European refugees in (white) Australia: identity, community and labour market integration

Introduction: Refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina1 (’Bosnia’ in further text) were the largest single component of the Australian humanitarian immigration program during the 1990s (Jupp 2002). Almost without exception, Bosnians arrived as ‘quota refugees’ with permanent visas, and have mostly settled in large Australian cities. Over the past decade, an estimated 4,000–5,000 settled in Perth, Western Australia, and between 12,000 and 14,000 in Sydney and surrounding areas of New South Wales. This research has been conducted in Perth and Sydney. While exploring the process of Australian resettlement of Bosnians I have identified several key issues. These issues — identity, community and re-establishing ‘normal life’ — featured prominently in refugee narratives. The central condition for the re-establishment of ‘normalcy’ seemed to be gaining employment, and for professional people, gaining a satisfactory occupational status. All three issues are exceedingly complex and also very much interconnected in the process of resettlement of Bosnians in Australia. The issue of community seems to be central; Bosnian communities represent a relevant micro-context of resettlement, both in terms of identity reconstruction and employment, especially in the early stages of resettlement

Hrvatska zajednica u Australiji na početku 21. stoljeća: socio-kulturalna i demografska tranzicija

This article explores the processes of socio-cultural and demographic change and transition taking place in the Croatian community in Australia in the early 21st century. The ‘Croatian community’ is defined as all Croatian-born people in Australia and their offspring, as well as any other persons who speak Croatian or identify as Croatian in any other way. Three socio-cultural and demographic processes are identified: ageing of the community, return migration and the transfer of community activism from the first to subsequent migrant generations. All three processes are connected with a significant drop in the number of Croatian arrivals in Australia over the past several decades and the fact that the most numerous cohort of Croatian arrivals in the late 1960s is now reaching retirement age or even approaching life expectancy. Significantly, in the financial year 2003-04 the number of permanent departures exceeded the number of permanent arrivals. Return migration is analysed as mainly triggered by the retirement of the cohort that has always maintained a strong emotional connection with the homeland, but also with other processes involving younger people from the second and further generations considering longer stays in Croatia for business or educational purposes, as Croatia becomes increasingly attractive as an impeding member of the EU. The article uses the Census and immigration data as a basis for the analysis.Sažetak Članak istražuje procese socio-kulturalnih i demografskih promjena i tranzicije u hrvatskoj zajednici u Australiji na početku 21. stoljeća. Pojam ‘hrvatske zajednice’ uključuje sve one koji su rođeni u Hrvatskoj a sada žive u Australiji, njihove potomke, kao i ostale osobe koje govore hrvatski ili se na kakav drukčiji način identificiraju kao Hrvati. Uočena su tri socio-kulturalna i demografska procesa: starenje zajednice, povratna migracija te generacijski prijelaz u aktivizmu unutar zajednice s prve iseljeničke generacije na sljedeće generacije. Sva tri spomenuta procesa povezana su sa znatnim opadanjem broja hrvatskih doseljenika u Australiju posljednjih nekoliko desetljeća te činjenicom da su pripadnici velikog vala doseljavanja iz šezdesetih godina 20. stoljeća sada već umirovljenici koji dostižu prosječnu životnu dob. Značajna je činjenica da je u financijskoj godini 2003./2004. broj konačnih odlazaka premašio broj konačnih dolazaka. Analiza povratne migracije pokazala je da je ona uzrokovana umirovljenjem pripadnika prve generacije iseljenika koji su oduvijek održavali jaku emocionalnu povezanost s domovinom, ali također i drugim procesima. Odnosi se to na mlade ljude druge i sljedećih generacija koji na dulje vrijeme odlaze u Hrvatsku radi obrazovanja i zaposlenja a zbog njezina približavanja Europskoj Uniji što je čini sve privlačnijom zemljom za život. Članak temelji analizu na podatcima cenzusa o stanovništvu i iseljavanju

Gentrification, immigration and community cohesion in Melbourne's multicultural north

Executive summary: This report analyses processes of social change affecting two multicultural suburbs in Melbourne’s north, Coburg and Fawkner, focusing on factors that impact on community cohesion. The Moreland Council (2006, 2011) has identified that national trends of rising housing costs and spikes in unemployment disproportionately affect culturally diverse communities. This report seeks to contribute to an in-depth understanding of these issues, drawing on existing demographic data as well as residents’ perceptions. The report is based on ABS data, interviews and focus group discussions with residents and local service providers, and participant observation in the neighbourhoods. It provides a brief social profile of each suburb before presenting the narrative data gleaned through this project. The report focuses on the issues of gentrification, immigration, employment, housing and community cohesion in the two suburbs. The report makes the case that these two suburbs share some broad experiences of social change:•    The de-industrialisation of Melbourne’s former industrial heartland for textiles, footwear, food and auto manufacturing.•    The rapid increase in housing costs across Melbourne in the context of a growing population.•    Increasingly skills-focused immigration in the context of a labour market dominated by service jobs.•    Socio-demographic transitions (differently affecting the two suburbs), including: the ageing of established migrant communities; the influx of new migrant groups; and gentrification.•    Relatively harmonious inter-ethnic and community relations.•    A relative lack of new public infrastructure including public transport, public housing and public education facilities, with some recent investment in recreation facilities

»Etnički« i »kozmopolitski« transnacionalizam: dvije kohorte hrvatskih imigranata u Australiji

This paper presents a case study of migrant transnationalism on the basis of ethnographic data collected among Croatians migrants in Western Australia. So far transnationalism has been theorized as the sustained connection of migrants to their homelands, while this paper introduces a distinction between “ethnic” and “cosmopolitan” transnationalism. The sample of respondents comes from two distinct immigrant cohorts, one consisting of earlier arrivals (1950s–1970s) and the other comprising more recent arrivals (1980s–1990s). Due to social changes in the sending country as well as immigration policy changes in the receiving country, these two cohorts are significantly different in terms of their socio-economic background. This determines their identity, belonging and type of incorporation in the Australian society, and also brings about different types of transnationalism that these two groups practise. While respondents from the working-class cohort tend to see their ethnic identity as central and describe themselves as part of the Croatian diaspora, those from the more recent middle-class cohort see their profession as the central axis of their identity. The transnationalism of the older cohort is conceptualized as “ethnic transnationalism” which bridges the distance between Australia and the “lost” but nonetheless real homeland, Croatia. The transnationalism of the professional cohort is theorized as “cosmopolitan transnationalism” which is lived and felt beyond the homeland-hostland connection, in the space of cultural hybridity and global mobility. The introduction to this paper gives a brief overview of the concept of transnationalism and the way it has been theorized in migration studies in the past twenty years.U radu je prikazana studija slučaja migracijskog transnacionalizma na temelju etnografskih podataka prikupljenih među hrvatskim migrantima u Zapadnoj Australiji. Dosad se o transnacionalizmu teoretiziralo kao o trajnoj vezi migranata s njihovom domovinom, a u ovom se radu uvodi razlika između »etničkog« i »kozmopolitskog« transnacionalizma. Uzorak ispitanika obuhvaća dvije distinktivne imigrantske kohorte: prva obuhvaća imigrante koji su došli ranije (pedesetih do sedamdesetih godina 20. stoljeća), a druga one koji su došli kasnije (osamdesetih do devedesetih godina 20. stoljeća). Zbog društvenih promjena u zemlji podrijetla kao i promjena imigracijske politike u zemlji primitka te se dvije kohorte znatno razlikuju s obzirom na svoju društveno-ekonomsku pozadinu. To određuje njihov identitet, pripadnost i način uključivanja u australsko društvo te isto tako uzrokuje različite tipove transnacionalizma kojega prakticiraju te dvije kohorte. Dok su ispitanici iz kohorte radničke klase skloni u središte stavljati svoj etnički identitet i sebe opisivati kao dio hrvatske dijaspore, oni iz kasnije kohorte srednje klase središnjom osi svog identiteta smatraju svoju profesiju. Transnacionalizam starije kohorte se teoretski generalizira kao »etnički transnacionalizam« koji premošćuje udaljenost između Australije i »izgubljene«, ali svejedno stvarne domovine, Hrvatske. O transnacionalizmu kohorte profesija teoretizira se kao o »kozmopolitskom transnacionalizmu« koji se živi i osjeća izvan veze domovina – zemlja primitka, u prostoru kulturne hibridnosti i globalne pokretljivosti. U uvodnom dijelu teksta autorica daje kratak prikaz koncepta transnacionalizma i načina na koji se o njemu raspravlja u studijama o migracijama zadnjih dvadeset godina

Refugee settlers in South-East Queensland: Employment, aspirations and intergenerational communication about future occupational pathways: final report

This is the finalreport of the ARC linkage research project Refugees’ employment aspirations and inter-generational communication about future occupational pathways.The project was based in South-eastQueensland and was conducted overthree years (2013, 2014, and 2015). The lead chief investigator was Dr Aparna Hebbani from the University of Queensland.The project had three overall aims. Aim 1: To investigate the employment experiences of recently arrived refugees. Aims2 and 3: Toinvestigate refugees’ aspirations for themselves and their children’s educational and occupational futures.Specifically, this study focused on the experiences of refugeesettlersfrom Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia, which are among the top ten source countries for offshore humanitarian entrants (DIBP, 2013).<br/

‘They're more than animals’::Refugees' accounts of racially motivated violence

Previous discursive research has found that minority group members may deny or downplay the existence of discrimination. However, to date little research has addressed the issue of violence against minority group members. This study therefore draws on interviews with asylum seekers and refugees in a Scottish city to analyse their reports of violence committed against them. One form of reporting violence was by way of a complaint available to any speaker, in making no reference to attributes of attackers of victim. When racism was alleged, it was presented as a tentative, reluctant or 'last resort' explanation. The descriptions offered by interviewees reflected the contributions made by the interviewer, highlighting the ways in which these reports are interactional co-productions. The results suggest that accounts from victims of seemingly racially motivated violence may function in similar ways to 'new racism' in making racism seem to 'disappear'. These findings point to the potential difficulties that arise in identifying and looking to challenge instances of ‘new racism’

The Mutually Constitutive Relationship between Place and Identity:The Role of Place-Identity in Discourse on Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Recent discursive research has shown that constructions of place may function to regulate social relations and reinforce particular notions of belonging. However, extant discursive research on place-identity has so far neglected the mutually constitutive relationships between constructions of place and identity in legitimising people's presence. To address this gap, this study, undertaken in Scotland, applies the notion of place-identity to the discursive analysis of interviews with asylum seekers and refugees, people who work in organisations that support asylum seekers and refugees and locals who live in areas where asylum seekers and refugees tend to be housed. The analysis suggests that constructions of asylum seekers' and refugees' countries of origin as dangerous, and the host society as relatively problem-free, function to constitute their identities as legitimate and to justify their presence in the host society. Moreover, constructions of place may work to portray refugees and asylum seekers as benefiting the local community and as belonging more than certain other locals. In contrast, constructing the host society as 'full' functions to oppose their presence through portraying them as not being able to belong. This demonstrates the mutually constitutive roles of place and identity in legitimising or resisting people's movement and belonging. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd