Belonging in the land down under: Black Africans in Australia
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Author | Farida Fozdar |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12862 |
International Migration. 2023;61:23–38.
|
23
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
SETTLEMENT AND BELONGING
For those born an d raised within a nation - state, visibl y similar to the majorit y, and sharing a common langu age and
culture, nation al belonging is taken- for- granted. How ever, for migrants, public debate a bout who is “in” and who
is “out” in terms of be longing is increasingly con tested (Hage, 1998; Yuval- Davis, 2011). For migrant s, particularly
those “visibl y different ”, belonging cannot b e assumed. Yet some count ries accept such mi grants, off ering the
Received: 21 Oct ober 2020
|
Revised: 19 Februar y 2021
|
Accepted: 6 April 2 021
DOI: 10 .1111/imig .12862
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
Belonging in the land down under: Black Africans
in Australia
Farida Fozdar
© 2021 The Author s. Internationa l Migration © 2021 IOM
Special Iss ue: Internatio nal Migration – African International Migration to the West: Transnational, Empirical and Contextual Discourses.
Department of Anthropology and Sociology,
The Universi ty of Western Austr alia, Perth,
Australia
Correspondence
Farida Fozdar, Anthr opology and Soci ology,
The Universi ty of Western Austr alia, M257,
35 Stirling Hw y, Perth 6009, Austra lia.
Email: farida.fozdar@uwa.edu.au
Abstract
Black African migrants have recently become a visible pres-
ence in Australia. Ma ny arrived thr ough the huma nitarian
resettlement p rogramme, but far g reater numbers come
through the “skilled s tream”. This paper explores r ecent
research into these p opulations to tease out h ow mate-
rial, social and existential elements of settlement intersect
with belonging. As a heuristic , it uses Ager a nd Strang's
ten markers and means of in tegration: material aspe cts
(employment, housing, education and health); social con-
nections interna lly and externall y; facilitators (la nguage,
cultural knowled ge, safety, stabilit y); and rights and citi-
zenship. A range of challenges to positive settl ement and
integration are ident ified, using these d omains. However,
Australian rese arch has focused almos t exclusively on
African migrants of refugee background, with mos t sam-
pling South Sudanese, making generalization impossible,
even dangerous. The ur gent need for research using wider
samples, and more large- scale quantitative work, is called
for and a range of policy r ecommendations suggested.
24
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FOZDAR
opportunity to b egin a new life in a place which one day may feel like home. Aus tralia is one such country, admit-
ting around 180, 000 permanent migrant s annually, pre- COVID 19, ostensibly without rega rd to race or culture,
including up to 20,000 UNHCR- app roved refugees. In recent years some of these migrants have come from Africa.
How do these arr ivals experien ce settlemen t, i.e. parti cipation in econo mic, social, cul tural and polit ical life
(Valtonen, 2004, 86)? Those who come under the humanitarian scheme can access settlement services, offering
material and soc ial– emotional supp ort (Fozdar & Banki, 2017; Fozdar & Har tley, 2013), but for those who come
under the skilled or family reunification schemes, very few dedicated services exist. In attempting to understand
the mechanis ms by which successfu l settlement occur s in relation to refu gees, Ager and Str ang (2008, 166– 191)
developed a mod el identifying ten doma ins of integration, repres ented in an inverse triangle w ith four layers (see
Figure 1). Rather than se eing economic in tegration as the fo undation, they argue that right s, from which fl ow
social relation s and therefore oppor tunities in the mor e material aspects of s ettlement, are ne cessary. Thus, thes e
material aspec ts (the top layer), bot h markers of integr ation and the mea ns of achieving it (empl oyment, hous-
ing, educ ation and healt h), rely upon th e second layer, soci al connections: social bonds (conn ection within one's
group), bridges (conn ections betwee n groups), and links (with s tructures of the s tate); which are, in tur n, facilitated
by language, cult ural knowledge, safet y and stability (the nex t layer). The foundation of rig hts and citizenship will
differ by country, resulting in variable integration outcomes.
Settlement p olicy and ser vices tend to be focused on the top layer, negl ecting the mid dle levels, which a re
vital for developing a sense of belonging and e motional connecti on to the nation- state and its pe ople. And even
if citizenship and r ights, from which these conn ections should arise natur ally, are technically provided, t he lived
experience may not reflect these opportunities.
This pap er reviews li terature on African sett lement in Au stralia using Ager and Strang's domai ns to explor e
the extent to which black African migrants are experiencing positive, successful settlement However, some back-
ground on the Aus tralian context is need ed first.
FIGURE 1 A conceptual framewo rk defining core domains of int egration (Ager & Stran g, 2008, 170)
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