The Iranian Diaspora in Sydney: Migration Experience of Recent Iranian Immigrants

Abstract

Recent research has found that discrimination against Islam and Muslims is deeply rooted in Australia. This report explores whether or how recent Iranian migrants have experienced racism, discrimination, or Islamaphobia in Sydney. These questions are explored by focusing on their experiences and issues regarding their making of new lives in Australia. This article suggests that recent Iranian migrants are experiencing far less discrimination than other Muslim diasporas in Sydney. Concluding that despite recent reports by some researchers grouping various Muslim populations together as regards Islamaphobia, there is a necessity for investigating discrimination, stereotyping, and Islamaphobia against particular diasporas to determine the needs of the Muslim population at large.

Notes

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²H. Goddard, A History of Christian–Muslim Relations (Edinburgh, 2000).

³M. Delafosse, “L'état actuel de l'islam dans l'Afrique française,” Revue du Monde Musulma no. 5 (1910): 32–53.

⁴Goddard, A History of Christian–Muslim Relations, 2.

⁵K. Zebiri, “The Redeployment of Orientalist Themes in Contemporary Islamophobia,” Studies in Contemporary Islam 10 (2008): 4–44, 4.

⁶S.P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?,” Foreign Affairs 72, no. 3 (1993): 22–49.

⁷Zebiri, “The Redeployment of Orientalist Themes in Contemporary Islamophobia”; K. Haiderali Karim, The Islamic Peril: Media and Global Violence (London, 2000).

⁸E. Said, Orientalism (Vintage Books, 1979).

⁹Ibid.

¹⁰T. Modood, Multicultural Politics: Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain (Edinburgh, 2005), 4.

¹¹A. Rattansi, Racism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2007), 111.

¹²L. Sheridan, “Islamophobia Pre- and Post-September 11th, 2001,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 21 (2006): 317–36.

¹³López, “Towards a Definition of Islamophobia.”

¹⁴P.E. Hopkins, “Young Muslims Men's Experience of Local Landscapes after September 11, 2001,” in Geographies of Muslim Identities: Diaspora, Gender, and Belonging, ed. C. Aitchison (Aldershot, 2007), 189–200, 198; P.A. Silverstein, “The Context of Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in France,” Patterns of Prejudice 42 (2008): 1–26; S. Cherribi, An Obsession Renewed: Islamophobia in the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany; J. Esposito and I. Kalin (eds), Islamophobia: The Challenge of Pluralism in the 21st Century (New York, 2011); A. Aslan, Islamophobia in Australia (Agora Press, 2009); H. Ghali, “The Rise of Islamophobia in ‘White Australia’,” Global Research, December 14, 2005, http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-rise-of-islamophobia-in-white-australia/1485; S. Poynting, G. Noble and P. Tabor, “Bin Laden in the Suburbs: Criminalising the Arab Other,” Sydney Institute of Criminology Monograph 18 (Sydney, 2004); G. Larsson, “The Impact of Global Conflicts on Local Contexts: Muslims in Sweden after 9-11—The Rise of Islamophobia or New Possibilities?,” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 16 (2005): 29–42.

¹⁵Silverstein, “The Context of Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in France.” 

¹⁶Cherribi, An Obsession Renewed.

¹⁷Larsson, “The Impact of Global Conflicts on Local Contexts.”

¹⁸Cherribi, An Obsession Renewed.

¹⁹Ibid.

²⁰Aslan, Islamophobia in Australia.

²¹Ghali, “The Rise of Islamophobia.”

²²Poynting et al., “Bin Laden in the Suburbs.”

²³Aslan, Islamophobia in Australia.

²⁴Ibid., 8.

²⁵J. Forrest and K. Dunn, “Core Culture Hegemony and Multiculturalism Perceptions of the Privileged Position of Australians with British Backgrounds,” Ethnicities 6 (2006): 203–30.

²⁶M. Humphrey, “An Australian Islam? Religion in the Multicultural City,” in Muslim Communities in Australia, ed. S. Akbarzadeh and A. Saeed (UNSW Press, 2001): 33–52.

²⁷S. Poynting and V. Mason, “The New Integrationism, the State and Islamophobia: Retreat from Multiculturalism in Australia,” International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice 36 (2008): 230–46.

²⁸Forrest and Dunn, “Core Culture Hegemony,” Ethnicities 6 (2006): 203–30.

²⁹Poynting and Mason, “The New Integrationism,” 232.

³⁰Ibid, 236.

³¹Poynting and Mason, “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia.”

³²G. Turner, “The Cosmopolitan City and its Other: The Ethnicizing of the Australian Suburb,” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 9 (2008): 568–82.

³³Forrest and Dunn, “Core Culture Hegemony.”

³⁴N.M.A.C., Australian Multiculturalism for a New Century: Towards Inclusiveness (Canberra, 1999), 4.

³⁵Forrest and Dunn, “Core Culture Hegemony.”

³⁶Turner, “The Cosmopolitan City and its Other.” 

³⁷A. Qazi, “Islam and Muslims in Australia,” in Islam, Muslims and the Modern State, ed. Hussin Mutalib and Taj ul-Islam Hashmi (New York: St. Martins Press, 1994), 1–374.

³⁸A. Wise, J. Ali and Australia Dept. of Immigration and Citizenship, “Muslim-Australians and Local Government Grassroots Strategies to Improve Relations between Muslims and Non-Muslim Australians: Final Research Report,” Macquarie University, 2008.

³⁹Qazi, “Islam and Muslims in Australia.”

⁴⁰N. Kabir, Muslims in Australia: Immigration, Race Relations and Cultural History (London, 2005).

⁴¹Australian Bureau of Statistics, Population Estimates by Birthplace, Australia, 2006.

⁴²Kabir, Muslims in Australia; Wise et al., “Muslim-Australians and Local Government”; J. Collins et al., Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime: Youth Ethnicity and Crime (Pluto, 2000).

⁴³P. Poynting and G. Noble, Living With Racism: The Experience and Reporting by Arab and Muslim Australians of Discrimination, Abuse and Violence Since 11 September 2001 (Sydney, 2004).

⁴⁴Ibid.

⁴⁵Wise et al., “Muslim-Australians and Local Government.”

⁴⁶K. Dunn, “The Uneven Experience of Racism” (paper presented at the Uneven Geographies of Hope Workshop, Sydney, 15 February 2004), 177.

⁴⁷Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural NSW, Community Relations Report, 2001–2009.

⁵¹Adibi, “Iranians in Australia,” 103.

⁴⁸C. McAuliffe, “Visible Minorities: Constructing and Deconstructing the ‘Muslim Iranian’ Diaspora,” in Geographies of Muslim Identities: Diaspora, Gender and Belonging, ed. C. Aitchison, P. E. Hopkins, M.-P. Kwan (Aldershot, 2007), 29–56; F. Keshishian, “Acculturation, Communication, and the U.S. Mass Media: The Experience of an Iranian Immigrant,” Howard Journal of Communications 11 (2000): 93–106.

⁴⁹Shideh Hanassab, “Sexuality, Dating, and Double Standards: Young Iranian Immigrants in Los Angeles,” Iranian Studies 31, no. 1 (1998): 65–75; Mehdi Bozorgmehr and Georges Sabagh, “High Status Immigrants: A Statistical Profile of Iranians in the United States,” Iranian Studies 21, nos. 3/4 (1988): 5–36.

⁵⁰C. McAuliffe, “A Home Far Away? Religious Identity and Transnational relations in the Iranian Diaspora,” Global Networks 7, no. 3 (2007): 307–27; C. McAuliffe, “Transnationalism Within: Internal Diversity in the Iranian Diaspora,” Australian Geographer 39, no. 1 (2008): 63–80; McAuliffe, “Visible Minorities”; H. Adibi, “Identity and Social Change: The Case of Iranian Youth in Australia” (paper presented at Social Change in the 21st Century, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 21 November, 2003); H. Adibi, “Iranians in Australia,” in Mehregan in Sydney, ed. G. Trompf and M. Honari (Sydney, 1998), 102–130, 103.

⁵²Adibi, “Identity and Social Change.”

⁵³McAuliffe, “A Home Far Away?”; McAuliffe, “Transnationalism Within.”

⁵⁴McAuliffe, “Visible Minorities.” 

⁵⁵M. Price, Iran's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook (Santa Barbara and Denver, 2005).

⁵⁶Australian Bureau of Statistics, Population Estimates by Birthplace, Australia (2006); DIAC, “Community Information Summary—Iran,” Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Australia, 2006.

⁵⁷Poynting et al, “Bin Laden in the Suburbs.”

⁵⁸DIAC, “Community Information Summary—Iran.”

⁵⁹Australian Bureau of Statistics, Population estimates by Birthplace, Australia (2006); DIAC, “Community Information Summary—Iran.”

⁶⁰DIAC, “Community Information Summary—Iran.”

⁶¹D. Salehi-Isfahani, Human Development in the Middle East and North Africa, Human Development Research Papers (2009-Present), HDRP-2010-26, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

⁶²Australian Bureau of Statistics, Population Estimates by Birthplace, Australia (2006); DIAC, “Community Information Summary—Iran.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tiffany Amber Tenty

Tiffany Amber Tenty is an Alumni of Macquarie University

Christopher Houston

Christopher Houston is Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of Social Anthropology at Macquarie University, Australia. The authors would like to thank the editors and reviewers for their constructive comments.