Sudanese Humanitarian Migrants in Australian Refereed Journals

Abstract

This article reviews the literature about Australian South Sudanese humanitarian migrants in refereed journals, and is underpinned by a concern for the settlement experiences of migrants and the reduced effectiveness of research which is compartmentalised into different academic disciplinary fields. Though a large volume of academic work has paid attention to many themes and issues, the present review identifies gaps in the understanding of Sudanese and South Sudanese views on family violence, economic stress, issues specific to older migrants, and perceptions of racialised policing. This article suggests the importance of bringing available knowledge from different disciplines into an accessible and crossreferenced platform to better serve southern Sudanese migrants' needs in assisting successful establishment of their new lives in Australia.

The ‘Culturally and Linguistically Diverse’ (CALD) label: A critique using African migrants as exemplar

“…The authors argued that "Blackness is not merely about skin color, but a social construct persistently conceived of as an opposition to whiteness" (p.1). Thus while El-Gack and Yak's (2016; see also Abur and Spaaij, 2016;Wickramaarachchi and Burns, 2016) study found that Sudanese refugees with Australian higher education qualifications are under and unemployed, Colic-Peisker (2005) argued that, as the preferred humanitarian immigrants because of their "whiteness" and "Europeanness", Bosnian [ex-Yugoslavs] refugees were effectively excluded from the 'burden' associated with blackness in Australia. Colic-Peisker asserted that, deemed to have the "right colour", ex-Yugoslav refugees were regarded by the general Australian public to be a good blend into the "White Australian" population and had greater resettlement-potential (2005).…”

“…In their Submission to the Victorian Police Inquiry, the Australian Communities and Foundation Australia and Youth Support Advocacy Service reiterated the racial profiling and criminalisation of Africans in the State of Victoria (Australian Communities and Foundation Australia and Youth Support Advocacy Service, 2013). The African advocacy organisation argued that Blackness is associated with criminal behaviour, resulting in police officers unfairly targeting BAMIA (Wickramaarachchi and Burns, 2016).…”

“…However, the authors did not only blame the students for the poor outcomes, but on the need for teachers to build trusted relationships with BAMIA. Harris and Marlowe (2011) researched the experiences of a group of young Africans from refugee backgrounds who were studying at a South Australian university, and reported that the students had little understanding of the expectations of Australian educational institutions and accessing study materials and studying in another language (see also Adusei-Asante and Doh, 2016;Harry, 2008;Harris and Marlowe, 2011;Wickramaarachchi and Burns, 2016). Gately, Ellis, Britton and Fleming (2017) used a multi-method approach to investigate the experiences of twenty-two Sudanese students at Western Australia's Edith Cowan University.…”