Venkat Pulla

The resilient Chinese in Australia: Ethnicity, identity and ‘Chineseness’

This review essay discusses the multigenerational ethnicity of Chinese people in Australia, particularly those who are long settled and Australian-born. The recent book by Ngan and Chan, The Chinese Face in Australia: Multi-generational Ethnicity among Australian-born Chinese provides an exploration of those Australian-born Chinese (ABCs) who having been long settled in Australia, still retain their own unique Chinese ethnicity. In comparison, the article by Tung and Chung explores the way in which a diaspora can contribute to the economic operations of both the country of origin and the diasporic host country, and further explores the changes in the views of the Chinese in Australia with the changes they experienced over the course of Australian history. This essay begins with an historical account of Chinese settlement in Australia, identifying the ways in which ‘Chineseness’ is perceived and performed in the social context, within the home, within the ethnic community and comparatively within the global Chinese diaspora. The review further delves into discrimination of the basis of ethnicity and considers the ways in which Chinese have coped with racism, utilizing ethnic and cultural coping, building their resilience to continue forward. Finally, the review probes the life course theory to determine its relevance to long settled ABCs and their ethnicity as well as the impact of linkages on this ethnicity and attempts to answer the question: Is hybridism, the process that sees members of a diaspora forming hybrid identities within the host society, a way out?

Response to a strengths-based approach in social work in schools: An Indian school in Dubai:

Strengths-based approaches in social work have been introduced in the West in a number of social work settings including schools. As part of a research study, the authors investigated the overall reception of students, parents and school counsellors to a strengths-based approach in one-to-one counselling in a school setting. We have utilised a grounded theory approach, allowing the data to drive the research process and the findings to naturally emerge. As a result, the outcomes that unfolded at various stages in our research made us unpack the traditional core expectations of school social work, gaining an insight into the role and expectations of social work roles in a predominantly alien working population living in an Arab country. While the school social work literature is predominantly Western, school social work and its counselling component sit well within the cultures that we grappled with. Despite, this, we have cautiously considered the context of social work and the impacts of the application of strengths-based principles in non-Western environments. Implications for improving student engagement within schools; scope of social work counselling in schools and further research that explores social work methodologies in culturally diverse contexts along with the limitations of this study are discussed in this article.

Rural Poverty and Social Work: Three Models

This paper discusses some innovative social work response to poverty in India at the community level promoted by volunteers and professional social workers alike. Three case studies in relation to poverty in India are reviewed and suggest that there is a great need for inclusion of specific content in social work training around poverty and working with poverty groups. Suggestions such as legal and regulatory framework for social work training and practice are also forwarded.

The Lhotsampa in Australia: Their Spirituality for Coping and Resilience

Abstract The Lhotsampa are one of the three main ethnic groups that make up the population of Bhutan, a nation of immigrants. Despite having been granted full citizenship following the promulgation of the Citizenship Act of 1958, a period of instability for the Lhotsampa ensued with the rise of power and status of the Lhotsampa coupled with the ascension to the throne of the fourth monarch, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who instituted policies ostensibly aimed at retaining ‘Bhutanese’ culture (Evans, R. 2010. ‘The Perils of being a Borderland People: On the Lhotshampas of Bhutan’. Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 18 (1): 26). This instability, marked by oppressive policies and overt discrimination, eventually resulted in either the expulsion or the flight of over 100,000 Lhotsampa people. Following more than 20 years in refugee camps in Nepal, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) commenced the resettlement of the Lhotsampa in 2007 in host countries throughout the world including Australia, the US, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway and the UK (Benson, G. O., F. Sun, D. R. Hodge and D. K. Androff. 2011. ‘Religious Coping and Acculturation Stress among Hindu Bhutanese: A Study of Newly-resettled Refugees in the United States’. International Social Work, Vol. 55 (4):: 539). This study examines the spiritual coping and subsequent resilience that the Lhotsampa refugees have succeeded in developing, not only at the loss of their homeland, the lack of citizenship and the adverse effects of refugee existence but also the difficult process of third country resettlement. Facing the difficulties of rebuilding lives in vastly differing Western cultures, this article examines the role(s) that spirituality plays in the development of resilience that facilitates positive outcomes, which the Lhotsampa are demonstrating. Themes of spirituality are identified and the way in which the Lhotsampa utilises their spirituality within these themes are also explored. Finally, the implications for contemporary social work practice will be considered. In particular, this article considers the strengths perspective for culturally competent, spiritually inclusive practice.

Spirituality, Coping and Resilience of the Lhotsampa

This chapter is based on a primary qualitative study that began as an idea from the second author, and received an impetus from a combination of the following—our independent beliefs in spirituality and in the innate strengths of people; our interest in human rights; and empathy for people of other cultures. It grew from these shared ideas about the importance of spirituality and from a desire to go beyond the contemporary bounds of Western social work and commonly held views on the future of the profession. Upon meeting the people whose stories we share below, we could not but be awed at their resilience. Despite the blatant human rights abuses they faced in their homeland, they have remained positive about their future and are pleased with what Australia, the third country, has offered them. It was natural that great affection for this gentle and humble community would follow alongside our passion to ensure that their story, through the telling, would not be repeated elsewhere in the future. It was indeed an honor to have been welcomed into their world, to share their stories, and learn about their spiritual coping.

Towards Spiritually Sensitive Social Work in a Multi Ethnic Western World

Progressive secularisation of western societies connotes casualization of spiritual care and where presented it appears to be highly tentative. An acid test to confirm the futility of our current aptitude in social work skill emerges prominently as we deal with minority and ageing populations in western societies. Irrespective of culture into which people are born into there appears to be a recognition that spiritual concerns commence early in ones development, when life is full of zest, vigour and vitality and as a result of preoccupation with zestful life these spiritual concerns remain on a back burner. Whichever journey that a social worker partakes in, and whom is spiritually sensitive, it is not only productive for the client but is also especially rewarding for the social worker as it initiates their personal inward reflective journey. The concepts in this paper are conceived and situated from the western worlds perspective, but it is possible to resonate equally with social work agenda for the East. In this paper I aim to deal with how we inform ourselves about concerns of spiritual nature amidst the challenges and opportunities that surround us as we live amongst a multitudinous ethnic western society. Furthermore, I will be discussing the efficacy of the strengths based approach in social work practice within the context of building a spiritual social work framework.

The resilient Chinese in Australia: Ethnicity, identity and ‘Chineseness’NganLucille Lok-SunChanKwok-bon, The Chinese Face in Australia: Multi-generational Ethnicity among Australian-born Chinese, Springer: New York, 2012; 220 pp.: ISBN 9781461421313TungRosalie LChungHenry FL, Diaspora and trade facilitation: The case of ethnic Chinese in Australia. Asia Pacific Journal of Management2010; 27: 371–392.

This review essay discusses the multigenerational ethnicity of Chinese people in Australia, particularly those who are long settled and Australian-born. The recent book by Ngan and Chan, The Chinese Face in Australia: Multi-generational Ethnicity among Australian-born Chinese provides an exploration of those Australian-born Chinese (ABCs) who having been long settled in Australia, still retain their own unique Chinese ethnicity. In comparison, the article by Tung and Chung explores the way in which a diaspora can contribute to the economic operations of both the country of origin and the diasporic host country, and further explores the changes in the views of the Chinese in Australia with the changes they experienced over the course of Australian history. This essay begins with an historical account of Chinese settlement in Australia, identifying the ways in which ‘Chineseness’ is perceived and performed in the social context, within the home, within the ethnic community and comparatively within the global Chinese diaspora. The review further delves into discrimination of the basis of ethnicity and considers the ways in which Chinese have coped with racism, utilizing ethnic and cultural coping, building their resilience to continue forward. Finally, the review probes the life course theory to determine its relevance to long settled ABCs and their ethnicity as well as the impact of linkages on this ethnicity and attempts to answer the question: Is hybridism, the process that sees members of a diaspora forming hybrid identities within the host society, a way out?

The Resilient Chinese in Australia

This review essay discusses the multigenerational ethnicity of Chinese people in Australia, particularly those who are long settled and Australian-born. The recent book by Ngan and Chan, The Chinese Face in Australia: Multi-generational Ethnicity among Australian-born Chinese provides an exploration of those Australian-born Chinese (ABCs) who having been long settled in Australia, still retain their own unique Chinese ethnicity. In comparison, the article by Tung and Chung explores the way in which a diaspora can contribute to the economic operations of both the country of origin and the diasporic host country, and further explores the changes in the views of the Chinese in Australia with the changes they experienced over the course of Australian history. This essay begins with an historical account of Chinese settlement in Australia, identifying the ways in which ‘Chineseness’ is perceived and performed in the social context, within the home, within the ethnic community and comparatively within the global Chinese diaspora. The review further delves into discrimination of the basis of ethnicity and considers the ways in which Chinese have coped with racism, utilizing ethnic and cultural coping, building their resilience to continue forward. Finally, the review probes the life course theory to determine its relevance to long settled ABCs and their ethnicity as well as the impact of linkages on this ethnicity and attempts to answer the question: Is hybridism, the process that sees members of a diaspora forming hybrid identities within the host society, a way out?