘Haenens, L 2003, ‗ICT in Multicultural Khawaja, N, White, K & Schweitzer, R 2008, society: The Netherlands: A context for ‗Difficulties and coping strategies of sound multiform media policy?‘ Gazette: Sudanese refugees: A qualitative The International Journal of approach‘, Transcultural Psychiatry, Communication Studies, 65(4/5): 401-421. 45(3): 489-512.
Dhanji, S 2009, ‗Welcome or unwelcome? McMichael, C, & Manderson, L 2004, ‗Somali Integration issues and the resettlement of women and well being: Social networks former refugees from the Horn of Africa and social capital among immigrant and Sudan in metropolitan Melbourne‘, women in Australia‘, Human Australasian Review of African Studies, Organization. 63(1): 88-99. 30(2): 152-178. Meadows, M, Forde, S, Ewart, J & Foxwell, K Elias, N & Lemish, D 2008, ‗Media uses in 2007, Community Media Matters, Griffith Immigrant Families: Torn between University, Brisbane. ‗Inward‘ and ‗Outward‘ Paths of Integration‘, International Communication Milner, K, & Khawaja, N 2010, ‗Sudanese Gazette, 70(1): 21-40. Refugees in Australia: The Impact of Acculturation Stress‘, Journal of Pacific Elias, N & Shorer-Zeltser, M 2006, Rim Psychology, 4(1): 19-29. ‗Immigrants of the world unite? A virtual community of Russian-speaking Preston, C 1996, ‗The Dinka of the Southern immigrants on the web‘, The Journal of Sudan: A cross cultural study‘, viewed 15 International Communication, 12(2): 70- January 2009, 90.
Georgiou, M 2006, ‗Diasporic communities Roberts, G 2005, ‗Race-hate campaigner online: A bottom-up experience of unmasked‘, The Australian, 22 August: 4. transnationalism‘, K Sarikakis & D. Thussu, (eds), Ideologies of the internet, Santisteban, DA & Mitrani, VB 2003, ‗The Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ: 131-145. influence of acculturation processes on the family‘, K Chun, P Balls Organista, & G Hao, X & Zhu, R 2004, ‗Media use by Marin (eds.), Acculturation: Advances in Immigrants on the Process of Cultural theory, measurement, and applied Adaptation‘, Asian Communication research, American Psychological Research, viewed 20 April 2009, Association, Washington D.C.: 121-135.
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The interplay of social context and personal attributes in immigrants’ adaptation and satisfaction with the move to Australia
Susan Ellen Watt, Marcella Ramelli & Mark Rubin University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, 2351, Australia. University of Basel, Basel, 27 4051, Switzerland. University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, 2308, Australia.
Corresponding author: Sue Ellen Watt ([email protected])
Abstract THE INTERPLAY OF SOCIAL CONTEXT AND PERSONAL Previous psychological research into immigration has tended to focus either on immigrants‘ adjustive ATTRIBUTES IN IMMIGRANTS‟ behaviours, such as their acculturation preference, ADAPTATION AND or on community attitudes towards immigrants. SATISFACTION WITH THE Recent models bring these lines of research together. This study examined effects of MOVE TO AUSTRALIA immigrants‘ perceptions of acceptance or rejection by the broader community (inclusionary status) on On 28th September 2007, Liep Gony, a their psychological adaptation and satisfaction, and Sudanese teenager who had arrived as a how this operates together with acculturation refugee to Australia, was tragically murdered preference and first friendships. in a racially motivated attack in Melbourne.
One hundred thirty-seven immigrants to Australia Following the incident, the Australian from 46 countries completed an English-language Government significantly reduced the annual questionnaire. Results showed good psychological intake of Sudanese refugees on the grounds adaptation to life in Australia and strong that Sudanese did not integrate well into the satisfaction. Contrary to previous findings, Australian community. In relation to this preference for assimilation predicted greater decision, the then Minister for Immigration, satisfaction. The one variable that consistently Kevin Andrews, stated: ‗I have been predicted psychological adaptation and satisfaction concerned that some groups don‘t seem to be when all other variables were controlled was settling and adjusting into the Australian way inclusionary status. This related with preference for contact with Australians. First friendships were of life as quickly as we would hope and also important. To the extent that first friendships therefore it makes sense to put the extra were among Australians, participants reported money in to provide extra resources, but also greater social inclusion, and this mediated a relation to slow down the rate of intake from countries with better psychological adaptation. such as Sudan‘ (Farouque et al. 2007). This response by the Australian government The results speak to the importance of providing illustrates the tension that arises between the opportunities for immigrants to make new friends in host culture and immigrants when expectations the receiving community. Future research should of one another‘s acculturative behaviours are address acculturation preferences among Australians, and examine a possible disjunct out of step. In the case of the Australian between government policy and mainstream Government, disappointment at Sudanese attitudes. acculturation led to the decision to exclude many refugees from this war-torn country. Keywords Acceptance, Acculturation, Immigration, Acculturation is a term that describes the Prejudice, Psychological adaptation, adaptations that individuals and communities Sociocultural adaptation, Social inclusion make when individuals move between cultures (Redfield et al. 1936). Berry (1974,1980) proposed that there are two underlying dimensions of acculturation. The first of these is the extent to which immigrants wish to maintain their original culture; the second is how much they desire relationships and contact with members of the host society. The 209 combination of these creates four distinct has implications for how they integrate in their acculturation preferences or strategies. These new community. are integration, where the immigrant prefers to maintain original cultural identity and also Abundant psychological research has shown have relationships with receiving community that people are acutely sensitive to signals of members; assimilation, where the immigrant others‘ acceptance and rejection and alter their prefers to abandon their original cultural behaviours accordingly. They quickly become identity and seek contact with receiving dejected when ostracised (Williams 2007), and community members; separation, where the attempt to increase their social acceptability immigrant favours maintenance of the original (Williams 2009). Even self-esteem fluctuates cultural identity and no engagement with the dramatically as a result of feeling social receiving community; and marginalisation, accepted or rejected (Leary & Baumeister where the immigrant prefers to abandon their 2000). original cultural identity and also does not wish to engage with host society members. Nesdale (2002) examined the effects of social Most studies have found that immigrants acceptance and rejection on immigrants‘ express preference for integration (Berry 1997; identification with Australia and with their Van de Vijver et al. 1999; van Oudenhaven et original culture. Acceptance by Australians al. 1998). Furthermore, integration has been was significantly related to host-country found to relate to better psychological identification, but not ethnic identification. adaptation and reduced acculturative stress Nonetheless, friendships showed a different (Berry 1997; Berry et al. 1987; Liebkind 1996; pattern; those who had few Australian friends 2001). also identified more with their ethnic group.
Bourhis, Moise, Perreault, & Senecal (1997) The current research investigated the relations made the point that host societies, too, have between feeling accepted by the host society preferences for the extent to which they prefer (inclusionary status), and immigrants‘ immigrants to maintain their original culture acculturation. We first examined whether and seek contact with the mainstream society. there was a direct relation between Following Berry‘s scheme, these preferences inclusionary status and psychological and were categorised in the Interactive sociocultural adaptation when a range of other Acculturation Model into integration, variables was taken into account. We next assimilation, segregation (equivalent to examined the relations between social separation), and exclusion (equivalent to acceptance and acculturation preferences. marginalisation). They further proposed that Nesdale‘s research had shown lack of intergroup difficulties arise when there is poor friendships with Australians was an important match between acculturation preferences of predictor of ethnic ingroup identification, and the host society and particular immigrant other research has also shown important groups. For example, if a society desires that effects of the extent to which early friendships immigrants assimilate, but immigrants desire focus on members of the receiving community separation, a conflictual relationship will arise. versus members of the immigrants‘ ethnic Empirical research has supported this group (see Kosic et al. 2004). This is possibly contention (Zagefka & Brown 2002), and as an important determinant of inclusionary shown in the example above, the consequences status and was therefore included in the of a mismatch can be dire. current study.
It is important to recognise that acculturation METHOD attitudes of the host and the immigrant group are not immutable; there is an interplay where one influences the other. As Berry (2001) Participants pointed out, the choices of immigrants in their acculturation behaviours are likely constrained One hundred and thirty-seven immigrants to by the orientations of the receiving society. Australia participated in this research. These There is little opportunity to integrate if were 85 women and 52 men from 46 members of the receiving society prefer countries. They ranged in age from 22 to 93 segregation and refuse to interact with the years (average = 49), and had been in newcomers. Integration requires the receiving Australia between two months and 63 years, society to be accepting of immigrants, and with an average of 16 years. Almost one willing to accept and accommodate their quarter of participants had been in Australia cultural identity. Equally, the immigrant needs for under three years, and 50 percent had been to be willing to accept the culture of the host in Australia under 9 years. nation. Thus, receiving community members‘ acceptance or rejection of immigrants‘ culture of origin and contact with those immigrants
210 Measures Australia?‘ For difficulty, they rated on a scale from ‗1 = Extremely easy‘ to ‗7 = Participants completed a questionnaire that Extremely difficult, I have not solved the contained several demographic measures problem‘ the difficulty they had in dealing (gender, age, marital status, education, country with various aspects of their life in Australia. of origin, length of time in Australia, Satisfaction was coded so that high scores citizenship, reason for moving, initial indicate high satisfaction, and difficulty was reference group, and main current activity or coded so that high scores indicate high job in Australia) and then a number of difficulty. computed measures which included: First friendships and current friendships Inclusionary status (Spivey 1990). Measures (Kosic et al. 2004). Participants were asked to the extent to which people feel socially indicate on a scale from ‗1 = None‘ to ‗5 = included. Participants rate on a scale from ‗1 Almost all‘ the number of people among their = Strongly disagree‘ to ‗7 = Strongly agree‘ first friends in Australia who were Australians, nine items such as ‗People in Australia often and the number who were people from their country (co-ethnic), spoke the same language, seek out my company‘, and ‗I often feel like 1 an outsider at social gatherings in Australia‘. or other immigrants. These same questions High scores indicate greater social inclusion. were posed for the friends they have now in Australia. From these, it was possible to Acculturation preference (Zagefka & Brown compute an index of the number of contacts 2002). Measures the extent to which among their first friends and current friends individuals desire (i) maintenance of their who were Australian in comparison with each culture of origin and (ii) contact with members other group. Results can range from 4 (mostly of the host culture. These two sub-scales can Australians) to -4 (mostly people from own be combined to identify whether immigrants country). show preference for integration, assimilation, separation or marginalisation (Berry 1989). Two additional variables were included as For maintenance, participants rated on the 7- controls: point scale from ‗1 = Strongly disagree‘ to ‗7 = Strongly agree‘, ‗I think that people from my Language skills on arrival and at present. country living in Australia should maintain Participants rated on a 7-point scale from ‗1 = their own religion, language and way of Not at all‘ to ‗7 = Perfectly‘ four items such as dressing‘ and ‗I think that people from my ‗How fluently do you speak English?‘ and country living in Australia should maintain ‗How well do you understand the newspaper, their way of living‘. For contact they written in English?‘ that measured their responded to: ‗I think it is important that language skills when they first arrived in people from my country living in Australia Australia, and at present. High scores indicate have friends who are Australian nationals‘ and better language skills. ‗I think it is important that people from my country living in Australia spend time with Communication skills on arrival and at Australian nationals in their spare time‘. present (modified from Gudykunst & Nishida 2001). Participants rated on a 7-point scale Psychological adaptation (Kosic et al, 2004). from ‗1 = Strongly disagree‘ to ‗7 = Strongly Measures psychological adaptation among agree‘ five items such as ‗My communication immigrants. Respondents rate from ‗1 = with Australians is mostly efficient‘, and ‗I Never‘ to ‗5 = All the time‘ eighteen items feel mostly competent when communicating relating to how frequently during the last with Australians‘ that measured their month they have felt distressed, angry, anxious communication skills when they first arrived and so on. For each individual, the mean in Australia, and at present. High scores across these eighteen items was computed, so indicate better communication skills. results can vary from 1 (poor adaptation) to 5 (good adaptation).
Sociocultural adaptation. Two components of sociocultural adaptation were measured. These were satisfaction and difficulty experienced on arrival. For satisfaction, participants rated the following three items on 1 To keep things simple, the term ‗Australian‘ was a scale from ‗1 = Extremely dissatisfied‘ to ‗7 not explicated. However, as the other questions = Extremely satisfied‘: ‗If employed, how asked about the number of friends who were from satisfied are you with your job?‘, ‗How their country, had the same first language as them, satisfied are you with your accommodation‘, or were other immigrants, ‗Australian‘ would and ‗How satisfied are you with your life in indicate not from their country, with their same first language, or immigrants. 211 Procedure It was also of interest to identify whether there was an interaction of preference for culture The questionnaire was distributed with the maintenance and contact. This was entered as help of multicultural organisations in New a third step in the analysis, and would capture South Wales who agreed to distribute hard the four different acculturation strategies of copies of the questionnaire to members and assimilation, integration, separation, clients, and also via a link to an online survey marginalisation. that was placed on websites belonging to ethnic clubs and associations, and circulated by email by research partners. Table 1. Summary of regressions onto psychological Participants first read an invitation to adaptation and sociocultural adaptation (satisfaction). participate, which specified they must be Shows direction of significant relations, +ve or -ve. immigrants to Australia, currently living in Australia, and over the age of 18. If Predictor Psych. Sociocultural they wished to participate, they then Adaptation adaptation worked through the questionnaire and, if (satisfaction) completing the printed version, returned Inclusionary status Sig (+ve) Sig (+ve) it in a reply-paid envelope. Age Sig (+ve) Ns
RESULTS Length of stay ns Ns Preference for culture ns Ns Preliminary data analysis consisted of maintenance testing the internal reliability of each of Preference for contact ns Ns the scales using Cronbach‘s alpha. Scales proved reliable: psychological Language on arrival ns Ns adaptation (0.91); satisfaction (0.72); Language now ns Ns difficulty (0.80); inclusionary status (0.91); preference for culture Communication on Sig (+ve) Ns maintenance (0.93); preference for arrival contact (0.84); language skills on arrival Communication now ns Ns (0.99); language skills at present (0.97); communication skills on arrival (0.95); Difficulty on arrival ns Ns communication skills at present (0.87). Psych adaptation - Sig (+ve) (control variable) Psychological adaptation Satisfaction (control Sig (+ve) - variable) On average, participants showed good Acculturation ns Sig (-ve) psychological adaptation (mean = 3.8, std Maintenance*Contact deviation = .66). A minority of participants (15, or 11.3 percent) reported scores below the scale midpoint of 3, three There were 126 cases in the analysis. Step 2 participants scored on the midpoint of 3, and explained significantly more variance in the remaining 113 participants (85 percent) psychological adaptation than Step 1, but the scored above the midpoint. Thus, 85 percent of model was not improved with the addition of participants showed positive adaptation within the interaction termin Step 3, and there were the host culture. no significant moderation effects. Thus, Step 2 is the preferred model. Significant Multiple regression analysis was conducted to predictors of psychological adaptation at Step examine the predictors of psychological 2 were age (std beta = .402, p = .012), adaptation. Variables entered into the analysis communication on arrival (std beta = .261, p = included: Age; length of stay; preference for .046), satisfaction (std beta = .238, p = .016), culture maintenance; preference for contact; and inclusionary status (std beta = .290, p = language on arrival; language now; .012). communication on arrival; communication now; difficulty on arrival; satisfaction. Sociocultural adaptation Inclusionary status was entered on a second step as it was of particular interest to identify (satisfaction) whether inclusionary status would mediate any relationships with psychological adaptation.2 On average, participants were satisfied with the move to Australia (mean = 5.7, std
2 deviation = 1.3; on the scale, 6 = ‗Satisfied‘). This would be indicated where there was a Only ten participants (8.5 percent) scored significant effect at Step 1, which disappeared at below the scale‘s neutral mid-point of 4. Step 2, when inclusionary status was included in the equation. 212 A stepwise multiple regression analysis of the Figure 1. Interaction of acculturation same design as for psychological adaptation maintenance and contact in their effect on examined the predictors of satisfaction. There immigrants' satisfaction. were 123 cases in this analysis. Step 3 provided the best fit to the data, and is therefore the preferred model. Significant predictors of satisfaction at Step 3 were preference for contact (std beta = .330, p = 2.5 Low .001), psychological adaptation (std beta = Contact .222, p = .010), inclusionary status (std beta = 2 High .275, p = .013), and the interaction of 1.91 Contact preference for culture maintenance and contact (std beta = -.229, p = .016). 1.5 1.398 1.232 The interaction effect maps onto the four 1 different acculturation preferences of assimilation (low maintenance, high contact), 0.632 integration (high maintenance, high contact), 0.5 Satisfaction separation (high maintenance, low contact), and marginalisation (low maintenance, low 0 contact). Breakdown of this effect revealed that satisfaction was least when participants Low High showed more marginalisation preference (low Maintenance Maintenance maintenance, low contact), and highest when they showed more assimilation preference (low maintenance, high contact).
Inclusionary status Friendships with Australians and co-ethnics On average, participants partially agreed that they feel socially included by Australians A partial correlation matrix, controlling for (mean = 5.0, std deviation = 1.3; on the 7- age and length of stay, was used to scrutinise point scale, 5 = ‗Partially agree‘). However, the relations between first friends Australian over one third of participants (37.8 percent, or and current friends Australian and other 51 individuals) scored below the scale‘s variables. In fact, first friends and current neutral midpoint of 4, indicating that they felt friends correlated with almost all variables socially excluded. (see Table 2).
A multiple regression analysis was conducted First friends Australian. The extent to which to examine the relations between inclusionary first friends were Australians strongly status and acculturation preference while correlated with the extent to which current controlling for other variables. Predictors friends were Australian. It also moderately entered into the regression equation were correlated with inclusionary status and length of stay, language skills on arrival and communication on arrival. The other now, communication skills on arrival and now, correlations were smaller in magnitude, difficulty on arrival, preference for culture ranging downwards from .356. The only maintenance, preference for contact, and the variables first friend Australians did not interaction between these two. Among these, correlate with were satisfaction, problem the only significant predictors of inclusionary solving, and preference for culture status were length of stay (std beta = .176, p maintenance. =.050), communication skills now (std beta = .358, p < .01), and preference for contact (std Current friends Australian. The extent to beta = .408, p < .001). Participants who felt which current friends were Australians more included had better communication correlated moderately with inclusionary status. skills, had been longer in Australia, and It also correlated moderately with showed greater preference for contact with communication on arrival, communication Australians. now, and language now. The other correlations were reasonably small in magnitude, ranging downwards from .321. The only variables current friends Australian did not correlate with were satisfaction and problem solving.
213 significant result of 3.13, p < .001. There were Table 2. Partial correlations between the 100 cases in this analysis. extent to which first friends and current friends are Australian compared with co- The second mediation analysis then used the ethnic, and a range of other variables, same design to test whether inclusionary status while controlling for age and length of time mediated a relation between current friends in Australia (df=96). Australian and psychological adaptation. Variable First friends Current Sobel‘s test revealed a significant result of Australian friends 3.31, p < .001. There were 111 cases in this Australian analysis. Testing the reverse path also yielded a significant result (Sobel = 3.748, p < .001).3 First friends - .622*** Australian DISCUSSION Current friends .622*** - Australian Inclusionary status significantly related both to psychological and sociocultural adaptation. Psychological .229** .177 Immigrants who felt more socially included by adaptation the host culture were better psychologically Satisfaction .022 .147 adjusted, and more satisfied with their life in Inclusionary .467*** .566*** Australia. They also showed greater status preference for contact with Australians. Importantly, immigrants‘ initial contacts when Preference for -.143 -.269** they arrived in Australia predicted their later culture connections. Those whose first friends were maintenance mostly Australians also reported that their Preference for .246* .321*** current friends were mostly Australians. contact These participants also showed stronger inclusionary status and better psychological Language on .244* .184 adaptation. Indeed, the two mediation effects arrival showed that inclusionary status explained the Language now .356*** .387*** relation between friendships and psychological adaptation. It seems that those who start out Communication .409*** .416*** making friends with receiving community on arrival members are ultimately happier in their new Communication .266** .409*** location. now One particularly interesting result was the Difficulty -.207* -.268** relation between acculturation preference and *** p < .001, ** p < .01, * p < .05 satisfaction. First, there was a main effect of preference for contact where, after taking into Mediation analysis. First friends Australian account the effects of inclusionary status, and current friends Australian both related language and communication skills, and other quite strongly with inclusionary status, and control variables, those who believed contact less strongly with psychological adaptation. with Australians was important were Given that inclusionary status is a reliable ultimately more satisfied with their life in predictor of psychological adaptation, we Australia. Second, there was an interaction tested two mediation paths where: between the two dimensions of preference for contact and preference for cultural First friends Australian -> inclusionary status - maintenance. Those who showed greater > psychological adaptation preference for assimilation (lower culture maintenance and higher contact with Current friends Australian -> inclusionary Australians) reported the most satisfaction, status -> psychological adaptation. more so than those who showed greater preference for integration. A similar finding The first mediation analysis examined (while was recently reported by Salleh-Hoddin controlling for length of stay) the relation (2009), where Muslim Australians who between initial friends Australian and favoured assimilation reported less inclusionary status, and then the relation discrimination. between inclusionary status and psychological adaptation when initial friends Australian is included in the relation. The beta coefficients and std errors from these two analyses were 3 The reverse path for initial friends could not be then submitted to Sobel‘s test, which yielded a logically be tested as psychological adaptation now cannot predict friends made some time in the past.
214 Given that integration is usually lauded as the welcoming new immigrants and giving them strategy that predicts the best adaptation for an opportunity to make new friends in the immigrants, these two recent findings require receiving community. Indeed, recent research some attention. We suggest it could result by Oh (2008) found that international students from a mismatch between immigrants‘ and at the University of Sydney who were receiving community acculturation partnered with an Australian student for just preferences. Australia is one of the few one week reported significantly increased countries to hold an official government policy feelings of acceptance and decreased of multiculturalism (van Oudenhaven 2006). homesickness compared to controls. In line However, what governments legislate does not with this, our research suggests that such dictate public attitudes (Bourhis et al. 1997). support programs might be one of the most To our knowledge, a comprehensive survey of positive steps a community can take to Australian acculturation preferences is yet to enhance immigrants‘ wellbeing and be undertaken, but there are indications that satisfaction in their new home. mainstream attitudes in Australia may not reflect government policy. A survey of over References 5,000 people in Queensland and New South Wales reported by Dunn, Forrest, Burnley, and Berry, JW 1974, ‗Psychological aspects of McDonald (2004) revealed that, while the cultural pluralism: unity and identity large majority of participants agreed that ‗It is reconsidered‘, in R Brislin (ed), Topics in a good thing for a society to be made up of culture learning, East-West Culture people from different cultures‘, less than half Learning Institute, Honolulu. disagreed that ‗Australia is weakened by Berry, JW 1980, ‗Acculturation as varieties of different ethnicities sticking to their old ways‘. adaptation‘, in A Padilla (ed), Thus, while Australians enjoy the presence of Acculturation, theory, models, and some cultural diversity, the populace appear to new findings, Westview Press, Colorado. endorse assimilation rather than integration, and this is at odds with official government Berry, JW 1989, ‗Psychology of policy. This would be in line with acculturation‘, in JJ Berman (ed), acculturation attitudes in most nations Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: (interestingly, with the exception of New Cross-cultural perspectives, The Zealand, who show preference for integration; University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska. van Oudenhaven 2006). It is possible that Berry, JW 1997, ‗Immigration, acculturation, higher satisfaction among those who show and adaptation‘, Applied Psychology: An more endorsement of assimilation reflects a International Review, 46:5-68 better match with the receiving community‘s expectations. Future research urgently needs Berry, JW 2001, ‗A psychology of to measure Australian acculturation immigration‘, Journal of Social Issues, preferences in general, and in relation to 57:615-31 particular groups. Berry, JW, Kim, U, Minde, T & Mok, D 1987, ‗Comparative studies of acculturative There are, or course, limitations to the stress‘, International Migration Review, conclusions we can draw from the current 21:491-511 data. The sample of only 137 does not permit breakdown into different cultures of origin, Bourhis, RY, Moise, LC, Perreault, S & and the correlational design does not allow us Senecal, S 1997, ‗Towards an interactive to speak to causation; that would require a acculturation model: A social longitudinal study or an experimental design. psychological approach‘, International Furthermore, the English-language Journal of Psychology, 32:369-86 questionnaire limited responding to those who Dunn, K, Forrest, J, Burnley, I & McDonald, were proficient in written English. However, A 2004, ‗Constructing racism in Australia‘, while acknowledging these limitations, our Australian Journal of Social Issues, results speak to the importance of welcoming 39:409-30 new immigrants to this country. Those who Farouque, F, Petrie, A & Miletic, D Oct 2, are able to make friends with members of the 2007, ‗Minister cuts African refugee receiving community feel more socially intake‘, The Age, viewed June 2010, included and are subsequently better adjusted
216 Work is a human right: seeking asylum, seeking employment
Rosemary Webb ([email protected]) Southern Cross University, Lismore, New South Wales, 2480, Australia.
Abstract Meaningful paid work, drawing on existing skills and qualifications, and developing new This paper argues matters of rights and of belonging skills must be an active part of early in the relationship between forced migration and integration strategies for refugees. In Australia paid work. It addresses the significance of work for at least, I don't believe it is: consider the social identity and the imperative that this be discourse of migration - the cultural hangover recognised in meeting the needs of the of the White Australia Policy; the denial of dispossessed. The argument derives from observations and perspectives on threatened any Australian 'identity' which was not peoples‟ mobility and the dignity of labour as a founded in Anglo-Celtic or European heritage; human rights challenge. While forced, or the big Australia/ small Australia policy involuntary, migration is one political consequence agendas, and border control. As Yarwood of war, another is the associated loss of work demonstrated four decades back, the right to opportunity that threatens individuals‟ economic work has historically been contested for survival and social well-being. Despite obligations migrants in Australia (Yarwood, 1968). That under Articles 17-19 of the UN Convention on the right is especially contentious in the twenty- Status of Refugees, national governments may first century context of „terrorism‟-provoked ignore the humanitarian need to facilitate employment for people granted asylum. Hence the migration. We‟re confronted by dreadful irony critical and ongoing insecurity of forced migration in current scenarios, whereby the wealthy west is intensified at the point of integration to the host physically and financially engages in conflict nation-state. zones, like Afghanistan, yet rejects or returns people seeking asylum from the devastation in Key words those zones. Given these global paradigms, I Forced migration, asylum-seekers, refugees, social question the adequacy of existing conventions capital, rights governance, displaced workers, for 21st century political migrations, and mobilisation, dispossession, employment, identity consider supplementary resolutions for justice.
INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND
This paper argues matters of rights in the A range of international and national relationship between forced migration and instruments offer solutions on forced paid work. As the introductory stages of an migration rights. These include the primary extended research project on this relationship instrument, the 1951 UN Convention relating and the ethics of response, it focuses on the to the Status of Refugees (the Refugees breaches of principle that result from the right Convention), with its 1967 protocol taking to work being subsumed by government account of post 1951 displacement (that is, policies and negligence. It touches on the role displacement by events beyond World War of international processes and treaties, and of Two and its immediate aftermath).2 Articles the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 17, 18 and 19 assert a qualified need for governments, and trade union bodies, in governments to protect work rights. I believe addressing these issues. Historical and current this Convention desperately needs revisiting in research informs a preliminary analysis of the the context of modern diaspora and cultural ethics and the impact of labour movement and terrorism. The UN High Commission for governance organizations on refugees‟ access Refugees (UNHCR) oversees the Convention. to employment. While the core of concern in These original instruments were augmented in the paper is work within Australia, the context 2002 by The Hague Process on Refugees and is the challenge to justice that forced migration poses to international communities.1 formally applies to asylum-seekers officially granted status to remain in their place of refuge. 1 A note on terminology: I write on the Given the time most asylum-seekers spend waiting understanding that asylum-seekers and refugees are for status determination, their access to personal all ‗displaced persons‘ and that all are people and social validation is also critical. ‗seeking refuge‘, notwithstanding that ‗refugees‘ 2 Please see Appendix 1.
Migration(THP), an intriguing recent global economic survival and undermines social, collaboration. THP seeks practical ways to cultural, and intellectual well-being.4Asylum- bring government and business together to seekers will hope to recover in their chosen facilitate justice in migration – in its own countries of refuge: however, where they words it aims „to build awareness of the achieve refugee status it will be their first multiple ways in which refugees, migrants and generation rights, not second generation rights other displaced persons add value to societies‟. that are primarily addressed. So, it also addresses work.3 The ILO (formed in 1919, but from the early days of the UN a In 2006 David Harvey described neo- specialised tripartate agency of that body) liberalism as today provoking a general oversees 180 conventions and 185 dispossession of rights, including labour rights recommendations on labour and employment, (Harvey 2006, Lilley interview).5 Global eight of which „are considered fundamental to capitalism in tandem with neoliberalism the rights of human beings at work‟ (Scott favours local labour and capital accumulation 2004: 47). As a policy, research, and by dispossession, leading to the worker coordinating body the ILO is critical to becoming „disposable‟. Arguably, in that international governance on labour. context the refugee worker is disposable, a labour resource out of place, an However these are international instruments, inconvenience. So, is confining asylum-seeker constrained by the relative lack of labour a deliberate tactic by government on enforceability of international law and behalf of capital to confine disposed workers regulation against sovereign law. Territorial where capital, in its multinational or disputes between international and national transnational form benefits from the human rights regimes dilute the impact of dispossession of local labour? Is this one international institutions and law, including rationale for the punitive responses to forced those related to work. In the international migration: to quarantine even dispossessed arena civil and political rights, being so-called workers in their home states or territories? Are „first generation rights‟ in customary law and asylum-seekers the 21st century reserve army treaty regimes, are to some extent enforceable, of labour? including through the application of sanctions and resort to international courts. Social and Displacement in conflict zones means removal economic rights are „second generation‟ in this from loved ones, family and friends: it also regime, addressed by less enforceable means dispossession of social capital - homes/ mechanisms (Dixon 2007: 346). In this context neighbourhoods, education, and employment. of apparent regime priorities, work rights In this trap, adults and children labour for might well be obscured from popular debate. survival, necessarily abandoning schooling and skills development education that can Threatened peoples‟ mobility and the dignity ensure a dignified mobility. And where of labour challenge human rights policy and people escape across borders, work is denied: host nation workforces. It is evident that in 2008 Britain‟s The Independent reported of forced migration, or involuntary population Iraqi refugees in the Middle East: mobility, is one consequence of war and conflict. Another is the loss of local work opportunity because of economic, physical and 4 To leave such a situation because it is untenable, social disruption. This threatens individual but without demonstrable individual threat of harm of death, is to be an economic refugee, and to be denied refugee status by the states in which they 3 (THP Mission statement) The 2002 Declaration of seek asylum. But economic refugees are lost from The Hague on the Future of Refugee and Migration popular debate: debilitating unemployment and Policy is based on the vision of a just world where economic degradation do not grab headlines. refugees and migrants contribute to economic and 5 Harvey argued: ‗if you look at the dispossession social development, cultural richness and diversity of the Mexican peasant or even the dispossession of without suffering discrimination and human rights the Iowa farmer, it‘s one thing to say that the violations. The Hague Process on Refugees and reorganization of society is such that you have to Migration (Foundation THP) has as its mission to give up your traditional ways of doing things and support the implementation of this Declaration. doing things in a very different way, it‘s one thing THP seeks to build awareness of the multiple ways to say that. It‘s another thing to say, you‘re going in which refugees, migrants and other displaced to give up all your rights and you‘re going to lose to persons add value to societies. It contributes to the point that you just become a disposable person. policy making based on factual evidence; it And I think the struggles going on, for instance, the welcomes input from experts of all kinds; it respects landless peasant movement in Brazil or the the many different interests of its stakeholders so as movements against the Narmada dam in India, are to address more comprehensively changing not on the part of people who do not want change. migration patterns, societal challenges and […] what they are concerned about is that they are opportunities; it focuses on innovative approaches losing everything or being deprived of things in and concrete solutions. See such a way that they do not get any benefits at all
TRADE UNIONS In drawing this discussion to a conclusion, some principles must be asserted. Firstly, the In all of this, the role of trade unions is critical drivers which create asylum seekers need to be both for their representative role for workers, taken into account in the Global North and for their part in global labour and response to forced migration. Along with governance networks. Functioning tripartite Harvey‟s global dispossession by capital, systems give unions a critical voice in culpability for the situations which drive governance capable of changing policy. people from their communities, work and Indeed, global union networks have been homes to seek refuge in „safe‟ countries must significant since international communications be acknowledged by the states which, for was ensured via 19th century maritime worker example, engage in or „allow themselves‟ to connections. be drawn into the political/ military conflicts that wreak havoc on societies. Recent proceedings of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) are promising, Secondly, economic as well as political refugees must be assisted; paid work is critical 222 for both groups. The line between the two is References commonly arbitrary, and exploited. Accordingly, any slashing of skills ABC, Background Briefing, viewed 1 June requirements or manipulation of visa rules that 2008,
The Labor Daily (incorporating „The Daily Senders, Stefan 1996, „Laws of Belonging: Mail’), Sydney 1924. Legal Dimensions of National Inclusion in Germany‟, New German Critique: Lyons, Martyn & Taksa, Lucy, 1992, Legacies of Antifascism, Winter, 67:147- Australian Readers Remember : an oral 176. history of reading 1890-1930, OUP Melbourne. Sengupta, Kim 2008, „Iraqi refugee crisis grows as West turns its back‟, The Morris, Nigel 2007, „Dispersal policy put Independent, viewed 15 June 2008, asylum-seekers at risk‟, The Independent,
224 UNESCO 2003, The Convention to protect less favourable than that accorded to aliens migrant workers and their families, viewed generally in the same circumstances, as 1 June 2010,
Waldron, Linda 2005, Green Left Weekly, Article 19. - Liberal professions viewed 1 June 2010,
Article 18. - Self-employment The Contracting States shall accord to a refugee lawfully in their territory treatment as favourable as possible and, in any event, not 225
226