Migration, Ethnicity and Privilege (original) (raw)
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The state and the welfare of immigrants in Australia
Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1989
Post-war immigration to Australia has been accompanied by two processes associated with the development of Australian capitalism -the urbanisation process and the "proletarianisation" of the immigrant population. These processes brought with them major social problems and the potential for social conflict. The welfare system provided a means to control the immigrant population, which failed to assimilate effectively into Australian society, as had been expected by the immigration planners of the 1940s. The government policies shifted from "assimilationism", to "integrationism" and then on to "multiculturalism" and most recently, "mainstreaming". In each case the basic economic contradictions of Australian society provide the context for welfare policies directed towards ethnic minorities.
Australia is a settler nation built on the permanent assimilation of foreigners as citizens. In the last decade the numbers of permanent settlers entering Australia has been eclipsed by the exponential increase in temporary migrants. Temporary migrants -viewed by the Australian state as mere bodies transiting in migratory circuits propelled by mutual economic gain -occupy an ambiguous, even precarious position in the national space. They are doomed by bureaucratic decree to remain strangers within. Temporary migrants are subject to attempts by the Australian state to exploit their economic potential, while also being subject to Australia's (post)colonial anxiety to contain racialised others as strangers.
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Exclusion Within, Exclusion Without: Race and Neoliberalism in an Unequal Australia.
Race, as some would have it, is a term that has been emaciated of any analytical utility or real-world significance in contemporary Western society. Relegated to the realm of individual pathology and sociopolitical antiquation, race has largely been marginalised and invisibilised in discussions of inequality and deprivation - a phenomenon referred to by David Theo Goldberg as ‘antiracialism’. Against this phenomenon, I aim to shed light on the structural and discursive transformations occasioned in the implementation of neoliberalism in Australia, with particular reference to how constructs of racial identity are mobilised in producing and legitimising racial inequality within these transformations. In doing so, the first chapter affixes a provisional conceptual identity onto neoliberalism that describes neoliberal power as both hegemonic and discursive, and as being constantly exerted by the transnational capitalist class in furthering the agenda of capital accumulation. The second and third chapters proceed to unravel how welfare and immigration policy (respectively) in Australia have both been transformed according to the neoliberal agenda. After charting these transformations, I problematise each in terms of how constructs of racial identity are mobilised within these transformations in order to marginalise and exclude certain people groups.
Australia is one of the countries that has been recognised as a multicultural-society country, full of inhabitants from, to name a few, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, and South Africa, though white people are still dominant in the country. It cannot be denied that Australia has become a destination for most immigrants after WWII because of its stability. However, the reports about young people with migrant or refugee backgrounds being discriminated signify that racism exists almost everywhere in Australia. With a recent foundation of Fraser Anning’s Conservative Party in 2019 and other far-right extremist groups, this decade has marked an anti-immigrant movement in Australia aiming at ‘Keeping Australia White’. Therefore, this paper will examine as to what extend have discourses of colonialism been successful in influencing the anti-immigrant groups in Australia and how they affect the lives of African-Australian people.
Immigration and the Financial Crisis, 2011
This chapter considers the impact of recessionary conditions on immigrant incorporation and inclusion in Australia, with a special focus on the second generation. The complex question of how to best define the second generation is considered, along with an analysis of how particular historical and political contexts colour and shape interest in, and understandings of, immigrant generations. The bulk of the literature on second generation measures social inclusion through objective indicators of social mobility like education, employment and intermarriage. Indeed, there is little doubt that difficult economic conditions hinder the social and economic incorporation of both migrants and their children, in particular through lower rates of employment and higher costs of living, often leading to increased poverty and segmentation into the lower ends of the job market. This said, a fuller understanding of second-generation incorporation requires an analysis that goes beyond an examination of economic conditions to consider the subjective experiences of immigrant identity and belonging, which are equally relevant, although more difficult to measure and define. Of particular importance to the lived experiences and perceptions of belonging is the role of public sentiment towards immigrant groups. In this chapter I consider the impact of both economic conditions and public attitudes towards migrants on second-generation incorporation through a comparison of an older, long-established community, namely Italians in Australia, and a more recently arrived group—the Lebanese. Italians are thought to be well settled, with high rates of incorporation on all indicators, particularly for the second generation (Baldassar...