School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses

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Author: Phillips, Melissa Anne × End date: 2012 × Start date: 2010 × Type: PhD thesis × Subject: identity × Subject: mobility ×

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    Re-visualising new arrivals in Australia: journey narratives of pre-migration and settlement
    Phillips, Melissa Anne ( 2012)
    Prior to migration, migrants and refugees have complex and diverse lived experiences. These experiences form an intrinsic part of their migration journeys, affecting their settlement pathways and shaping their identities. In re-visualising migrants and refugees as ‘new arrivals’, I focus on their migratory journeys as part of a continuum spanning departure, journey and settlement. Honing in on pre-migration I contextualise the sites of departure that two groups of new arrivals, South Sudanese Australian former refugees and Indian Australian former migrants, have inhabited prior to arrival. In doing this I bring attention to the uniqueness of pre-migration and the important place it has in people’s lives. Drawing on qualitative interviews with twenty-five research participants I illustrate the significant resources, agency and networks that new arrivals bring with them from sites of departure. I highlight how issues of mobility; the maintenance of family links as expressed through remittances, transnational marriages and the desire to return; and community transformation, influence the settlement terrain in ways not previously understood. This thesis connects pre-migration with settlement to show the ways in which pre-migration remains a continuous presence in people’s lives as they settle in Australia. Re-visualising new arrivals demands reciprocity, recognition and improved understandings of the unique role and prevailing influence of pre-migration.