Some shocking news today as one Sierra Leonean refugee was found dead in his boarding house in Lakemba. Investigations are still going on but it is suspected that he might have committed suicide as he was found hanging on the ceiling of his room. A Sierra Leone Community meeting was organised to understand what could have led to this. Many comments made by youth indicate some serious disenchantment in their integration experience that could be a contributing factor to what has now happened. Sierra Leone community elders have now set up series of committees to make sense of this and report to the community on how this can be prevented in future.

There has been various studies in Western countries that have found higher rates of psychopathology amongst immigrants than host populations. (kiev, 1973) These studies tend to be too old to be of relevance in the 21st century where Globalisation comes with new sets of risks factors.

This was a good night in which various African Communities show case their cultures such as food, music and dance. But one will wonder why should this take place in a Library? Many books have written about African foods and I imagine that the organisers thought it was time to take the food to the books. I think one need to find out now how the books felt about this wonderful initiative.

11/08/07 AFRICAN NITE AT GRANVILLE

Reflecting on the night as I write this on Saturday 11/08/07 at 1:20am, I could see the expressions on people's faces that in some way they missed something as they danced and rocked to some familiar music, which some told me brought back old memories of 'home'. Most of these people are refugees if one is to go by their legal status in Australia.

However, most came in with "Australian" friends who rocked with them jumping with one leg, left side and centre, shaking buttocks the usual "African" dance. It was a good night for everyone from what I gather through my usual curiosity to test my experience with others.

Why do people need some space to which they can claim ownership or feel in some way more comfortable than any where else? Why is this feeling tending to be stronger in migrants and refugees alike than any other people?

I witness a cross-cultural Marriage on Saturday the 2oth of October 2007, between a Sierra Leonean Man and a Lebanese woman. This is one of the first I have witnessed in Australia. I understand from asking people that many of these events have taken place a lot across different nationalities. Whether such marriages last longer than same cultural marriages is worthy of research.

The interesting thing about such marriages is knowing how such couples manage relations and communications through time. As people's understanding and perception of issues and particular forms of classification and interpretations are culturally influenced, one would want to think that a conflict of some kind might occur in the process. To what extent such conflict produces more disorganising effects than in same cultural marriages? What are the integrative and disintegrative factors? What lesson can be learnt from a micro analysis to migrants and refugee integration in a new society?

DEATH OF A SIERRA LEONEAN YOUNG MAN

A few weeks ago, I attended the funeral of a 35 year old man who died in his apartment alone two months before the community knew about this. This has ignited concern among community members who are now in the process of setting up a foundation to be named after this young man being the first to die in such circumstances. Community members told me that this should never be allowed to happen in the African community given the fact that Africans live their lives as communities rather than individuals. What ever this community living might mean from the perception of Africans themselves, it would seem that the socio-political and economic environment in Australia constrain in specific and important ways the extent to which this 'community living' might be achieved.

In a paper presented in one of the community workshops titled "From Extended Family Households to Extended units: The changing dynamics of the African Family in Australia", I tried to analyse some of the implications of this changing dynamics and highlighted how important it is to ensure effective forms of communication that will facilitate the 'each-others-keeper' phenomenon.  The Sierra Leone community is thrilled that this incident confirms some of implications analysed in that paper.

A lot has been said about Minister Andrew's comments and need not be repeated here. What I want to do here is critically asking questions around what the minister might mean by 'integration'.

What is integration? What are the indicators of integration? How long does it take for migrants or refugees to integrate to a new society? What is the perception of integration by those who carry the burden of integration? What does the Australian public mean by an integrated migrant or refugee? What must Migrants and refugees do to be successfully integrated? What must Australian do to allow migrants or refugees successfully integrate? If Migrants and Refugees must integrate to a new culture, what culture in Australia must they integrate to? What institutional changes necessary to allow migrants and refugees integrate successfully?

These are some of the questions that I consider important that if well answered will help us understand integration. There is a suggestion already from the questions that integration might take a lifetime making it unjustified to demand that people who have been settled for under 10 years in Australia should have integrated by now.

If you are interested in reading about some of the broad indicators of integration, see the report of the Home Office in the UK click on the link below (integration)