Narratives of Privilege

NARRATIVES OF PRIVILEGE An Ethnographic Study of Colombian- Born Women Living in Melbourne, Australia By Viktoria Adler This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Centre for Urban Transitions Faculty of Health, Art & Design Swinburne University of Technology 2019 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the research question: how do Colombian-born women who identify as white, and middle or upper class, and are therefore privileged in Colombia, experience their privilege living as migrants in Melbourne? I do so by analysing their life story narratives. These narratives show how the women experience privilege as stemming from their belonging to the socially dominant culture, race and class in Colombia, and how their embodied privileges shape their experiences in Australia. My study is ethnographic and involved two years of fieldwork among the Colombian- born community in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. I conducted life story interviews and I carried out participant observation at women’s workplaces, cultural events in Colombian and other Latin American communities, recreational activities, and gatherings with family and friends, as well as by spending time with each of the women on other occasions. Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish, audio- recorded, transcribed and examined using thematic analysis. I conceptualise privilege as the product of intersecting and at times contradictory social locations such as race, ethnicity, gender and class a person occupies in a particular context, in relation to others. I argue that these women have been able to transfer key aspects of their privilege to Australia although they are not white and upper class in an Australian context. Nevertheless, their embodied privilege does not entirely protect them from disadvantages they face as ethnic migrants from a country of the Global South. Thus, their Colombian position of social privilege intersects with their Australian position of being an ethnic migrant woman. Their privilege does not disappear, but it changes. My research contributes to the scholarship on relatively privileged migrants from the Global South as well as to the literature on intersectional approaches to privilege. I demonstrate how these women’s positionality, the way they understand their world, is structured by multiple and at times contradictory social locations and their varying meanings across different locations. I argue that the women’s positionalities in Australia are rooted in their privileged social locations in Colombia, yet nevertheless ii shaped by their position as ethnic migrant women. The stability of the inherited upper- class privilege that these women experience continues to provide the central lens through which they narrate their lives as migrant ethnic women in Australia. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Above all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the seven Colombian women: Teresa, Natalie, Maria, Isabel, Sol, Gabriela and Martha who I can only address by their synonyms in this thesis. I am very grateful for their time and their investment in my thesis over the past years as well as their friendship. Their assistance and their brainpower have been an incredible support to this project. With some of my interlocutors I had regular discussion about my research and they helped me redirect my questions or think through my research. These were in particular Natalia, Teresa and Maria and Gabriela who occupied a sort of double informant role – they did not only tell me their life stories they are both also social scientist with a deep sociological knowledge about Colombian society. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors, Sandy Gifford, Klaus Neumann and Karen Farquharson who have been teaching, guiding and supporting me throughout the journey. I am very grateful that they generously shared their knowledge and of their guidance through this. Their supervision made this an incredibly valuable process of learning for me. I am particularly indebted to Sandy Gifford who read my many numerous drafts, and provided me with valued and much needed support and feedback. I would like to thank the staff of the former Swinburne Institute for Social Research and the current Centre for Urban Transitions, for their support and endless positive encouragement. I am very grateful my wonderful cohort for sharing this unique journey with me. I am very lucky for such smart, empathetic and funny colleagues. I would like to acknowledge and thank Mel Di Giacomo, Rochelle Lade, Jasmine Knox, Emily Graham, Jennifer Witheridge, Josee Huenneke, Sophie Mayrhuber, Fritz Teutsch and Silvia Wojczewski for proof reading chapters over the years especially Christine Horn for her help and feedback. I learned a lot! I would like to express my gratitude for the SUPRA scholarship I received from Swinburne University of Technology which made this research project possible, and iv would like to thank Jane Farmer and Tracy De Cotta for being such amazing, flexible and understanding bosses. Finally, I would like to thank my amazing friends and dedicate a special thanks to Jasmine, Nikki, Eamon, Lana, Micah and Sanne, Markus, Michi, Silvia, Sophie, Teresa and Julia. Because of you, I never felt alone even when I had to lock myself away for months on end. You cheered me up when I really needed it, and spending time with you (often just over the phone) was a source of much needed energy for me. Thank you! To my whole family, especially my father Tibor and niece Joya, thank you. This thesis has been professionally copy edited by Dr Rachel Le Rossignol according to the Australian Standards for Editing Practice. Specifically, the standards applied included D1, D3 to D5 and E1, E2 and E4. These standards relate to appropriate academic editing, including clarity of expression, spelling, punctuation and grammar, and ensuring the document meets the examining university's format, style and sequencing requirements. v DECLARATION This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award to the candidate of any other degree or diploma, except where due reference is made in the text. To the best of my knowledge this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text. Where work is based on joint research or publications, this thesis discloses the relative contributions of the respective workers or authors. Digitally signed by Viktoria Viktoria Adler Date: 2019.11.13 Adler 17:40:42 +11'00' Viktoria Adler 30.05.2019 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgment iv Declaration vi Figures x 1. Introduction .....................................................................................................................................11 2. Travelling Privilege .........................................................................................................................22 Categories of Difference ...................................................................................................................23 Gender ..........................................................................................................................................23 Race..............................................................................................................................................25 Whiteness .....................................................................................................................................26 Ethnicity .......................................................................................................................................27 Class .............................................................................................................................................31 Social Location .................................................................................................................................32 Intersectional Approaches to Privilege and Migration ....................................................................33 Intersectionality and Privilege .....................................................................................................34 Translocational Positionality .......................................................................................................36 3. Methodological Approach...............................................................................................................42 Methods of Data Collection ..............................................................................................................45 Life Story Interviews ...................................................................................................................45 Participant Observation ................................................................................................................50 Context of the Field Research...........................................................................................................52 The Women in this Research.............................................................................................................54 Introducing the Women in this Study ..........................................................................................57 Data Collection .................................................................................................................................62 Life Story Interviews ...................................................................................................................62

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