Belonging in a contested national space : men from refugee backgrounds and their experiences in Australia

Abstract

The purpose of this sociological research is to understand and explore what factors shape and influence experiences of belonging for a group of Australian men, from refugee backgrounds, who live in Sydney, Australia. Moreover, the research also aims to use the 'sociological imagination' (Mills 1959/2000) and (re-)conceptualise how belonging can be approached for this group and other immigrants. The focus on belonging in this research is based on a value position; that all Australians should ideally be able to experience belonging in Australia. Belonging has been explained as 'an emotional attachment' (Yuval-Davis 2006a), being 'at home' (Hage 1997), 'at ease' (May 2011), 'safe' and to be 'recognised' (Ignatieff 1995) but also the goal for 'integration' (Ager and Strang 2008). However, that which might shape belonging is not clear in the literature. Previous research about Australian identity and belonging identifies how dominant narratives perpetuate social and cultural hierarchies that can potentially lead to different politics of belonging. It is within these postcolonial, socio-political and socio-historical contestations that this research situates the men's voices in order to understand experiences that can shape belonging. Epistemologically the men's voices are the main evidence in this research. Using an abductive research strategy (Blaikie 2010), methods were explored that could be used to collect the men's narrative accounts. Findings from 12 unstructured interviews are used as the main data corpus and these are arranged into thematic sections based on what the data revealed. This approach allowed the findings to be discussed in relation to theories around belonging (Yuval-Davis 2006a) and 'integration' (Ager and Strang 2008) and within a 'social justice' framework (Fraser 2000). The discussion concurs with previous research about the importance of employment for men from refugee backgrounds, but it raises questions about the value of focusing a priori on 'identity', 'gender', 'social cohesion' or 'integration' for this cohort of men. Instead the findings suggest that the challenges experienced should be understood in relation to the men's limited agency and social location. I argue that the findings indicate that the men experience 'hierarchies of belonging' (Back et al. 2012), preventing the men from experiencing that they have equal opportunities. Because of this, it is proposed that belonging should be understood as a social justice issue. Drawing directly from Nancy Fraser's (2000) work on 'parity of participation' and her theory of social justice, a re-conceptualisation of belonging is possible, which positions both misrecognition and maldistribution as determinants for belonging. This research contributes to the knowledge of the factors that influence belonging for a group of men from refugee backgrounds living in Sydney, Australia, but also contributes with knowledge concerning how to approach settlement experiences and challenges for any migrants who are not part of the dominant group.

Date of Award	2016
Original language	English