Navigating unfreedoms & re-imagining ethical counter-conducts: Caring about refugees & asylum seekers

Abstract

This article uses Foucault’s concept of the care of the self to interrogate the accounts of ethical agency provided by professionals involved in the settlement of refugees, in a global and national context marked by fear of the stranger and the embrace of neoliberal political rationalities. An argument is made to ‘free the professional self’ by refusing an individualised, psychologised and dehistoricised approach in working with refugees and asylum seekers. In its place, a threefold ‘ethics of engagement’ for ‘international citizenship’ is proposed as a way forward to further professionalism and civic action. By understanding the refugee problem as an ‘integral part of North-South relations’ rather than as a ‘Third World’ problem, new possibilities are opened for an ethics of civility and an ethics of care.

Keywords:

• Social justice
• care of the self
• refugees
• settlement
• asylum seekers

Acknowledgements

I extend my appreciation to all who participated in the research. Two colleagues deserve special mention: Pam Christie for her inspiring intellectual leadership and commitment to justice along with Sandra Taylor. The usual disclaimers apply.

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [grant number DP,DP055976].

Notes

1. Following ethical clearance from the administrating university, 25 education personnels were interviewed, drawn from five state high schools, and two Catholic education schools. Also interviewed were policy actors in the education, local government and immigration bureaucracies and professionals in non-government organizations with responsibilities for settlement services. Interviews of approximately 1–2 hours in length were audio recorded and later transcribed. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts was undertaken with the view of examining the ‘problematizations’ adopted by interviewees – how educational needs were framed and how problems were tackled through concrete practices and programs. Insights from interviews were supplemented with observations at schools including professional development sessions offered to teachers to support their work with students from a refugee background.

2. Murri is a self-identifying for indigenous Australians resident in Queensland and northwest New South Wales.