Identity, Othering and belonging: toward an understanding of difference and the experiences of African immigrants to Australia

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to contribute to understanding of difference and knowledge on the analysis of the concepts of identity, Othering and belonging not only from a theoretical perspective, but more importantly by relating them empirically to the Australian context in a way that sheds a better light on the experiences of African immigrants to Australia. It draws on data from interviews conducted with 30 black Africans living in South East Queensland. Their racialized identities impacted on how they felt, were defined, related to and constructed, in Australia. Their accounts suggest that Othering practices can marginalize, exclude and affect migrants and refugees’ ideas and sense of belonging. The findings indicate the need for a more inclusive Australia, the accommodation of difference, the fostering of new identities, the rejection of negative representations and stereotypes of the Other, and the recognition that Othering is one of the important factors to understanding the marginalization, exclusion and challenges of ethnically and racially marked people in Australia.

KEYWORDS:

• African immigrants
• Australia
• belonging
• identity
• Othering
• Queensland

Notes

1 The focus on ‘black’, as opposed to ‘white’ Africans, was deliberate. First, ‘Othering’ of non-whites in Australia is not a new phenomenon, but one, which has remained neglected and under-reported in the literature (Udah, 2018). Second, black Africans stand in stark contrast to white African immigrants, who have not only a different phenotype and genealogical roots but have also benefitted from racially-based immigration policies and traditionally welcomed into Australia. It was only in the mid-1960s and early 1970s, under the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan, that small pockets of black African students started arriving in Australia (Udo-Ekpo, 1999). Black African migration to Australia reached a peak between 1996 and 2005 with the entrance of African refugees and displaced persons from the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia), Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda accepted by Australia on humanitarian grounds (Markus, 2016). The most recent census data indicate that the Sub-Saharan African-born population in Australia (white South African and Zimbabwean-born population included) has increased to 317,183 people (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017). In Queensland, the population has also increased. However, their experiences of belonging as black subjects in Australia remain under-reported in the literature. This paper aims to address this gap.

2 SEQ accounts for around two-thirds of Queensland’s total population. Geographically, it covers approximately 23,000 square kilometres stretching from the Gold Coast in the south to Noosa in the north and extending inland to include Toowoomba in the west.

3 Whiteness is the absent center against which others (non-whites) are positioned and perceived only as inferior, marginal, undesirable, uncivilized, ugly, deviant or points of deviation (Ahmed, 2007). In white-dominated spaces, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA and European contexts, white people are seen as the norm and are ‘unmarked’, while anyone who is not white becomes an ‘Other’.

4 Participants came from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in West Africa; Uganda and Tanzania in East Africa; Rwanda, Congo in Central Africa; Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan in Northeast Africa; and Zimbabwe and Botswana in Southern Africa. The processes of immigration and settlement have created a transnational African identity among them (Udo-Ekpo, 1999).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Griffith University [Doctoral Award].