Farida Tilbury

Deflecting responsibility in employer talk about race discrimination

This article explores a number of discursive devices used by employers when talking about employment market issues for migrants in Australia. Data come from a research project which sought to understand barriers to employment for ‘visibly different’ refugees and new migrants. Analysis reveals that employers use a number of rhetorical strategies, embedded within broader racist discourses, to deflect attention from their own possible culpability in discriminating against those from migrant and refugee backgrounds. The forms these ‘exoneration utterances’ take are examined in detail. Employers attribute inequitable employment outcomes to the market, their customers or clients, the community and to the applicants themselves, absolving themselves, and the companies they represent, of responsibility.

Being black in Australia: a case study of intergroup relations

This article presents a case study in Australias race relations, focusing on tensions between urban Aborigines and recently resettled African refugees, particularly among young people. Both of these groups are of low socio-economic status and are highly visible in the context of a predominantly white Australia. The relationship between them, it is argued, reflects the history of strained race relations in modern Australia and a growing antipathy to multiculturalism. Specific reasons for the tensions between the two populations are suggested, in particular, perceptions of competition for material (housing, welfare, education) and symbolic (position in a racial hierarchy) resources. Finally, it is argued that the phenomenon is deeply embedded in class and race issues, rather than simply in youth violence.

“I FEEL I AM A BIRD WITHOUT WINGS”: DISCOURSES OF SADNESS AND LOSS AMONG EAST AFRICANS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Using data from a qualitative study of understandings and experiences of “depression” among a number of East African communities in Western Australia, this article explores the dimensions of sadness and loss expressed by migrants and refugees. After discussing the parameters and cross-cultural (ir)relevance of the Western biomedical notion of “depression” (Kleinman and Good 1985) and its relationship to the hegemony of the Western “happiness” imperative (Wierzbicka 1999: 249), the article discusses methodological challenges involved in exploring understandings of “depression” among migrants. It then examines the ways in which sadness is expressed and the causes to which it is attributed, using extracts from interviews and focus groups with over 100 people from Ethiopian, Eritrean, Sudanese, and Somali backgrounds. The article argues that individualizing these concerns and reading them within the dominant Western biomedical framework of “depression” reinforces pathological representations of migrants and refugees, ignores structural disadvantage that produces negative emotional responses, limits settlement service responses, and may be recruited for the negative end result of arguing against immigration.

‘There are orphans in Africa still looking for my hands’: African women refugees and the sources of emotional distress

Abstract This paper explores issues of emotional distress expressed by refugee women from Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea who now live in Western Australia. Qualitative data from interviews and focus groups are used to illustrate differences in understandings of distress, including depression and anxiety, and women’s understandings of the causes of, and solutions to, what have been defined by service providers as ‘mental health’ problems. The findings challenge Western biomedical approaches to dealing with prolonged grief and distress among migrant communities, which frequently reinforce disempowerment. We argue that it is the structural determinants of powerlessness that need to be addressed, rather than individual psyches.

'Sperm Milkshakes with Poo Sprinkles': The Challenges of Identifying Family Meals Practices through an Online Survey with Adolescents

This article contributes to a long‐overdue discussion about research with adolescents. While young people are now recognised as competent and reliable participants, there are particular difficulties associated with using adolescents as respondents. Furthermore, it is rare for young people’s reactions to the research process to be heard. This article reports on some of the methodological challenges faced in designing and administering a Web‐based survey to 15‐year‐old school students in Perth, Western Australia, in an attempt to gain insight into meals practices and beliefs among adolescents and their families. Using empirical data, we discuss issues concerning the competence of adolescents to participate in social research. We conclude that using a Web‐based survey actively facilitates high levels of adolescent engagement in the research process, allowing them to be both subject and object of the research.

'Piggy in the Middle': the Liminality of the Contract Researcher in Funded 'Collaborative' Research

This paper considers the challenges faced by contract researchers employed on interdisciplinary, cross institutional research projects. It argues that current funding requirements and a general fashion for ‘collaborative’ research have produced growing numbers of contract researchers employed to carry out other peoples research. These contract researchers are caught, like a ‘piggy in the middle’, between disciplinary boundaries, geographic sites, institutional cultures, theoretical incommensurabilities and competing grantholders. Their position is made all the more difficult because such collaborations, in practice, often blur the sense of ‘ownership’ and therefore responsibility for the research, leaving the contract researcher responsible for operationalising and undertaking the work, but with little acknowledgement of their commitment. The paper includes a number of suggestions for dealing with such difficulties.