Negotiating change: working with children and their employers to transform child domestic work in Iringa, Tanzania

This paper documents the practical and action-oriented findings of an investigation into child domestic work undertaken in Iringa, Tanzania from 2005 to 2007. It provides an overview of the experiences of both child domestic workers and their employers, before discussing their suggestions for how child domestic working arrangements may be improved. The latter sections of the paper relate the attempts to regulate child domestic work that emerged from such dialogue. In providing detailed information on that process, the paper is positioned within the field of action research and resists the boundary frequently applied between academia and activism. It also moves beyond the tendency - observed in many existing studies of child (domestic) work - to document problems without proposing solutions. The regulatory focus of the project is theoretically supported by a social constructionist reading of the situation facing (child) domestic workers in Iringa (and elsewhere). Domestic workers have been discursively constructed as one of the family rather than employees. This paper posits that the exploitation of child domestic workers relies on such constructions, and that improved regulation of this employment sector may offer an opportunity to discursively and tangibly reconstruct child domestic work as real work. Although formulated in the Tanzanian context, the recommendations are of broader geographical relevance. 2011 Taylor and Francis

Diversifying ethnicity in Australia\u27s population and environment debates

Population–environment debates in Australia are at an impasse. While the ability of this continent to sustain more migrants has attracted persistent scrutiny, nuanced explorations of diverse migrant cultures and their engagements with Australian landscapes have scarcely begun. Yet as we face the challenges of a climate changing world we would undoubtedly benefit from the most varied knowledges we can muster. This paper brings together three arenas of environmental debate circulating in Australia—the immigration/carrying capacity debate, comparisons between Indigenous and Anglo-European modes of environmental interaction, and research on household sustainability dilemmas—to demonstrate the exclusionary tendencies of each. We then attempt to reorient them in productive ways, by attending to the complexity of environmental sustainability in a context of immense ethnic diversity. Attentiveness to ethnic diversity offers three important insights: (1) Anglo-European Australian understandings of nature and environmentalism are culturally specific, but other perspectives are possible; (2) tensions can arise when ethnic differences in environmental attitude or practice come into contact; and (3) cultural environmental research offers scope to identify ethnically diverse vernacular sustainability practices that should be supported. Each of these threads requires attention in a context where population–environment debates often overlook cultural complexity, and readily spiral into strident anti-immigration sentiments

The Migration of Horticultural Knowledge: Pacific Island seasonal workers in rural Australia-a missed opportunity?

In 2012, Graeme Hugo wrote the article \u27Migration and Development in Low-income Countries: A Role for Destination Country Policy?\u27 for the inaugural issue of the journal Migration and Development. That article, which continues to be the journal\u27s most viewed work,1 used the case of Asian and Pacific migration to Australia to question \u27whether policies and practices by destination governments relating to international migration and settlement can play a role in facilitating positive developmental impacts in origin communities\u27 (Hugo 2012, 25). The importance of such structural support for development has been underscored, in relation to seasonal worker programs, by growing evidence that their broader development benefits-beyond the household or family unit-cannot be taken for granted (Basok 2000; Craven 2015; Joint Standing Committee on Migration (JSCM) 2016). In this essay we take inspiration from the above-mentioned paper (Hugo 2012), as well as an earlier discussion of \u27best practice\u27 temporary labour migration for development (Hugo 2009). Reflecting on Australia\u27s Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP), we make a case for the importance of maximising \u27development benefits for origin countries via the transfer of remittances, skills and knowledge\u27 (Bedford et al. 2017, 39; emphasis added). Remittances have been a regular area of policy and research focus. However, less attention has been directed towards the knowledges and skills that move with seasonal workers as part of this circular and temporary migration process-in which the choice is not reduced to one \u27between staying or going\u27 (Methmann and Oels 2015, 53), but both staying and going (often repeatedly). Here we draw on our own ongoing research with Pacific Island seasonal workers in Australia\u27s horticultural sector, which points towards the potential for the SWP to facilitate the bi-directional transfer of horticultural knowledges and skills.2 Many seasonal workers have extensive farming experience developed in their countries of origin. Acknowledgement of their farming skills and identities prompts contemplation of how the horticultural knowledge transfers that already happen spontaneously under the SWP could be better supported

A participatory, action-oriented and youth-led investigation into child domestic work in Iringa, Tanzania

This thesis has two distinct yet interrelated parts. In the first instance, it investigates child domestic work in Iringa - a small town in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Second, it examines the participatory action research methodology that was adopted as part of that investigation. Data were collected by a team of researchers that included children and young people who had themselves been domestic workers. A questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with local leaders, employers of child domestic workers and (both current and former) child domestic workers themselves. An agenda for change - that aimed towards the redistribution of power within domestic working arrangements - was developed on the basis of those data and presented to local government authorities in Iringa. This research makes a number of contributions to understandings of both child domestic work and participatory action research methodologies. First, the thesis contends that child domestic work is a complex activity which (despite its frequently exploitative and abusive character) should not be identified as a purely harmful force in the lives of young employees. The multiplicity of ways in which that occupation is experienced can only be uncovered through the incorporation of a range of stakeholder's perspectives. Second, this research found that notions of 'family' were discursively linked to child domestic working arrangements in Iringa. This has inhibited recognition of child domestic work as 'real work', and contributed to the exploitation of these young employees. This thesis contends that increased formalisation and regulation of child domestic work would offer an opportunity to reconstruct child domestic workers as 'employees' and thereby improve their circumstances. This research has also challenged prevalent notions of children's incompetence and shown that young people with minimal formal education can (and should) participate as co-researchers in academic endeavours investigating their lives. However, it has also found that young people's competencies and interests vary, and that notions of appropriate participatory processes have often failed to take such diversity into account. This thesis contends that more participatory forms of evaluation may allow greater flexibility (and relevance) to be fostered when assessing the 'success' of participatory processes. Academics need to be alert to the alienating effects that (unwittingly) 'judgemental' and (unrealistically) 'perfect' accounts of participatory and action-oriented research processes can have on young scholars

Does religious faith make people healthier and happier?

As immigrants from around the world have joined Australia’s cultural mix, an inevitable rise in religious diversity has followed. But has this made for a healthier society? A recent VicHealth study showed that while religion can protect against illness, religious discrimination can harm health. This has led to a renewed call to embrace and respect religious diversity

Contemporary racism and Islamaphobia in Australia

Contemporary anti-Muslim sentiment in Australia is reproduced through a racialization that includes well rehearsed stereotypes of Islam, perceptions of threat and inferiority, as well as fantasies that the Other (in this case Australian Muslims) do not belong, or are absent. These are not old or colour-based racisms, but they do manifest certain characteristics that allow us to conceive a racialization process in relation to Muslims. Three sets of findings show how constructions of Islam are important means through which racism is reproduced. First, public opinion surveys reveal the extent of Islamaphobia in Australia and the links between threat perception and constructions of alien-ness and Otherness. The second data set is from a content analysis of the racialized pathologies of Muslims and their spaces. The third is from an examination of the undercurrents of Islamaphobia and national cultural selectivity in the politics of responding to asylum seekers. Negative media treatment is strongly linked to antipathetic government dispositions. This negativity has material impacts upon Australian Muslims. It sponsors a more widespread Islamaphobia, (mis)informs opposition to mosque development and ever more restrictive asylum seeker policies, and lies behind arson attacks and racist violence. Ultimately, the racialization of Islam corrupts belonging and citizenship for Muslim Australians

Building on our strengths: a framework to reduce race-based discrimination and support diversity in Victoria : full report

Building on our strengths: a framework to reduce race-based discrimination and support diversity in Victoria has been developed through a partnership between the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, the McCaughey Centre: VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing and the Onemda VicHealth Koori Health Unit. The McCaughey Centre and Onemda are both in the School of Population Health at the University of Melbourne. Drawing on the best available evidence in Australia and internationally, this report outlines themes, strategies and priority settings for the development and implementation of activity to reduce race-based discrimination and support diversity. Although recognising that discrimination has a specific meaning in law, this report takes a broader approach, being concerned with behaviours and practices that result in avoidable and unfair inequalities across groups in society based on race, ethnicity, culture or religion. Despite widespread support for diversity among Victorians, the data presented in this report indicate that race-based discrimination remains unacceptably high. The findings of a survey commissioned by VicHealth in 2006–07 (referred to in this report as the VicHealth Survey) showed that 90% of Victorians think it is a good thing for society to be made up of people from different cultures. However, existing side-byside with this apparent tolerance: • nearly 1 in 10 respondents agreed with the statement that not all races are equal; • nearly 1 in 10 respondents said that it is not a good idea for people of different races to marry one another; • more than 1 in 3 respondents believed that ‘Australia is weakened by people of different ethnic origins sticking to their old ways’; and • more than 1 in 3 respondents agreed with the statement that there were groups that did not belong in Australia (VicHealth 2007) These findings are of particular concern given increasing evidence that race-based discrimination impacts negatively on both individuals and the community. This includes evidence of links with ill-health and reduced productivity, social inclusion and community cohesion. Reducing race-based discrimination will be critical if the Victorian and Australian governments are to meet their commitments to achieve equitable health for all Australians and, in particular, to eliminate the gaps in health, social and economic status between people from Indigenous and non-indigenous backgrounds. Building on our strengths is driven by the goal of achieving sustainable reductions in race-based discrimination, with associated medium- and long-term benefits to individuals, organisations, communities and society. It is intended for broad usage across government, corporate, non-government and community sectors as a useful resource in policy and program development, implementation and evaluation