Val Colic-Peisker

‘At Least You're the Right Colour’: Identity and Social Inclusion of Bosnian Refugees in Australia

This paper explores the Australian resettlement of the largest recent refugee group, Bosnians. It is argued that Bosnians (and other ex-Yugoslavs) were Australias preferred humanitarian immigrants during the 1990s because of their European background (based on social-cohesion and ‘resettlement-potential’ arguments) and because of the presence of ex-Yugoslav communities in Australia which were expected to support newly arrived refugees during their early resettlement (the ‘community argument’). The ‘whiteness’/‘Europeanness’ of Bosnians enabled them to remain largely ‘invisible’ in the country they perceived as ‘white Australia’ and to initially claim an ‘insider status’. For many people, however, this self-inclusion is thwarted in the second stage of resettlement when they are expected to find jobs and ‘acculturate’, as the language barrier and their non-English-speaking background become a basis of difference and potential exclusion. Their economic and social inclusion thus appears to be determined by factors beyond visibility and remains limited almost a decade after the largest wave of Bosnians arrived in Australia.

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.

Croatians in Western Australia: migration, language and class

This paper explores the migration experience of two cohorts of Croatian migrants in Australia focusing on the fact that they are non-English speaking background (NESB) migrants. Central attention is given to the intersection of class and ‘living in another language’ (being NESB in Australia). The first cohort migrated in the 1960s and is predominantly working class; the second migrated in the late 1980s and is predominantly professional. It is argued that living in an English speaking environment affects Croatian migrants in practical, cultural, identity and status terms. It determines their life chances, employment prospects and the feeling of belonging to the Australian community. However, the two groups of migrants, being from different socioeconomic backgrounds, are affected in different ways.

‘Ethnics’ and ‘Anglos’ in the Labour Force: Advancing Australia Fair?

Multiculturalism as ideology and policy has been criticised for over-focusing on cultural identities and differences and a lack of focus on the structural inequality of ethno-cultural groups. This paper focuses on the latter issue through a comparative analysis of the workforce integration of immigrants to Australia. Past research has shown that non-English-speaking-background (NESB) immigrants were worse off than both the Australia-born and English-speaking-background (ESB) immigrants in achieving a job status and income corresponding to their educational qualifications. The paper compares 2006 Census data on education level, type of job, length of residence and English proficiency for eight NESB groups, one ESB group (UK) and the Australia-born. The investigation focuses on how well different birthplace groups are able to translate their skills into appropriate jobs, when controlling for English proficiency and length of residence. The main finding confirms that NESB immigrants still have worse employment outcomes than the Australia-born and UK-born overall, but some NESB groups match the success of the Anglophone groups in vocational sector employment. Among the tertiary educated, the employment outcomes of the Australia-born are better than those of all immigrant groups, closely followed by the UK-born and two other European groups.

Looking for a “Missing Link”: Formal Employment Services and Social Networks in Refugees' Job Search

Finding employment and developing social networks that can facilitate this task can be major challenges for migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Australia and comparable countries, and even more so for refugees who represent a potentially more disadvantaged section of the immigrant intake. This paper explores refugees’ perception and use of the Job Network (JN), a group of employment service providers contracted by the Australian government. Using data from a survey of 150 skilled refugee settlers from former Yugoslav, African and Middle Eastern backgrounds in Perth, Western Australia, as well as data collected through interviews with employment service providers and other key informants, we report a mismatch between service providers’ and refugees’ perceptions and expectations of the employment services. Refugees perceived the JN services and especially JN-provided job training as an opportunity to develop social networks rather than to learn specific job search-relevant skills. On the basis of this finding, and within the social capital framework, we apply the concept of “linking social capital” – the capacity of individuals to leverage resources, ideas and information from institutions beyond their immediate communities – to the labour market integration of refugees in Australia. We conclude that despite the failure of the JN to provide the services refugees need, their activities may be useful for developing linking social capital.

Introduction: a new era in Australian multiculturalism? The need for critical interrogation

This special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Studies analyses Australian ethnic and race relations and the notion of multiculturalism, a societal domain that has experienced considerable change over the past decade. It seeks to contribute a crossdisciplinary effort in rethinking and reconceptualising multiculturalism at the end of the eventful first decade of the twenty-first century from an Australian angle. The papers collected here were first presented at the workshop titled ‘‘A New Era in Australian Multiculturalism?’’ that took place in Melbourne in November 2010, involving leading Australian researchers in this area. Since its inception, the modern Australian nation has been shaped by successive waves of immigration from increasingly diverse sources. Large post-Second World War immigration from non-English-speaking countries prompted political changes that led to the introduction of a public discourse of multiculturalism and related policies in the early 1970s (Lopez 2000, Jupp 2002, Fraser and Simons 2010). Multiculturalism was institutionalised in government policy during the late 1970s and 1980s, but from its inception faced political and ideological challenges. After a peak in the early 1990s, by the mid-late 1990s and during the 2000s multiculturalism was out of favour in Australia, at least at the level of federal politics, until its very recent ideological re-emergence. At the level of State politics and policy, in Labor Party-controlled states, the withdrawal from multiculturalism was less noticeable.

Communicating One's Way to Employment: A Case Study of African Settlers in Brisbane, Australia

This paper reports findings of an Australian study on cross-cultural communication and employment of several African birthplace groups of former refugees. The study was conducted in the greater Brisbane area in 2009–10 and collected both quantitative (based on a short questionnaire) and qualitative (based on 12 focus groups) data. Drawing on the uncertainty reduction theory (URT), the segmented labour market theory (SLMT) and Bourdieus concepts of linguistic and cultural capital, the paper focuses on cross-cultural communication aspects of job search (particularly the job interview situation), the workplace (communication with supervisors and co-workers) and overcoming linguistic and cultural obstacles in building bridging social networks. Existing power relations that structure the communication process, especially the ‘symbolic power’ aspect of Australian ethnic relations, are the context of our analysis. We also report on gender differences that additionally structure these processes in the job search and workplace contexts.