Barriers to and enablers of sustainable practices: insights from ethnic minority migrants

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of Australia showing study site regions.

Table 1. Summary details of sub-studies regarding ethnicity, migration and the environment.

Thematic focus of study	Study location	Type of study	Year(s) data collected	Number of participants	Ethnicity of participants	Participant countries of origin	Participant selection	Participant recruitment	Data collection method(s)	Data treatment and analysis	Bilingual Community Co-researchers / Research Assistants involved
Household water use	Illawarra region	Qualitative	2015	16	Burmese	Burma	Participants selected based on the following criteria: must identify as being of Burmese ethnicity must be a first generation migrant must be an adult (over 18 years old)	Participants recruited via targeted and snowball sampling through: Burmese community organisations social networks known to the researcher bilingual research assistants	Semi-structured interviews ‘Go-along’ home tours	Interviews were audio recorded, translated, transcribed and coded thematically	Yes
Household water use	Sydney metropolitan region and Illawarra region	Qualitative	2015	15	Iranian	Iran	Participants selected based on the following criteria: must identify as being of Iranian identity must be an adult (over 18 years old) must speak Persian or English	Participants recruited via targeted and snowball sampling through: contacting Iranian organisations in the study regions attending monthly events at/of the Wollongong Bahá’í community through personal networks of the researcher	Semi-structured interviews ‘Go-along’ home tours	Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. A narrative analysis approach was taken to analyse data.	No
Household water use	Sydney metropolitan region	Qualitative	2015–2017	30	Jordanian (n = 6) Bangladeshi (n = 10) Hazara (Afghani) (n = 14)	Afghanistan Bangladesh Jordan Pakistan	Participants selected based on the following criteria: must be adults living in the Sydney Metropolitan areas must be first generation migrants of Islamic faith must be of Bangladeshi, Jordanian or Hazara ethnicity	Participants recruited via targeted, opportunistic and snowball sampling through: community organisations known to the researcher social networks known to the researcher focus groups organised through community organisations (which included participants of Muslim faith from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria)	In-depth, life history interviews conducted mostly in the native language of the research participant and always with the bilingual community co-researcher present Focus group sessions served as a means to map out issues to be discussed in life history interviews	Interviews were audio recorded, translated, transcribed and analysed in discussion with community researchers.	Yes

Table 1. Continued

Thematic focus of study	Study location	Type of study	Year(s) data collected	Number of participants	Ethnicity of participants	Participant countries of origin	Participant selection	Participant recruitment	Data collection method(s)	Data treatment and analysis	Bilingual Community Co-researchers / Research Assistants involved
Household water use	Sydney metropolitan region and Illawarra region	Qualitative	2015–2016	20	Chinese (n = 7) Filipino (n = 2) Indian (n = 4) Laotian (n = 1) Lebanese (n = 1) Malaysian (n = 1) Pakistani (n = 1) Sri Lankan (n = 1) Vietnamese (n = 2)	China India Lao PDR Lebanon Malaysia Pakistan Philippines Sri Lanka Vietnam	Participant inclusion criteria: adult first-generation migrants living in the Sydney metropolitan or Illawarra region.	Participants recruited via an earlier stage of the research project (a household questionnaire).	• Semi-structured interviews	Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed and an inductive, thematic approach to analysis was used.	No
Food growing	Illawarra region	Qualitative	2016–2018	21	Karenni	Burma Thailand	Participants selected based on the following criteria: must identify as being of Karenni ethnicity must be an adult (over 18 years old) must be (or have been) a food grower or forager	Participants recruited via opportunistic, targeted and snowball sampling via: community organisations supporting migrants and refugees migrants’ own community associations/groups, local farming social enterprises bilingual research assistants.	Semi-structured interviews ‘Go-alongs’ Research journal	Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, translated (where applicable), and coded thematically.	Yes - for data collection and some analysis
Food growing	Illawarra region	Qualitative	2016–2018	15	Portuguese	Portugal	Participants selected based on the following criteria: must identify as being of Portuguese ethnicity must be an adult (over 18 years old) must be (or have been) a food grower or forager	Participants recruited via opportunistic, targeted and snowball sampling via: community organisations supporting migrants and refugees migrants’ own community associations/groups, local farming social enterprises bilingual research assistants.	Semi-structured interviews ‘Go-alongs’ Research journal	Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, translated (where applicable), and coded thematically.	Yes - for data collection and some analysis.
Food growing	Sunraysia region	Qualitative	2014 - 2017	100	Australian of Italian ancestry (n = 26) Burundian (n = 8) Congolese (n = 1) Cypriot (n = 1) Greek (n = 2) Hazara (n =  6) I-Kiribati (n = 3) Italian (n = 14) Nepalese (n = 1) Papua New Guinean (n = 4) Slovenian (n = 1) Solomon Islander (n = 2) Sri Lankan (n = 1) Tongan (n = 21) Vietnamese (n = 9)	Afghanistan Australia Burundi Cyrus Democratic Republic of Congo Greece Italy Kiribati Nepal Papua New Guinea Slovenia Solomon Islands Sri Lanka Tonga Vietnam	Participants were required to be over 18 years of age and selected based on meeting at least one of the following criteria: must be (or have been) a food grower or forager must be (or have been) a farm worker must be (or have been) a farm owner must be (or have been) a hunter or livestock raiser	Participants recruited via opportunistic, targeted and snowball sampling via: community organisations supporting migrants, refugees and/or seasonal workers migrants’ own community associations/groups farmers markets bilingual research assistants	Semi-structured interviews Focus group discussions Farm/garden tours	Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, translated (where applicable), and coded thematically. Analysis also included archival research about early Italian immigrants to the region in historical documents and newspapers.	Yes - for data collection with Burundian, Hazara, Tongan and Vietnamese participants
Transport	Sydney metropolitan region	Qualitative	2014	14	Chinese	China China-affiliated territories (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan) Malaysia	Participants selected based on the following criteria: must be adults living in the Sydney Metropolitan Area must identify as being of Chinese ethnicity must speak English (as translation and interpretation were beyond scope)	Participants recruited via targeted, opportunistic and snowball sampling through: community organisations social networks known to the researcher	Semi-structured interviews (including a drawing activity) Travel dairies Mobile ethnographies (‘ride alongs’)	Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and coded thematically.	No

Table 1. Continued

Thematic focus of study	Study location	Type of study	Year(s) data collected	Number of participants	Ethnicity of participants	Participant countries of origin	Participant selection	Participant recruitment	Data collection method(s)	Data treatment and analysis	Bilingual Community Co-researchers / Research Assistants involved
Transport	Sydney metropolitan region and Illawarra region	Quantitative	2012	272	North-East Asian (mostly Chinese) (n = 92) Anglo-European Australian (n = 180)	China, Australia	Participants selected based on the following criteria: must be adults living in the Sydney Metropolitan Area or Wollongong	The household survey was distributed by post to 3000 households in Sydney and Wollongong via a targeted mail-out approach using surnames typical amongst the following language groups: English, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Hindi and Arabic. An online version of the survey (in the above community languages) was also distributed via the NSW Community Relations Commission (CRC) email list-serve (excluding Arabic because right to left script was not supported by the online survey platform). Respondents were classified into regional-level ethnic groupings (e.g. North-East Asian) by coding their self-defined ethnicity against the ABS Standard Classification of Cultural and Ethnic Groups. This was done to create sufficiently large groupings for statistical analyses.	Household questionnaire	Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS quantitative data analysis software. Cross-tabulations were performed and statistical significance was tested with Pearson’s chi-squared test at 5% (0.05) and 1% (0.01) levels of significance. Ordinal regression was used to control for the effects of variables likely to influence the relationship between ethnicity/migration status and the dependent (transport-related) variables (i.e. the study controlled for the influence of gender, generation, income, employment status, place of residence and the presence of children in the home).	No

Figure 2. Country of origin context, country of destination context, and outcomes for migrants’ water use practices. White arrows show drivers to increased (top) and reduced (lower) water consumption.

Figure 3. Country of origin context, country of destination context, and outcomes for migrants’ food growing practices. White arrows show drivers to less (top) and more (lower) sustainable practices.

Figure 4. Country of origin context, country of destination context, and outcomes for migrants’ transport practices. White arrows show drivers to more (top) and less (lower) sustainable practices.