Neither Relaxed nor Comfortable: The Affective Regulation of Migrant Belonging in Australia

This chapter explores the links between migrant belonging and processes of inclusion and exclusion in terms of the affective dimensions within and across social domains, and in terms of relations between local and national space. Essed’s analysis of everyday racism focuses on the processes of marginalisation which punctuate the lives of migrants: the overemphasis on ethnic difference, the attributions of incompetence, humiliation, rudeness and patronising behaviour. Hage’s analysis of the management of national space focuses on act of managing the ethnic object as a mode of inhabiting the nation. As the comments of interviewees attest, the capacity to be relaxed and comfortable is distributed unevenly in Australia. The forms of mundane and violent racism they suffer contribute to wider experiences of exclusion. The devalorisation of ethnic identity means that it is rendered a liability in field of national belonging. This pervasive landscape of fear and incivility fundamentally alters the social opportunities for Australian Arabs and Muslims to function as citizens.