Constructing Racism in Australia

There is a dearth of empirical evidence on the extent of racist attitudes, broadly defined, in Australia. A telephone survey of 5056 residents in Queensland and NSW examined attitudes to cultural difference, perceptions of the extent of racism, tolerance of specific groups, ideology of nation, perceptions of Anglo‐Celtic cultural privilege, and belief in racialism, racial separatism and racial hierarchy. The research was conducted within a social constructivist understanding of racisms. Racist attitudes are positively associated with age, non‐tertiary education, and to a slightly lesser extent with those who do not speak a language other than English, the Australia‐born, and with males. Anti‐Muslim sentiment is very strong, but there is also a persistence of some intolerance against Asian, Indigenous and Jewish Australians. Those who believe in racial hierarchy and separatism (old racisms) are a minority and are largely the same people who self‐identify as being prejudiced. The ‘new racisms’ of cultural intolerance, denial of Anglo‐privilege and narrow constructions of nation have a much stronger hold. Nonetheless, sociobiologically related understandings of race and nation remain linked to these new racisms. Narrow understandings of what constitutes a nation (and a community) are in tension with equally widely held liberal dispositions towards cultural diversity and dynamism. Encouragingly, most respondents recognise racism as a problem in Australian society and this is a solid basis for anti‐racism initiatives.     

Racist attitudes,out‐groups and the Australian experience

Australia today is a culturally diverse nation with people from over 190 different countries claiming 300 different ancestries. But despite an official commitment to diversity, contemporary Australian society continues to experience tensions between multicultural policies and a legacy of Anglo privilege and cultural dominance. To assess this, the Challenging Racism Project conducted a national survey, commissioned by the Special Broadcasting Service, to gauge the nature and extent of racist attitudes and experience of racism across Australia during July–August 2015 and November 2015. Results show that sociodemographic characteristics show little contemporary relationship to racist attitudes. Age, once associated with “old” racist attitudes, is no longer significant. On the other hand, Anglo privilege is empirically linked to racism through notions of social dominance. We conclude that it is to the media, and to public discourse generally, to which future research attention, using critical discourse analysis, should turn in efforts to make Australia a fairer, more tolerant, multicultural society.     

Indigenous Australians and Impaired Decision‐Making Capacity

This article explores issues associated with impaired decision‐making capacity for Indigenous Australians. There is very little published on the subject of impaired decision‐making capacity in Australia, particularly in relation to Indigenous people. To gain some insight into this subject, this article looks at some indicators of impaired decision‐making capacity for Indigenous Australians such as rates of intellectual disability and mental illness. The Australian state‐based Guardianship and Administration system—the legislative framework designed to provide for decision‐making for people with impaired capacity—is briefly described before looking at the cultural relevance of this Western system and its constructs for Indigenous Australians. Future investigation should be directed at exploring existing and alternative strategies to support Indigenous Australians with impaired capacity and their carers.     

Toleration or trust? Investigating the acceptance of ‘boat people’ among young Australians

There has been intense debate in Australia regarding how asylum seekers who arrive by boat should be treated. Some call for compassion towards those prepared to risk their lives to seek protection, whereas others believe ‘boat people’ should not be allowed into the country. This article uses data from a large representative sample of young people in Queensland, Australia, to understand the acceptance of asylum seekers by young people in Australia. The findings suggest that young Australians are more accepting than the Australian adult population. Several social and political background factors were also found to be associated with the belief that ‘boat people’ should be permitted into Australia. Fewer factors, however, are associated with the trust young Australians have in people from another country. This suggests that while some young Australians may believe boats carrying asylum seekers should not be turned away, fewer might be prepared to enter into trusting relationships with ‘boat people’ should they resettle in Australia.     

Good learning = A Good Life: Mathematics Transformation in Remote Indigenous Communities

The performance of Australian Indigenous¹ learners is a national concern. The federal government has recognised that health and education are keys to closing the gap between the achievement of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous people and has made health and education a national priority. Through its ‘Closing the Gap’ initiative, the Rudd government is allocating significant amounts of money to redress the poor health and education among Indigenous Australians. In this paper, we discuss an innovation in education that is being implemented in a cluster of remote communities in Western Australia.² The innovation draws on international research that has positively affected mathematics learning, particularly among students who are traditionally excluded from formal schooling. While the research is innovative, the mechanisms that may be the most effectual in bringing about strong mathematical learning for Indigenous Australians are unknown.     

Multiculturalism and social cohesion: A Japanese community’s perceptions of “being Australian”

Based on a large‐scale survey conducted with parents from Japanese language schools in Sydney in 2015, this paper aims to review multiple dimensions of social cohesion in the Japanese ethnic community in Australia. Looking at several indices such as economic, political, and cultural integration, the paper describes the social profile of the Japanese ethnic community, questioning the generic perception of the community as a coherent body of middle‐class migrants in Australia. This was achieved through a comparative analysis with outcomes of a national survey of the Australian population on social cohesion and draws attention to the ways in which a particular sense of social cohesion with Australian society is constructed by Japanese migrants. The study found a differentiated sense of belonging to the local community, country of residence (Australia), and nation of origin (Japan). It found communal diversity in the Japanese community resulting from there being a majority of women migrants who were part of cross‐border marriages and their children living in multicultural family circumstances. It was concluded that this configuration within the community leads to advocacy related to a re‐identification as a possible ethnic group of migrants that should be recognized in an inclusive migration settlement policy in Australia.     

Facilitating the professional transition of migrants in Australia: does gender matter?

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‐program employment outcomes, presented a very positive picture. In this paper we take a fresh look at the quantitative and qualitative survey data in order to analyse the success of the program from the perspective of gender. The paper focuses on gender differences in professional employment transition post‐program in the context of the structural impact of the gendered labour market. We found a significant difference between NESB men and women in their post‐program labour market incorporation into professional jobs that matched their skills. The gendered structures also influenced the ‘networking effect’ of the professional transition program.     

The Role of Non‐profit Organizations in the Mixed Economy of Welfare‐to‐Work in the UK and Australia

This article charts the development of welfare‐to‐work policies and compares and contrasts the traditions of delivery in the UK and Australia. We find that in the UK, employment services and social security benefit administration have been dominated by the central state, traditionally affording a key role to civil servants as direct delivery agents. However, in federal Australia, mixed economies of welfare‐to‐work operate in the different states, there is a far greater role for social services and non‐profit organizations are firmly established as key providers of frontline employment services. Since the late 1990s, UK welfare reforms have been gradually following the Australian lead in contracting non‐state actors as delivery agents. As this trend seems set to continue and intensify, we examine the Australian experience in order to reflect on the role of non‐profits in policy reform.     

Perceptions of Reconciliation and related Indigenous Issues among Young Residents of Shepparton

It has been argued that reconciliation between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians requires non‐Indigenous Australians to change their attitudes. Some suggest that this process is occurring and that younger people hold more positive attitudes towards Indigenous Australians. This paper explored the perspectives of 86 young people from Shepparton, Victoria in relation to reconciliation and related Indigenous issues. The study found that young participants' views of reconciliation varied, and while some supported reconciliation, many opposed a national apology and indicated that they were not very informed about or interested in Aboriginal issues. Many distinguished between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Aboriginals based on behaviour. Their talk was embedded with notions of special privilege, ‘sameness’ and social hierarchy but excluded attention to cultural difference. Findings suggest that these young people have embraced discourses of sameness, individualism and ‘practical reconciliation’ and that they are reluctant to reflect on their position of White privilege.     

An inconvenient truth: why evidence-based policies on obesity are failing Māori,Pasifika and the Anglo working class

Public health initiatives around obesity have generally worked well for middle class Australians and New Zealanders. This message has not had the same impact in Anglo working class areas and certain CALD communities, especially Māori and Pasifika, where obesity rates remain highest. This paper employs qualitative data from interviews with eighty-five Māori and Pasifika migrants to Australia to explore attitudes to food purchasing and consumption behaviours and associated health risks. It is evident the individual, medicalised approach to improving obesity rates has not been effective and there needs to be a new culturally responsive structural approach. This would require governments to prioritise population health over existing relationships with commercial food manufacturers – especially in relation to spatial domination of commercialised fast food outlets in low socio-economic status districts and in the areas of sports and education sponsorship. We also explore the assumptions of evidence-based health policy more generally, providing a critique of who is represented and served by the commercial solicitation and management of health research. This includes what constitutes ‘evidence’, who is conducting and funding the research, who appraises and compares the data and how is it interpreted and employed.     

Globalisation and the Politics of Persuasion and Coercion

This paper argues that an economic liberal discourse of globalisation has been pivotal to the policy‐making process in Australia over the past 15 or so years. Both Labor and Coalition Governments have aimed to restrict the electoral fall‐out from the process of restructuring by persuading Australians that the world economy has forced particular policy changes and made alternative economic policy choices unviable. Policy‐makers act to influence conceptions of the appropriate role and responsibilities of the state through persuasion – the rhetoric they speak – and coercion – the policies they make. The pervasiveness of globalisation rhetoric in the public sphere has been essential to the governing process as a complement to and buffer for the coercive impact of economic liberal policy changes. As Australia has shifted from a protectionist to an economically liberal policy structure, the effects of globalisation have become clearer. Liberalisation has intensified pressures from the world political economy and coerced changes in all areas of policy and the economy, as well as in public perceptions about the ‘limits of government’. Globalisation and economic liberalism as persuasion and coercion are the component parts of a restructured system of political and economic governance: a paradigmatic shift away from the economic protectionism of the first 80 years of Australian federalism.     

Middle‐Class Political Activism and Middle‐Class Advantage in Relation to Public Services: A Realist Synthesis of the Evidence Base

Since the late 1960s social policy scholarship has been concerned with the distribution of the resources or benefits across social gradients. This article presents a review of the literature on one mechanism by which inequity might be produced – activism by middle‐class service‐users enabling them to capture a disproportionate share of resources. The review used the methodology of realist synthesis to bring together evidence from the UK, the USA and Scandinavian countries over the past 30 years. The aim was to construct a ‘middle‐theory’ to understand how and in which contexts collective and individual activity by middle‐class service‐users might produce inequitable resource allocation or rationing decisions that disproportionately benefit middle‐class service‐users. The article identifies four causal theories which nuance the view that it is the ‘sharp elbows’ of the middle‐classes which confer advantage on this group. It shows how advantage accrues via the interplay between service‐users, providers and the broader policy and social context.     

Compulsory Income Management in the Northern Territory – evaluating its impact

Australia has been experimenting with constraining the ways in which welfare recipients can spend their income support payments, limiting their ability to access cash and purchase some products. The policy objectives include to reduce spending on alcohol, gambling, pornography and tobacco in favour of meeting ‘basic’ family needs, especially for children, to limit the scope for financial harassment, encourage pro‐social behaviours, and build financial capabilities. In the logic of the programs these outcomes are expected to be manifest at the individual, family and community levels. The policy has primarily impacted on Indigenous Australians as a result of its geographic targeting, although a recent report has recommended a more stringent version of the program be introduced universally to all welfare recipients other than the aged. The largest of these experiments is ‘New Income Management’ in the Northern Territory, which has had more than 35,000 participants since its introduction in 2010. This article reports on the key findings of the major independent evaluation of New Income Management commissioned by the Australian Government.     

Social networks and immigration stress among first‐generation Mandarin‐speaking Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles

This study examined relationships between social networks and immigration stress among first‐generation Chinese immigrants. Using data from a larger study of health behavior among first‐generation Mandarin/English‐speaking immigrants residing in the Los Angeles metropolitan area (N = 1,183), this study found that Chinese immigrants living closer to immediate family and maintaining larger social networks experienced lower immigration stress. Unexpectedly, immigrants with larger family sizes and who participated in voluntary associations (e.g., religious, alumni, and nationality associations) reported increased immigration stress. The findings suggest that practitioners need to be cautious of a possible downside in designing interventions to expand social networks among immigrant clients. The study is especially important in the context of a rapidly increasing immigrant population from Mainland China to the USA. Key Practitioner Message: ● Working with immigration families should incorporate assessment of their social network; ● Interventions designed to facilitate supportive social networks should differentiate different social network ties; ● Different social network ties may affect the stress level of immigrants differently.     

Discourses about children's mental health and developmental disorders in North American women's magazines 1990–2012

This paper describes and analyses the portrayal of children's mental health and developmental issues (CMHI) in articles located in a random sample of a selection of available high‐circulating English language North American ‘women's magazines’ indexed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature from 1990 to 2012. It is based upon a qualitative discourse analysis. CMHI are portrayed as materially, biologically real, prevalent and growing in incidence, and severity. They are also portrayed as located in the ‘non‐normal’, ‘non‐nice’, ‘disliked’ and ‘non‐successful’ individual child. Neither the facticity nor the biomedicalization of CMHI is questioned. The psy‐scientists and practitioners cited as experts for the ‘disorders’ offer contradictory and confusing information and advice. The possible theoretical and pragmatic explanations and consequences of this portrayal are discussed.     

SKILLS RECOGNITION AND REFUGEES: MIGRANTS WITHOUT OPTIONS

In the post-war years, Australia has accepted more refugees on a per capita basis than any other country. Refugees are unlike other migrants in that they are forced to move. They have no option. They arrive unprepared for settlement. They have more difficulty finding employment, especially at an appropriate level, than other immigrants. They often come without format documents, with limited English language ability and with few supports. All of these factors make skills recognition even more difficult than for other non-English speaking background immigrants. Different training models, continued chauvinism about Australian training versus overseas training, inadequate attention to existing skills and the protectionist policies of some employers, professional bodies, etc all militate against refugees slotting into the labour market at a level commensurate with their pre-flight level. Australia needs to do more than select people and then leave them to their own devices. Carefully planned and ongoing programs are needed to help refugees integrate satisfactorily into the labour market. There is still a perception among refugees that Australia only wants them as labourers.     

School Readiness of Children of Immigrants: Does Parental Involvement Play a Role?*

Objectives. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey—Kindergarten Cohort, this article analyzes the link between parental involvement and the school readiness of children of immigrants. Methods. Multivariate regression models estimate the association between parental involvement and the school readiness in English proficiency and math scores of children of immigrants. They also estimate the impact of this association on the gap in math scores between children of immigrants and children of natives. Results. Results demonstrate that parental involvement is associated with an increase in the level of English proficiency for children of immigrants. Parental involvement also is associated with a decrease in the gap in math scores between immigrant children from English‐ and non‐English‐speaking backgrounds. Parental involvement decreases the gap in math scores between children of immigrants and children of the native born by a third of a standard deviation. Conclusion. Given that parental involvement appears to benefit children of immigrants and given that they have lower academic achievement than children of the native born, these findings suggest that parental involvement policies and practices targeting children of immigrants could help decrease the academic achievement gap between children of immigrants and children of the native born.     

Isolation and Insecurity: Resettlement Issues Among Muslim Refugee Women in Perth,Western Australia

Refugee Muslim women face a number of formidable obstacles in the resettlement process within Australia. As Muslims, they are a religious minority that has come under considerable racial attack in recent years in the wake of international terrorism. As refugees, they are struggling to put past traumas behind them and find ‘security’ in a strange land with different customs. As women, they are trying to find a voice for themselves amidst ethnic traditions that limit their range of expression and an Australian society that aspires to, but has not yet achieved, equality for women. Our qualitative study, upon which this paper is based, explored resettlement issues of Muslim refugee women during their first five years of arrival in Perth, Australia. It is based on focus groups and semi‐structured interviews with 80 Muslim refugee women: 35 Iraqi, 34 Sudanese and 11 Afghan. Our study re‐affirms that well‐documented issues of resettlement continue to be poor English language competency, securing employment and accommodation and gender‐specific problems. In addition, however, our study highlights a new and emerging issue, which is that of personal, psychological and cultural insecurity, heightened by the current political climate and exacerbated by their religious background. This leads to problematic ‘intersections’ with an Australian society that is far more complex and more difficult to cope with than is portrayed in popular discourse and political rhetoric of the easy‐going ‘lucky country’.     

Statistical equality and cultural difference in Indigenous wellbeing frameworks: A new expression of an enduring debate

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in developing indicator frameworks for ‘Indigenous wellbeing’. Implicit in each of the frameworks are particular conceptions of what constitutes the ‘good life’ for Indigenous peoples and what ‘Indigenous development’ should entail. In developing these frameworks, then, certain judgements must be made about whether statistical equality should be prioritised as a ‘development’ goal. This issue has generated long‐standing debate and in this context must be broached anew. In this paper we briefly examine the growing interest in Indigenous wellbeing and outline three prominent indicator frameworks: the Productivity Commission's indicators for ‘Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage’; the ‘capability indicators’ developed by the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership; and the indicators of wellbeing developed by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The first prioritises statistical equality between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians; the second adds a concern with ‘capabilities’; and the last emphasises the importance of distinct cultural preferences. We offer an assessment of these approaches, drawing in part on Amartya Sen's work. We argue that in seeking to improve the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, policy‐makers should not only make their own normative assumptions clear, but also be aware of the implications of their decisions for constituents with different worldviews.