Month: February 2023

Embracing Vulnerability

On By More to the StoryIn Refugee stories, research and reports, Telling other people's stories

I recently co-authored an academic article with my colleague Dr. Susan Beth Rottmann, Assistant Professor at Özyeğin University in Turkey. Susan and I met at a conference in Madrid and discovered we had a mutual interest in writing about the lives of refugees.

Called Embracing vulnerability in writing migrant lives, our article explores how an anthropologist like Susan, and a life writer like me, need to be open to making themselves vulnerable when sharing peoples’ stories.

Vulnerability is not only an experience of migrants and refugees but is also experienced by researchers and writers. Susan and I discuss the ethical and political practice of vulnerability with regards to writing peoples’ stories and how we both used our own stories to enhance the readers’ understanding. Even with our different backgrounds, we found lot of common ground in our approaches. We also look at the risks associated with this kind of approach – one which does attract criticism.

When there is trust, the vulnerable storyteller, the vulnerable narrator, and the vulnerable reader open the door to different ways of imagining a fairer and more just society.

Susan draws heavily on her fascinating research over many years with German-Turkish migrant women and Syrian refugees. She focusses particularly on one story about her friend Leyla which was published in the 2019 book In pursuit of belonging: forging an ethical life in European-Turkish spaces. I draw on my research and writing experience with people from a refugee background who have settled in Australia, using examples from More to the story – conversations with refugees and my research for my doctorate on refugees and life writing.

I’m very pleased that our article was recently published in the prestigious journal a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. While you would generally need a paid subscription, the publisher has provided me with some free online copies to share with my network. So, if you are interested in reading the full article, you may be able to access it via this link. 

Having afternoon tea with (L-R) Farid, Paul, Piok and Fauzia, some of the people who shared their story with me for More to the story-conversations with refugees

A Permanent Home at Last

On By More to the StoryIn Australian Asylum Seeking Policy, Human rights, politics

Thousands of refugees living and working in Australia will be granted permanent residency after ten years in limbo living with Temporary Protection Visas or Safe Haven Enterprise Visas.

My Afghan friend said he cried when he heard the news.  He, like many other refugees with temporary status, is working and paying taxes. He works in the mining sector after having successfully gained a scholarship to study for a university degree in Australia. He already had one degree from India and is a fine upstanding young man.   

Why wouldn’t we want him as an Australian citizen?  He is a refugee who fled from persecution by the Taliban in fear for his life.  For years I have asked myself why the Australian government was persecuting him further.

This week’s announcement from the Albanese Government is a life changer for over 19,000 refugees who entered Australia prior to the dreadful ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ policy that was enacted in 2013.  This policy centred around then immigration minister Scott Morrison’s mantra of ‘stop the boats’ and was applied to anyone who had arrived by boat to seek protection in Australia before 19 July 2013.  

Since then, those with temporary visas had to reapply every few years for their visa despite having been found to be refugees seeking asylum.  Restrictions also included no possibility of reuniting with families, no support for tertiary study, travel restrictions and limited access to disability and other social supports.

The Refugee Council of Australia is celebrating this long-awaited policy change, which was a Labor election promise. “Today’s announcement from Immigration Minister Andrew Giles is righting almost a decade of an inhumane policy which achieved nothing but untold harm and trauma to people who sought protection in Australia,” said Chief Executive Officer Paul Power. 

You can read more on their website or in the Guardian Australia.

These changes have been hailed by refugee advocates across Australia as “a victory of unity and compassion over division and fear”.

Today I am once again proud to be an Australian.