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Public services as indispensable stepping stones to migrant women’s self determination

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Bursian, Olga. Public services as indispensable stepping stones to migrant women’s self determination. 2007.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/6701

Title: Public services as indispensable stepping stones to migrant women’s self determination
Creator: Bursian, Olga
Contributor: Monash University. Faculty of Arts. School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences.
Subject: Welfare state
Subject: Public and community services
Subject: Multicultural services
Subject: Self determination
Subject: Women’s agency
Subject: Migrant women
Subject: Diversity
Date: 2007
Description: This paper argues that publicly funded infrastructure, or the welfare state, were indispensable in enabling a group of migrant women to exercise energetic self determination during resettlement in Melbourne between the mid 1970s to late 1990s. Even though the group of participants in my doctoral study were extraordinarily resilient, and mostly educated women, they needed the service system developed within the bi-partisan supported policy of multiculturalism which granted access to newcomers on the basis of citizenship rights. The paper unpacks the sufferings of migrants who come from communally based societies, lose their former worlds and meaningful place in society and encounter negative representations fuelled by ignorance in the Australian context. I then present the women’s detailed evidence about how the network of publicly funded services, as they existed up to the end of the 1990s in Victoria, enabled them to not only recapture their former energies, but also had life affirming reverberations for their families and the community. In contradiction to recent divisive, neo-liberal public discourses (Edgar 2001; Mendes 2003), the welfare state and the policies of multiculturalism and related programs enabled engaged citizenship and the building of vibrant and diverse civil society. Rather than being a drain on the public purse, modest government investments into programs enabled the nation to benefit from the women’s enormous industriousness. After some brief contextual information, I will present vignettes from their narratives about connecting with a variety of services. The tragically amusing dialogue with an isolated woman’s experience of poor medical practice will provide a counter balance to the discussion.

Identifier: http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/6701
Identifier: monash:6701
Identifier: Bursian, O. Public services as indispensable stepping stones to migrant women’s self determination. Practice Reflexions. 2007 Dec;2(1): 35-49.
RM Identifier: $rmid
Publication Category: $pubCat
Format: application/pdf
Type: journal article
Type: Collection. Practice Reflexions
Type: Monash open access journal
Source: 1834-3635

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DOC	Research Publication	756 KB	Adobe Acrobat PDF	View Details	Download

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