Non-metropolitan productions of multiculturalism: Refugee settlement in rural Australia

In spite of the widespread backlash against multicultural policies, diversity remains a feature of globalized societies, requiring better understandings of how cultural difference is negotiated in rapidly transforming communities. Building on existing studies of multiculturalism in metropolitan contexts, we use interviews and ethnographic research to consider the transformation of a non-metropolitan community from a relatively homogeneous to an increasingly diverse place resulting from recent humanitarian resettlement flows. We argue that the new arrivals and established settlers in this regional city collaborate in the discursive and practical production of a form of multiculturalism that is shaped by the particularities of a rural imaginary, which they assert as distinct from urban experiences of super-diversity. At the same time, the local emphasis on rurality contributes to the reproduction of power inequalities that limit opportunities for eliminating discrimination and social exclusion in spite of evidence of conviviality in formal and informal encounters

Digital media, ageing and faith: Older Sri Lankan migrants in Australia and their digital articulations of transnational religion

To date, older adults have received little attention in the newly emerging technological narratives of transnational religion. This is surprising, given the strong association of later life with spiritual and religious engagement, but it likely reflects the ongoing assumption that older adults are technophobic or technologically incompetent. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with older Sinhalese Buddhist migrants from Sri Lanka, living in Melbourne, this paper explores the digital articulations of transnational religion that arise from older migrants’ uses of digital media. We focus on how engagements with digital media enable older Sinhalese to respond to an urgent need to accumulate merit in later life, facilitating their temporal strategies for ageing as migrants. We argue that these digital articulations transform both the religious imaginary and the religious practices that validate and legitimize a life well-lived

Lifecourse Transitions: How ICTS Support Older Migrants' Adaptation to Transnational Lives

Lifecourse transitions from adulthood into older age are particularly complex for transnationalmigrants, bringing additional challenges and opportunities. Adding to the growing literature on ageing and migration, this article illustrates the ways ICTs facilitate the transnational lifecourse transitions of Vietnamese migrant grandparents in Australia through lifecourse digital learning. Research findings highlight the crucial role that digital citizenship plays in supporting migrant grandparents' adaptation to increasingly mobile lives through practices of digital kinning and digital homing. These practices include using technological tools to maintain social support networks, exchange transnational caregiving, tackle language, navigation, and social integration barriers, and consume culturally relevant media, all of which support migrant identities and belongings. Findings confirm the importance of ICTs in promoting lifecourse digital learning for older migrants who are often stereotyped for their poor learning capacities and ability to adapt to new living arrangements because of their older age

Lifecourse transitions: How ICTS support older migrants’ adaptation to transnational lives

Lifecourse transitions from adulthood into older age are particularly complex for transnational migrants, bringing additional challenges and opportunities. Adding to the growing literature on ageing and migration, this article illustrates the ways ICTs facilitate the transnational lifecourse transitions of Vietnamese migrant grandparents in Australia through lifecourse digital learning. Research findings highlight the crucial role that digital citizenship plays in supporting migrant grandparents’ adaptation to increasingly mobile lives through practices of digital kinning and digital homing. These practices include using technological tools to maintain social support networks, exchange transnational caregiving, tackle language, nav-igation, and social integration barriers, and consume culturally relevant media, all of which support migrant identities and belongings. Findings confirm the importance of ICTs in promoting lifecourse digital learning for older migrants who are often stereotyped for their poor learning capacities and ability to adapt to new living arrangements because of their older age

Promoting healthy futures in a rural refugee resettlement location: A community-based participatory research intervention

The resettlement of refugees in rural areas is presenting new challenges for healthcare. This article reports on a community-based participatory research project that explored understandings of health and care across the life course in a refugee-background community in regional south-east Australia. Participants identified key challenges, including lack of access to local services that address their complex needs and problems created by communicating across languages, cultures, and ontologies. Clear opportunities were identified for improving local health services to meet the needs of refugee-background communities. Building on participant recommendations, we argue that appropriate, high-quality healthcare requires the cultivation of dialogue and respect across different understandings of health and care. We suggest that approaches grounded in an ethos of collaboration, power-sharing and dialogue provide a way forward, not just for research, but for embedding practices of cultural safety in rural and regional resettlement

Digital escapes? ICTs, settlement and belonging among Karen Youth in Melbourne, Australia

What does it mean to become 'at home' in a settlement context while at the same time remaining connected to global networks? And what does this tell us about how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are transforming the experiences and opportunities of young people in a settlement context? These are some of the key questions underpinning Home Lands, a digital media project that explored the proposition that, if resettled refugee young people are able to maintain their connections to family and friends around the world, then this might enhance their sense of being at home in Melbourne. Analysing films and photographs produced during the programme by Karen Burmese youth, we describe three articulations of belonging that we have called settlement 'escapes'. We demonstrate how ICTs can open up new possibilities for becoming at home in a new country and as a citizen of a more global, deterritorialized world. Our research demonstrates that settlement in a networked world is fundamentally tied to the resources and opportunities afforded to youth in making a life in their new country both on-line and off-line

New Myths of OZ: The Australian Beach and the Negotiation of National Belonging by Refugee Background Youth

In this article we consider the Australian beach as a material, imaginary and social arena in which different versions of national belonging are performed and contested. Focusing on two short films produced by young people from refugee backgrounds, we explore the negotiation of national belonging on the beach by people who occupy identity categories that are typically excluded from idealising Australian beach mythologies. We argue that both the production and distribution of these films contribute to a reimagining of the Australian beach that creates new opportunities for people from migrant backgrounds to engage in the co-production of Australian identities in their own terms

Introduction to the special issue: forced displacement, refugees and ICTs: transformations of place, power and social ties

The articles in this special issue grapple with the complexities of ICTs with respect to the lives of forced migrants. They undertake an examination of a broad range of technologies, including biometrics, mobile phones, social media, websites and remote telephone interpreter services. Similarly, they take a broad approach to defining forced migrants, recognizing that classifications are subject to contestation and debate, and that diverse people situated in a variety of circumstances cannot easily be reduced to simple bureaucratic categories (Van Hear 2012; Zetter 2007). Collectively, these articles argue that ICTs are quite literally transforming the life worlds of forced migrants and the environments of international and local humanitarian organizations that provide support and offer protection

The Best Day of the Week: New Technology Enhancing Quality of Life in a Care Home

Older people living in residential aged care facilities tend to be physically as well as socially inactive, which leads to poorer health and reduced wellbeing. A lack of recognition of the importance of social support, limited resources, lack of training and task-oriented work routines leave little time for staff to meet the social needs of residents. Through qualitative ethnographic fieldwork, this study investigates the potential for new technologies to enhance quality of life and facilitate meaningful engagement in physical and social activities among culturally and linguistically diverse residents and staff in care facilities. A continuum from nonparticipation to full participation among residents was observed when Touch Screen Technology activities were implemented. Data indicate that resident’s engagement is impacted by five interdependent factors, including environmental, organisational, caregiver, patient, and management- &government-related. Findings show that new technologies can be used to increase meaningful physical and social engagement, including transcending language and cultural barriers. However, the successful application of new technologies to enhance quality of life is dependent on their integration into the daily routine and social relationships of staff and residents, with the full support of management. Guidelines governing the use of new technologies to support meaningful engagement of older people in residential care are lacking: this project highlights the importance of attention to the social relational dimensions of technology interventions to support best practice in their use