scholarly journals The Art of Social Connection: Exploring Former Refugee and Host Society Integration via a Collaborative, Participatory Painting Project in Wellington City

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Amber Kale

<p>In light of the global humanitarian crisis, a climate of fear has arisen around refugees which is often exacerbated by the media perpetuating misinformation and negative stereotypes. Such misrepresentation is problematic as a skewed perspective of refugees, compounded with ethnic and cultural barriers to belonging, is leading to discriminatory practices in New Zealand. Thus, there exists an incongruence between New Zealand’s non-discriminatory equal citizenship rights in law; and refugee and ethnic discrimination and marginalisation in processes of social integration. To begin to bridge this incongruence, this research explores how theories of social connection may be practically applied to enable more equitable social outcomes. A scholar activist orientation was employed, informed by a participatory action research epistemology. These philosophical foundations influenced a qualitative multi-method methodology consisting of painting workshops, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and public feedback. Within the workshops, former refugee and host society participants explored how concepts of home, belonging, and visibility within public space are imagined, normalised, and contested within everyday practices of inclusion and exclusion in Wellington. These themes were significant in enhancing understanding of participants’ unique experiences of displacement and place-attachment, and theorising how host societies might extend a more sincere welcome to newcomers. Applying a sociospatial relational framework to centralise participant interactions, I analysed how processes of social connection can begin to deconstruct negative refugee stereotypes, challenge normative conceptualisations of belonging, and enhance former refugees’ access to citizenship rights. As New Zealand prepares to raise the annual refugee quota, such democratic explorations and representations of place are crucial in informing a multicultural social policy framework to guide equitable integration praxis and critical political debate.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Amber Kale

<p>In light of the global humanitarian crisis, a climate of fear has arisen around refugees which is often exacerbated by the media perpetuating misinformation and negative stereotypes. Such misrepresentation is problematic as a skewed perspective of refugees, compounded with ethnic and cultural barriers to belonging, is leading to discriminatory practices in New Zealand. Thus, there exists an incongruence between New Zealand’s non-discriminatory equal citizenship rights in law; and refugee and ethnic discrimination and marginalisation in processes of social integration. To begin to bridge this incongruence, this research explores how theories of social connection may be practically applied to enable more equitable social outcomes. A scholar activist orientation was employed, informed by a participatory action research epistemology. These philosophical foundations influenced a qualitative multi-method methodology consisting of painting workshops, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and public feedback. Within the workshops, former refugee and host society participants explored how concepts of home, belonging, and visibility within public space are imagined, normalised, and contested within everyday practices of inclusion and exclusion in Wellington. These themes were significant in enhancing understanding of participants’ unique experiences of displacement and place-attachment, and theorising how host societies might extend a more sincere welcome to newcomers. Applying a sociospatial relational framework to centralise participant interactions, I analysed how processes of social connection can begin to deconstruct negative refugee stereotypes, challenge normative conceptualisations of belonging, and enhance former refugees’ access to citizenship rights. As New Zealand prepares to raise the annual refugee quota, such democratic explorations and representations of place are crucial in informing a multicultural social policy framework to guide equitable integration praxis and critical political debate.</p>


2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manying Ip Wardlow Friesen

The new Chinese community in New Zealand (formed since 1987) is made up of immigrants from the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia as well as other countries. Initially looked upon as harbingers of the “Asian economic miracle” by the New Zealand government, the new arrivals met with numerous unforeseen difficulties. This article is based on the findings of surveys and in-depth interviews in which the primary migrants were asked about their motives for migration, the economic and social outcomes of their migration, their perception of the comparative strengths of their native land and New Zealand, and their long-term view on settlement and return migration. The surveys are also set against background statistics from the 1996 census as well as immigration figures up to 2000. The findings challenge the assumption of the importance of the economic motivation of migration, and point to the primacy of social and environmental factors. They also suggest that transnationalism is a long-term strategy, instead of a temporary expediency, but also that most Chinese migrants in New Zealand have tried to integrate with the host society when possible.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hollie Alexandria Doar

<p>Transnational marriage migration is an emerging area of interest in anthropology, and contemporary scholars have written extensively on the international movements of Filipina women who have married non-Filipino men. Extending this research into an antipodean context, this thesis is based on interviews with Filipina migrants married to or in de-facto relationships with New Zealand men. Through an examination of narratives of love and romance, identity, and kinship, this work highlights the ways participants undertook identity work in their interviews. In particular, this thesis reveals the strategies employed by Filipina migrants in constructing narratives in which they distance themselves from negative stereotypes, while incorporating more positive typologies into their identities. Stereotypes included Filipina women as mail-order brides, domestic workers, subservient wives, and good family members. These narrative strategies demonstrated the ways participants sought to control and manipulate stereotypes in order to present themselves as successful and virtuous migrants. This thesis applies current scholarship on identity work and stereotypes. It also contributes to literature on marriage migration by expanding a contemporary focus on participant agency through acknowledging how migrants utilise identity resources, in this case stereotypes, available in their host society.</p>


Author(s):  
Donatella della Porta ◽  
Pietro Castelli Gattinara ◽  
Konstantinos Eleftheriadis ◽  
Andrea Felicetti

The concluding chapter goes back to the theoretical debates presented in chapter 1, synthetizing the main empirical results of the various parts of our analysis as well as reflecting on the theoretical implications. From the theoretical point of view, the aim has been to analyze transformative events in order to trace their effects on the content and form of the debate in multiple public spheres. The research addressed discursive turns during a critical juncture that changed in the political debate. Empirically, the Charlie Hebdo controversy represented a most important moment in the assessment of collective understandings of citizenship, broadly understood as setting the boundaries of who is inside and who is outside. Opening up to future research in the field, the chapter speculates on the impact of the debate we have addressed in structuring the evolving debate over citizenship and citizenship rights.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S740-S740
Author(s):  
A. Peters

In Australia and New Zealand, conversations around mental health are playing out in the public space with increasing frequency. Mental health promotion campaigns and organizations are embraced by mainstream and other forms of media, and supported by government. Whilst public knowledge of mental illness is increasing, the profile of psychiatrists as leaders and medical experts in mental illness is a more difficult brand to sell. With a somewhat tarnished history behind us, the modern evidence-based practice of psychiatry is not always at the forefront of public impression. Furthermore, in Australia, more than half of the population (56%) is unaware that psychiatrists have undertaken medical training as a doctor. This presentation will outline Royal Australian and New Zealand college of psychiatrists (RANZCP) action to improve community information about psychiatry, psychiatrists and treatment experiences.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Niamh Cahill

<p>Government owned housing in New Zealand is moving towards a model of privatisation. This can limit the opportunities found in the semi-public space for neighbours to meet and interact. Without these human interactions, a housing complex loses that which makes it a community. By restructuring the site to facilitate social interaction, this thesis aims to focus the space between buildings towards communal living, through an exploration of the public private interface in council housing complex, Arlington Apartments, in Wellington, New Zealand. This project will develop the balance in which residents can share space with their neighbours, by re-zoning current ambiguous space to be communal to a smaller group, in order to give tenants an opportunity to appropriate their living environment.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mark Prebble

<p>This thesis considers how best to administer redistribution policies. It focuses particularly on the information needed to assess relative circumstances, the implications of the government collecting such information, and processes by which the appropriate information may be assembled and assessed. In New Zealand, as with many other OECD nations, the Government's redistribution policies are administered through a range of different agencies, with duplication in some areas and gaps in others. An integrated approach to redistribution systems may offer a means to improve equity and efficiency. Part One discusses the assessment of relative well-being, and adopts the choice set as the intellectual device for this purpose. The time period for the assessment of income is examined in detail, with the conclusion that a long period should be used except where the individual is constrained to operate under a short time horizon. A new concept of "bankability" is developed as a means of identifying those operating under such constraints. Part Two uses the philosophical foundations of the value of privacy to develop a new statement of the right to privacy, such that everyone should be protected against the requirement to divulge information, unless that information is the "business" of another party. A view on the business of the state depends on one's ideology of the state. Since it is generally accepted in New Zealand in the late twentieth century that the state has a role in redistribution, the state has some right to collect information for that purpose. However, the rights of the state are moderated by the existence of a common law tradition of respect for individuals. A set of criteria for evaluating redistribution systems is devised in Part Three. These criteria, which include consideration of the information to be collected, individual control over personal information, and administrative simplicity, are then used to identify significant weaknesses in the systems currently used in New Zealand. The main problems identified are the collection of inadequate information, duplication, and complex institutional structures; the main virtue of the current systems is that information provided is only used for the purpose for which it was provided. An alternative approach is outlined which would address the problems while retaining the current protection of privacy interests. This thesis is a mix of inter-disciplinary academic enquiry and policy development. Part One is an amalgam of economic and philosophical approaches, Part Two involves philosophy and politics, and Part Three applies the theoretical considerations to issues of public administration.</p>


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document