Carving in stone: the educational efforts of Iraqi mothers in Australia

This thesis investigates ways in which a group of Muslim Iraqi migrant mothers experience their involvement in their children’s education in Australia. Following migration, the lives of these mothers are located in two different countries: Iraq and Australia. The thesis shows how mothers’ practices and beliefs regarding their children’s education have a complex connection with their religious, cultural and social values and beliefs, their upbringing, and schooling experiences back in their birth country, Iraq. Their mothering work, therefore, transcends time (past and present) and space (Iraq and Australia). The study focuses on the interplay of ethnicity, gender, class and religion embedded in Iraqi migrant mothers’ lives and the relationship of these factors with their children’s education. This research draws on in-depth interviews conducted with twenty-five Iraqi Muslim mothers from different social and educational backgrounds whose children were enrolled in primary and secondary, public and private, including Islamic, schools in Melbourne. Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘cultural capital’, ‘habitus’ and ‘field’ were used to analyse the way these mothers engage with their children’s schooling, their practices, beliefs and attitudes about, and understandings of, the education system in Australia and the way these have shaped their interactions with schools. The findings show that the traditional relationship between parental engagement with children’s education and cultural capital differs in the case of migrant mothers. I argue that the level of involvement is not necessarily compatible with the level of cultural capital mothers hold but, rather, explains the extent to which mothers’ involvement is effective. Therefore, I constructed a set of three analytical categories to identify the differences amongst the mothers in relation to their involvement in their children’s schooling. These categories are: High capital-highly involved (HC-HI), Low capital-highly involved (LC-HI), and Low capital-minimal direct involvement (LC-MDI).This study shows that Iraqi migrant mothers’ attitudes to, and participation in, education and school choice in Australia are varying, ambiguous and complex, covering the full range from determined rejection, to selective use, to grudging acceptance, to strong embrace

Archaeological Looting Funds Terrorism: The Black Market for Antiquities and the ‘Islamic State’

A key revenue stream for various militant groups across the Middle East, including the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is the illicit looting and trafficking of antiquities which are sold on the international black market. Various archaeological sites are being looted by ISIS and others with devastating efficiency and on an industrial scale. While exact figures are difficult to determine, the profits from these looting operations are estimated to have brought ISIS millions of dollars in revenue over several years. In other words, the looting of archaeological sites directly funds terrorism. With their recent loss of territory in Syria and Iraq, ISIS have lost access to many significant archaeological sites and to this revenue stream. However, the looting and smuggling of antiquities continues to fund various militant factions in both Iraq and Syria and is a significant issue across the Middle East, including areas with a strong presence of militant Islamist groups such as in Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen and Egypt. Any effort, including that by the Australian Department of Defence, to defeat ISIS and similar movements must address this ongoing issue. More research is urgently needed to understand the precise nature, scope and variety of antiquities looting across the Middle East, the extent to which it is funding groups like ISIS, and to consider Australia’s role in international strategies to stanch this ongoing problem

‘I feel sometimes I am a bad mother’ : the affective dimension of immigrant mothers’ involvement in their children’s schooling.

This article identifies the complex emotional dimensions of migrant mothers’ involvement in their children’s education, building on feminist scholarship which affirms the importance of their emotional labour. We present findings from a study of Muslim Iraqi mothers with schoolaged children in Australia, based on 47 interviews with 25 immigrant mothers. Drawing on a Bourdieusian conceptual framework, we argue that the reserves of cultural and emotional capital required for effective participation in children’s education can be both consolidated and diminished through the process of migration. Perceived ineffective involvement comes at heavy emotional price, threatening some women’s perceptions of themselves as ‘good mothers’

The involvement of migrant mothers in their children?s education : cultural capital and transnational class processes.

This paper analyses the kinds of capital, practices and investments that are implicated in the participation of migrant mothers in the educational careers of their children, drawing on a Bourdieusian framework. We present findings of a study of Muslim Iraqi mothers with school-aged children in Australia, based on 47 interviews with 25 participants. The study identifies different modes of involvement in children?s education and connects these to mothers? cultural and social capital. Involvement, and its effectiveness, is analysed through the analytical categories of (i) high capital-high involvement; (ii) low capital-high involvement; and (iii) low capital-minimal direct involvement. The paper contributes to the theorisation of family?school relations in the context of migration, and develops a more nuanced perspective for studying social class positioning and repositioning

Transcultural capital and emergent identities among migrant youth

The everyday practices and socio-cultural identities of migrant youth have become a focal point of contemporary sociological research in Western countries of immigration. This article engages with the concept of transcultural capital to frame the possibilities and opportunities embodied in young migrants’ multi-layered identities and cross-cultural competencies in the context of an increasingly interconnected and diverse world. By re-conceptualising diversity and difference as agentic, transformational capitals to be valued, fostered and mobilised, this transcultural approach brings to the fore the multitude of skills, networks and knowledge that migrant youth access and develop through multiple cultural repertoires. Drawing on the narratives of migrant youth in Melbourne (Australia), this article argues that access to different – and not necessarily oppositional – cultural systems opens up a space for understanding the ability of migrant youth to instigate, negotiate and maintain valuable socio-cultural connections in ways that recognise, disrupt and transform social hierarchies. </jats:p