Rosa (10/02/2008)

Andrew, you doing an interesting work here with your research. I am interested in knowing how far discrimination impacts African refugees and their integration potential in Australian life. I know you are earlier on your research and you may not at the moment have the right answers to this.

The reason I ask is that I have in the past couple of weeks been involved with Africans in the south Sydney district. I was amazed with the level of self-reporting discrimination raised by many members of these communities and thought how much this issue is a problem in such communities. If majority of members have experienced discrimination of one sort or the other, obviously many will be sharing their experiences with colleagues such that those who have not experience it might be influenced in the way they perceive others. How does this affect people's self confidence?

David (13/01/2008)

I have often pondered why people would need to integrate if they already obey the laws of the country in which they live and work?

Andrew Sankoh
You raised an important point there. This is why we need to be clear about what integration means. There are several aspects of this such as social, economic and cultural integration. Let us look at an attempt made by Tom Kuhlman to define what integration means and we can begin to see the complexity of applying this concept in terms of measuring who we might consider to be integrated or not;

"If refugees are able to participate in the host economy in ways commensurate with their skills and compatible with their values; if they attain a standard of living which satisfies culturally determined minimum requirements (standard of living is taken here as meaning not only income from economics activities, and education); if the socio-cultural change they undergo permits them to maintain an identity of their own and adjust psychologically to their new situation; if standards of living and economic opportunities for members of the host society have not deteriorated due to the influx of refugees; if friction between host population and refugees is not worse than within the host population itself; and if the refugees do not encounter more discrimination than exists between groups previously settled within the host society; then refugees are truly integrated" (Kuhlman 1991:7 emphasis added)

In my research I want to be able to look at cultural integration of refugees. I hope I will be able to develop a theoretical model of the cultural integration experience by juxtaposing and analysing the relationship between the refugee's and host community 'cultural capital' borrowed from Piere Bourdieu. There is a suggestion that integrated refugees looses some aspects of their culture as they become 'full' members of the host community in all respects.


So important questions can be asked relevant to integration of refugee in Australia such as;

1. How do newcomers to a country become part of society?
2. More specifically, what happens to refugees once they are in Australia?
3. In what way and to what extent do they find work and housing?
4. Is it possible for them to access public services of various kinds, especially welfare and educational services?
5. How do they negotiate all the private services needed in a complex economy, such as banks, rental and estate agents and insurance?
6. How do they build up social and cultural relationships within their own ethnic groups and with the wider community?
7. How do they come to participate based on their national origins, race, ethnicity, or social and cultural background?

Here I will encourage people to contribute their understanding of what integration of migrants and refugees mean in a multicultural context. Your views will be edited and posted here as appropriate.