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Articles

‘Everyday otherness’ – intercultural refugee encounters and everyday multiculturalism in a South Australian rural town

Pages 2128-2145 | Received 24 Sep 2015, Accepted 11 Apr 2016, Published online: 03 May 2016
 

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I investigate the lived experience of multiculturalism often referred to as ‘everyday multiculturalism’. I suggest that the concept of ‘everyday otherness’ offers further insight in understanding the intercultural dynamics of diverse communities and explore the ways in which individuals and communities have negotiated intercultural encounters and ‘otherness’ in a regional Australian community. The research is based on ethnographic fieldwork in a South Australian regional town and draws on an analysis of 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with long-term residents and recent humanitarian migrants – those who are from Afghan Hazara refugees/asylum seeker backgrounds. Following on from Amanda Wise’s (Citation2009) conception of individuals who facilitate bridging difference between diverse groups, ‘transversal enablers’, I identify two types of ‘transversal enablers’ that can be found among both long-term regional residents and new migrants – structural and everyday enablers – and draw out the characteristics and capacities that they exemplify in bridging ‘everyday otherness’ in the community.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to Susanne Scheck and Hannah Soong for their advice and encouragement on early versions of the article. I also want to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their excellent suggestions and input which have been incorporated into the article. Above all I want to thank the long-term residents and Hazara Afghans of the South Australia regional town who graciously shared their intercultural experiences with me.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In the case of South Australia, the whole state, including the capital city, Adelaide, is covered by the SPRM, not just rural towns.

2. By ‘visible’ migrants I refer to the recent wave of non-European background migrants (humanitarian/skilled/voluntary) who have moved into regional towns. They maybe ‘visible’ because of differences associated with skin colour, dress, culture or religious practice (Galligan, Boese, and Phillips Citation2014).

3. Names of all long-term residents and Hazara respondents used in this paper have been changed.

4. The above scenario does not take into account that there may be other long-term residents, or Woolworths themselves, who may be quite happy that Christmas celebrations have been curtailed in the shopping centre. A fact not able to be verified at the time of the writing of this article.

5. Another Hazara teenage girl told me a similar story. But for her the perpetrators added the comment ‘you are terrorists’ for extra punch.

6. One respondent expressed this comment which she had heard from a fellow long-term resident within the community.

7. That is, to make the effort to negotiate, to reciprocate, to understand and to move towards one another.

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