Val Colic-Peisker
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 108064 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Val Colic-Peisker |
| PRENOMES | Val |
| SOBRENOME | Colic-Peisker |
| ASSINATURA | COLIC-PEISKER V |
| AFILIAÇÕES | RMIT University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3471-0938 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 42 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 731 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 42 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1999 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 14 |
Death at the Time of Covid-19
Homeownership Habitus and Residential Practice of Highly-Skilled Chinese Migrants in the Netherlands
This paper proposes a "homeownership habitus" concept to understand the residential practice of highly-skilled young Chinese migrants in the Netherlands. Using 41 interviews, we show how and why they typically become homeowners soon after securing stable employment. Even without planning to stay in the Netherlands long-term, buying properties was taken for granted, sanctioned by the Chinese value framework whereby homeownership is not only a stat…
Migrant residential concentrations and socio-economic disadvantage in two Australian gateway cities
This article explores the relationship of residential concentrations of non-Anglophone migrants with socio-economic disadvantage at the suburb (SA2) level. We look at two main Australian gateway cities, Sydney and Melbourne. We use the 'person-counts' of the latest available (2016) Australian Census data, matching them with the socio-economic data provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics 'socio-economic indexes for areas' (SEIFA). Our anal…
Sinophobia in the Asian century
This paper explores public discourses of race and nation in Australia and Singapore, focusing on their historical and contemporary relationship with China and the Chinese. Both countries are governed by a multicultural ideology but are experiencing evolving tensions rooted in their (post)colonial and settler histories, dominated by respective Anglo-Australian and Singaporean-Chinese majorities. To illuminate these issues, we analyse public discou…
Social cohesion revisited
This paper examines the understanding of social cohesion by policymakers, practitioners and residents, with particular reference to migrant concentration areas in Sydney and Melbourne. Ten suburbs we focus on had a high proportion of Muslim Australian residents and were socioeconomically disadvantaged at the time of the 2016 Australian Census. The paper is based on 52 in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews, mainly with professionals delivering loca…
Mediated Islamophobia and Local Coexistence
This article introduces the conceptual distinctions between 'mediated' and 'immediate' Islamophobia. 'Mediated' Islamophobia refers to the fact that most people who express Islamophobic sentiment do not know (m)any Muslims and know little about Islam; their knowledge about Islam and Muslims, and any Islamophobic sentiment they may have, come from the exposure to traditional and/or social media. Given the documented Islamophobic bias of many 'West…
Media Coverage of Two Violent Events with Muslim Perpetrators in Australia and the Netherlands
This paper compares media coverage to violent events in Australia and the Netherlands: the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in November 2004 and the “Sydney siege”, a hostage-taking crisis in Sydney in December 2014. Both events were associated with Muslim perpetrators. We analyse media coverage by three high-circulation newspapers in each country in the week after the events. Our focus is on the public representation of Muslims in …
Parent-child Engagement and Dissonance in Refugee Families Resettling in Brisbane, Australia
This Australian-based study examined demographic and psychosocial factors associated with refugee parents’ communication with their children. Refugee parents (n = 222) from Ethiopia, Congo, and Myanmar took part in a survey. Logistic hierarchical analysis showed that parents with a higher level of acculturation were more engaged in meaningful and positive communication with their children. Parents’ acculturative stress increased their perception …
Chinese business migrants in Australia
Over the past two decades, four-fifths of the business immigration to Australia originated from China. Australian business migrants are required to undertake a two-step migration pathway: first they demonstrate a certain level of assets and business success to qualify for temporary entry and then, through successful business activity, they qualify for permanent residency (PR). Using in-depth interview narratives and survey data, this article expl…
Religious visibility
In recent decades, and especially after the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack on US, an antipathy towards and fear of Muslim minorities in Western countries have increased, forming part of the current widespread anti-immigration sentiment. In this context, the 'religiously visible' Muslims are the most obvious target of negative perceptions, discrimination and other manifestations of 'Islamophobia'. This paper uses quantitative and qualitative data on r…
Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Partnering for Refugee Research
In this article we reflect on methodological and ethical challenges encountered while conducting two large, nationally funded studies on refugee resettlement in Australia. We focus on collaborative research partnerships, specifically with “industry partners,” wherein the partners may have different understandings of the research process and different agendas, and with bilingual research assistants. We analyze methodological challenges primarily p…
Know thy Neighbour
Positive interaction with neighbours can significantly influence new immigrants’ perception of being welcomed in the host society. This article analyses interview narratives of 47 former refugees from Ethiopia, Burma and Congo about their neighbourhood experiences in diverse and relatively disadvantaged localities within Greater Brisbane, Australia. While most interviewees had positive interactions with their neighbours, a significant minority re…
Ideology and utopia
This article reflects on the role of public sociology in the debate on the systemic crisis of western capitalism reinvigorated by the 2007–8 global financial crisis. The article argues that, in the current moment in history, sociologists have a professional duty to challenge the growing irrationality of the economically rational public discourse and to more vigorously uphold the formulation of alternative ‘real-utopian’ discourses. The article fi…
Facilitating the professional transition of migrants in Australia
This article explores the provision and effects of a program devised to facilitate the professional transition of skilled migrants from non‐English‐speaking backgrounds (NESB) arriving in Australia on permanent visas. The program (‘Skilled Professional Migrants Program’—SPMP) was delivered by AMES Australia and internally evaluated through a telephone survey of 337 past participants. A report of survey results, primarily gauging short‐term post‐p…
A Community of Mourners
This paper analyses collective sentiment in media responses to the event known as the ‘Sydney Siege’ (December 2014), focusing on the everyday narratives about nationhood and belonging. The aim of the article is to analyse how a hostage-taking situation, represented as a terrorist act, served to reinforce the boundaries of a national community in relation to Australian Muslims. The theoretical framework draws from Ahmed’s (‘The Organization of Ha…
A Multicultural Nation and its (Muslim) Other? Political Leadership and Media Reporting in the Wake of the 'Sydney Siege
This article explores public reactions to an event dubbed the ‘Sydney siege’, through an analysis of its media coverage. The event, where a Muslim man held 18 hostages in a Sydney café, was closely followed during its 22 hour duration and triggered an avalanche of public commentary. We analyse media articles, political leaders’ media statements and transcripts of press conferences published within the week of the siege. Using NVivo software, we c…
Policy Narratives versus Everyday Geographies
This paper presents a comparative case study of two northern suburbs in Melbourne, Australia, in order to analyze local perceptions of proximity, mobility, and spaces of community interaction within diverse neighborhoods experiencing socioeconomic and demographic transition. We first look at government policies concerning the two suburbs, which position one suburb within a narrative of gentrification and the other within a narrative of marginaliz…
Housing older Australians
In Australia and other ‘homeownership societies’ it has been conventional to think of housing pathways in terms of a smooth linear progression, leading to outright ownership in middle age and a retirement buffered by low housing costs. This vision of the welfare role of homeownership is an important buttress of Australian retirement incomes policy. However, this vision has been challenged in recent years as growing numbers of older Australians lo…
Social change and community cohesion
This paper looks comparatively at the process of social change and its impact on local community cohesion in two Melbourne suburbs, 'Northburb' and 'Greenburb'. The two localities are geographically close, part of the same local government area and both highly ethnically diverse, but considerably different in terms of their socio-economic and ethnic profiles. Based on ethnographic data collected through individual interviews, focus groups and par…
Anglo‐Australian and non‐Anglophone middle classes
Building on the concept of ‘multicultural middle class’, this paper explores social inclusion of professionally educated and employed non‐Anglophone immigrants in Australia. We focus specifically on the perceptions and implications of ‘foreign accent’ in the interaction between two groups of middle‐class Australians: non‐Anglophone immigrants and Anglo‐Australians. ‘Non‐Anglophone immigrants’ are defined as those who arrived in Australia as adult…
The Bosnian Diaspora
Communicating One's Way to Employment
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 Bourdieu's concepts …
Liquid Life, Solid Homes
This article examines the homeownership aspirations and plans of two groups of young Australian adults defined by their class position as 'disadvantaged' and 'middle class'. We draw on Bauman's idea of liquid modernity and 'liquid life' to frame our analysis. Despite being under less pressure to adopt socially prescribed adult transitions that applied to previous generations - a steady job, marriage, family and a house in the suburbs - young adul…
A New Era in Australian Multiculturalism? From Working-Class “Ethnics” to a “Multicultural Middle- Class”
This article analyses the changing socio-economic profile of the “multicultural” section of the Australian population, in the past officially referred to as people of “non-English-speaking background” (NESB). After importing low-skilled NESB labor to service the manufacturing boom of the post-war decades, at the end of the 1970s, following economic restructuring, the Australian immigration program was refocused on skilled intake which resulted in…
Migration, Class and Transnational Identities
Integration into the Australian Labour Market
This paper explores the effects of “visible difference” on employment outcomes of three recently arrived refugee 2 groups: ex‐Yugoslavs, black Africans, and people from the Middle East. The paper draws on data collected through a survey (150 questionnaire‐based face‐to‐face interviews conducted by bilingual interviewers) of refugees who settled in Western Australia over the past decade. Results indicate different outcomes for respondents from the…
Employment Niches for Recent Refugees
A survey of three refugee groups (ex-Yugoslavs, black Africans and people from the Middle East) in Western Australia indicates that the recent humanitarian arrivals are concentrated in labour market niches such as cleaning services, care of the aged, meat processing, taxi driving, security and building. Apart from the building industry, these employment niches are situated in the 'secondary labour market' comprising low-status and low-paid jobs t…
Human capital, acculturation and social identity
This article explores the processes of acculturation and identity among refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina who resettled in the Australian cities of Perth and Sydney during the 1990s. We start from the idea that refugees, through the process of forced migration, lose aspects of their identities that were embedded in their former communities, jobs, skills, language, and culture. Upon arrival in a new society, they seek to reconstruct their ident…
Visibility, settlement success and life satisfaction in three refugee communities in Australia
This article explores settlement experiences of three refugee populations — ex-Yugoslavs, black Africans and people from the Middle East — who recently (1990s—2000s) arrived in Western Australia. Settlement success and life satisfaction are investigated in connection with the three groups' racial and cultural visibility in the host milieu and an endemic loss of occupational and social status. Data were collected through a survey of 150 refugees a…
Active” and “Passive” Resettlement
This paper explores the process of resettlement among recent refugees in Perth, Western Australia. We propose four refugee resettlement styles created through the interaction of a number of factors. These factors can be clustered as: (1) the social features of refugees (their human, social, and cultural capital), and (2) the host society's responses to refugee settlers (Australia's resettlement policy and services and the broader influence of the…
Free floating in the cosmopolis? Exploring the identity-belonging of transnational knowledge workers
In this article I explore what I call the 'identity-belonging' of transnational knowledge workers, a diverse group of serially migrating career professionals who have spent extended periods of time in at least three countries, usually following career opportunities. Unlike most recent writing on transnationalism, which focuses on enduring connections of migrants with their 'home' countries/places, here I explore a transnationalism that may transc…
At Least You're the Right Colour
This paper explores the Australian resettlement of the largest recent refugee group, Bosnians. It is argued that Bosnians (and other ex-Yugoslavs) were Australia's 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 the…
Security and Anxiety of Homeownership
This article explores narratives of homeownership by middle‐class Australians in the context of an increasingly complex and volatile housing market. Our analysis focuses on people's perceptions and feelings of security and anxiety at different stages in their housing careers. We use the concepts of ontological security and risk society to frame the analysis. The participants' narratives of homeownership were mainly positive, in tune with a well e…
A New Era in Australian Multiculturalism? From Working-Class “Ethnics” to a “Multicultural Middle- Class”
This article analyses the changing socio-economic profile of the “multicultural” section of the Australian population, in the past officially referred to as people of “non-English-speaking background” (NESB). After importing low-skilled NESB labor to service the manufacturing boom of the post-war decades, at the end of the 1970s, following economic restructuring, the Australian immigration program was refocused on skilled intake which resulted in…
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…
Being black in Australia
This article presents a case study in Australia's 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…
Ethnics' and 'Anglos' in the Labour Force
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 Engl…
Introduction
Additional informationNotes on contributorsVal Colic-PeiskerVal Colic-Peisker is a Senior Research Fellow at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University). She is a sociologist/political scientist with special interest in migration, multiculturalism, global mobility of professionals, cosmopolitanism and employment of immigrants in Australia. Her latest book Migration, Class and Transnational Identities: Croatians in Australia and Amer…
Liquid Life, Solid Homes
This article examines the homeownership aspirations and plans of two groups of young Australian adults defined by their class position as 'disadvantaged' and 'middle class'. We draw on Bauman's idea of liquid modernity and 'liquid life' to frame our analysis. Despite being under less pressure to adopt socially prescribed adult transitions that applied to previous generations - a steady job, marriage, family and a house in the suburbs - young adul…
Social change and community cohesion
This paper looks comparatively at the process of social change and its impact on local community cohesion in two Melbourne suburbs, 'Northburb' and 'Greenburb'. The two localities are geographically close, part of the same local government area and both highly ethnically diverse, but considerably different in terms of their socio-economic and ethnic profiles. Based on ethnographic data collected through individual interviews, focus groups and par…
Know thy Neighbour
Positive interaction with neighbours can significantly influence new immigrants’ perception of being welcomed in the host society. This article analyses interview narratives of 47 former refugees from Ethiopia, Burma and Congo about their neighbourhood experiences in diverse and relatively disadvantaged localities within Greater Brisbane, Australia. While most interviewees had positive interactions with their neighbours, a significant minority re…
Communicating One's Way to Employment
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 Bourdieu's concepts …
"Looking for a "Missing Link
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 contract…
Chinese business migrants in Australia
Over the past two decades, four-fifths of the business immigration to Australia originated from China. Australian business migrants are required to undertake a two-step migration pathway: first they demonstrate a certain level of assets and business success to qualify for temporary entry and then, through successful business activity, they qualify for permanent residency (PR). Using in-depth interview narratives and survey data, this article expl…
Religious visibility
In recent decades, and especially after the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack on US, an antipathy towards and fear of Muslim minorities in Western countries have increased, forming part of the current widespread anti-immigration sentiment. In this context, the 'religiously visible' Muslims are the most obvious target of negative perceptions, discrimination and other manifestations of 'Islamophobia'. This paper uses quantitative and qualitative data on r…
Housing older Australians
In Australia and other ‘homeownership societies’ it has been conventional to think of housing pathways in terms of a smooth linear progression, leading to outright ownership in middle age and a retirement buffered by low housing costs. This vision of the welfare role of homeownership is an important buttress of Australian retirement incomes policy. However, this vision has been challenged in recent years as growing numbers of older Australians lo…
Croatians in Western Australia
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 ar…
A Multicultural Nation and its (Muslim) Other? Political Leadership and Media Reporting in the Wake of the 'Sydney Siege
This article explores public reactions to an event dubbed the ‘Sydney siege’, through an analysis of its media coverage. The event, where a Muslim man held 18 hostages in a Sydney café, was closely followed during its 22 hour duration and triggered an avalanche of public commentary. We analyse media articles, political leaders’ media statements and transcripts of press conferences published within the week of the siege. Using NVivo software, we c…
Facilitating the professional transition of migrants in Australia
This article explores the provision and effects of a program devised to facilitate the professional transition of skilled migrants from non‐English‐speaking backgrounds (NESB) arriving in Australia on permanent visas. The program (‘Skilled Professional Migrants Program’—SPMP) was delivered by AMES Australia and internally evaluated through a telephone survey of 337 past participants. A report of survey results, primarily gauging short‐term post‐p…
Migrant residential concentrations and socio-economic disadvantage in two Australian gateway cities
This article explores the relationship of residential concentrations of non-Anglophone migrants with socio-economic disadvantage at the suburb (SA2) level. We look at two main Australian gateway cities, Sydney and Melbourne. We use the 'person-counts' of the latest available (2016) Australian Census data, matching them with the socio-economic data provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics 'socio-economic indexes for areas' (SEIFA). Our anal…
Two Waves of Croatian Migrants in Western Australia
This paper examines the ways in which two waves of Croatian migrants in Western Australia have constructed their ethnic/national identity following migration. These two waves – the first took place during the 1960s and the early 1970s and the second in the late 1980s/early 1990s – are considerably different in terms of their socio‐economic background. The earlier wave came from rural areas of Croatia and can be described as typically working clas…
Croatians in Western Australia
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 ar…
Active” and “Passive” Resettlement
This paper explores the process of resettlement among recent refugees in Perth, Western Australia. We propose four refugee resettlement styles created through the interaction of a number of factors. These factors can be clustered as: (1) the social features of refugees (their human, social, and cultural capital), and (2) the host society's responses to refugee settlers (Australia's resettlement policy and services and the broader influence of the…
Human capital, acculturation and social identity
This article explores the processes of acculturation and identity among refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina who resettled in the Australian cities of Perth and Sydney during the 1990s. We start from the idea that refugees, through the process of forced migration, lose aspects of their identities that were embedded in their former communities, jobs, skills, language, and culture. Upon arrival in a new society, they seek to reconstruct their ident…
At Least You're the Right Colour
This paper explores the Australian resettlement of the largest recent refugee group, Bosnians. It is argued that Bosnians (and other ex-Yugoslavs) were Australia's 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 the…
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…
Employment Niches for Recent Refugees
A survey of three refugee groups (ex-Yugoslavs, black Africans and people from the Middle East) in Western Australia indicates that the recent humanitarian arrivals are concentrated in labour market niches such as cleaning services, care of the aged, meat processing, taxi driving, security and building. Apart from the building industry, these employment niches are situated in the 'secondary labour market' comprising low-status and low-paid jobs t…
Integration into the Australian Labour Market
This paper explores the effects of “visible difference” on employment outcomes of three recently arrived refugee 2 groups: ex‐Yugoslavs, black Africans, and people from the Middle East. The paper draws on data collected through a survey (150 questionnaire‐based face‐to‐face interviews conducted by bilingual interviewers) of refugees who settled in Western Australia over the past decade. Results indicate different outcomes for respondents from the…
Migration, Class, and Transnational Identities
"Looking for a "Missing Link
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 contract…
Being black in Australia
This article presents a case study in Australia's 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…
Entries
Visibility, settlement success and life satisfaction in three refugee communities in Australia
This article explores settlement experiences of three refugee populations — ex-Yugoslavs, black Africans and people from the Middle East — who recently (1990s—2000s) arrived in Western Australia. Settlement success and life satisfaction are investigated in connection with the three groups' racial and cultural visibility in the host milieu and an endemic loss of occupational and social status. Data were collected through a survey of 150 refugees a…
Security and Anxiety of Homeownership
This article explores narratives of homeownership by middle‐class Australians in the context of an increasingly complex and volatile housing market. Our analysis focuses on people's perceptions and feelings of security and anxiety at different stages in their housing careers. We use the concepts of ontological security and risk society to frame the analysis. The participants' narratives of homeownership were mainly positive, in tune with a well e…
Free floating in the cosmopolis? Exploring the identity-belonging of transnational knowledge workers
In this article I explore what I call the 'identity-belonging' of transnational knowledge workers, a diverse group of serially migrating career professionals who have spent extended periods of time in at least three countries, usually following career opportunities. Unlike most recent writing on transnationalism, which focuses on enduring connections of migrants with their 'home' countries/places, here I explore a transnationalism that may transc…
A New Era in Australian Multiculturalism? From Working-Class “Ethnics” to a “Multicultural Middle- Class”
This article analyses the changing socio-economic profile of the “multicultural” section of the Australian population, in the past officially referred to as people of “non-English-speaking background” (NESB). After importing low-skilled NESB labor to service the manufacturing boom of the post-war decades, at the end of the 1970s, following economic restructuring, the Australian immigration program was refocused on skilled intake which resulted in…
Introduction
Additional informationNotes on contributorsVal Colic-PeiskerVal Colic-Peisker is a Senior Research Fellow at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University). She is a sociologist/political scientist with special interest in migration, multiculturalism, global mobility of professionals, cosmopolitanism and employment of immigrants in Australia. Her latest book Migration, Class and Transnational Identities: Croatians in Australia and Amer…
Ethnics' and 'Anglos' in the Labour Force
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 Engl…
Communicating One's Way to Employment
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 Bourdieu's concepts …
Liquid Life, Solid Homes
This article examines the homeownership aspirations and plans of two groups of young Australian adults defined by their class position as 'disadvantaged' and 'middle class'. We draw on Bauman's idea of liquid modernity and 'liquid life' to frame our analysis. Despite being under less pressure to adopt socially prescribed adult transitions that applied to previous generations - a steady job, marriage, family and a house in the suburbs - young adul…
The Bosnian Diaspora
Anglo‐Australian and non‐Anglophone middle classes
Building on the concept of ‘multicultural middle class’, this paper explores social inclusion of professionally educated and employed non‐Anglophone immigrants in Australia. We focus specifically on the perceptions and implications of ‘foreign accent’ in the interaction between two groups of middle‐class Australians: non‐Anglophone immigrants and Anglo‐Australians. ‘Non‐Anglophone immigrants’ are defined as those who arrived in Australia as adult…
Policy Narratives versus Everyday Geographies
This paper presents a comparative case study of two northern suburbs in Melbourne, Australia, in order to analyze local perceptions of proximity, mobility, and spaces of community interaction within diverse neighborhoods experiencing socioeconomic and demographic transition. We first look at government policies concerning the two suburbs, which position one suburb within a narrative of gentrification and the other within a narrative of marginaliz…
Housing older Australians
In Australia and other ‘homeownership societies’ it has been conventional to think of housing pathways in terms of a smooth linear progression, leading to outright ownership in middle age and a retirement buffered by low housing costs. This vision of the welfare role of homeownership is an important buttress of Australian retirement incomes policy. However, this vision has been challenged in recent years as growing numbers of older Australians lo…
Social change and community cohesion
This paper looks comparatively at the process of social change and its impact on local community cohesion in two Melbourne suburbs, 'Northburb' and 'Greenburb'. The two localities are geographically close, part of the same local government area and both highly ethnically diverse, but considerably different in terms of their socio-economic and ethnic profiles. Based on ethnographic data collected through individual interviews, focus groups and par…
Sociology (38 obras) · Political science (35 obras) · Gender Studies (23 obras) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (23 obras) · Geography (21 obras) · Law (18 obras) · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy (15 obras) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (15 obras) · Immigration (14 obras) · Economics (13 obras)