‘Really really different different’: rurality, regional schools and refugees

Abstract

This article explores the dynamics of difference-making in a regional Australian town. Despite Australia’s high levels of cultural diversity, many rural and regional areas remain predominantly ‘white’ spaces, presided over by people of Anglo-Celtic ancestry but with small populations of indigenous Australians. Over the past decade, however, a growing number of regional centres have become home to refugees from a range of African, Middle Eastern and South-East Asian countries. This study draws on interview, observational and documentary data to shed light on the experiences of people in one such town, focusing on schools as sites of everyday social contact and significant mediators of identity formation and settlement outcomes. A key aim of the article is to illuminate the ways in which constructions of rurality and of difference intersect with local histories and resources to shape relations between the original, ‘old’ and newest settlers.

Keywords:

• Cultural diversity
• refugees
• regional schools
• rurality
• settlement

Acknowledgment

The author is an Australian Postgraduate Award-Industry student in the final stages of a PhD, which is part of a broader Australian Research Council Linkage project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All names used in this article – for individuals, the schools and the town – are pseudonyms. The song was published, with Grace’s consent and under her real name, some years after she wrote it.

2. Anglo-Australian is used here to refer to people born in Australia who are of English, Scottish, Welsh and/or Irish descent.

3. All of the humanitarian entrants to Easthaven have come through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees program.

4. ‘Sea change’ is a term used to describe the trend in Australia of city dwellers – typically retirees and families with young children – relocating to regional coastal areas for a ‘better’ lifestyle: less crowded, less hurried, less expensive.

5. The terms ‘Aboriginal’ and ‘indigenous’ are often used interchangeably in Australia. In theory, ‘indigenous’ is the broader term, encompassing mainland and Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples and people from the Torres Strait Islands north of the mainland. In practice, different institutions may favour one term over another – the NSW Department of Education and Communities, for example, uses ‘Aboriginal’ (Aboriginal education policy, Aboriginal liaison officers and so on). I use the terms here as equivalents.

6. The data were collected over the course of several visits – each lasting between three and eight days – in 2012.

7. Under national data standards, students are classified as ‘LBOTE’ if a language other than English is the main language spoken at home by the student and/or by either of his or her parents/carers. The terms ‘LBOTE’, ‘ESL’ and ‘CALD’ (culturally and linguistically diverse) are all in circulation and are often used interchangeably, although they do not have the same meaning. A student may be from a LBOTE, for example, but not require ESL tuition.

8. See note 5.

9. The Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage, or ICSEA, created by ACARA and published for each school on the My School website.

10. National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.