Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T05:16:47.520Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Taking our Houses’: Perceptions of the Impact of Asylum Seekers, Refugees and New Migrants on Housing Assistance in Melbourne

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2012

Angela Spinney  and
Amy Nethery
Angela Spinney
Affiliation:
Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology E-mail: [email protected]
Amy Nethery
Affiliation:
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The pressing issue of homelessness in Australia is largely caused by a shortage of affordable accommodation. Unexpected results from a study into the experiences of homeless families, however, revealed that many people held the perception that asylum seekers, refugees and migrants are given greater priority by welfare agencies for housing assistance. Analysis of the interview data is used to illustrate how public and political discourses circulating at the time of the interviews may have contributed to these views. The article also discusses the extent to which xenophobia in the Australian community has links with feelings of economic insecurity.

Keywords

Homelessnesshousingmigrantsasylum seekersrefugees
Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 179 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, R., Wulff, M., Reynolds, M. and Spinney, A. (2011) Gentrification and Displacement: The Household Impacts of Neighbourhood Change, Final Report no. 160, Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.Google Scholar
Banton, M. (1983) Racial and Ethnic Competition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Burns, J. (n.d.) Locked Out: Position Paper on Homelessness of Asylum Seekers Living in the Community, Melbourne: Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, http://www.asrc.org.au/media/documents/locked-out.pdf [accessed 01.02.2011].Google Scholar
Chamberlain, C. and MacKenzie, D. (2008) Counting the Homeless, Canberra: Australian Census Analytic Program, Australian Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Crock, M. and Berg, L. (2011) Immigration, Refugees and Forced Migration: Law, Migration and Practice in Australia, Sydney: Federation Press.Google Scholar
Demographia (2010) Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2010, http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf [accessed 15.10.2010].Google Scholar
Dwyer, P. and Brown, D. (2005) ‘Meeting basic needs? Forced migrants and welfare’, Social Policy and Society, 4, 4, 369–80.Google Scholar
Fairclough, N. (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language, Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Hastings, A. (1999) ‘Discourse and urban change: introduction to the special issue’, Urban Studies, 36, 1, 7–12.Google Scholar
Hulse, K. and Saugeres, L. (2007) Home Life, Housing and Work Decisions, Research Report No. 7, National Research Venture 1, Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.Google Scholar
Jacobs, K. and Manzi, T. (1996) ‘Discourse and policy change: the significance of language for housing research’, Housing Studies, 11, 4, 543–62.Google Scholar
Leach, M., Stokes, G. and Ward, I. (2000), The Rise and Fall of One Nation, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press.Google Scholar
Liddy, N., Sanders, S. and Coleman, C. (2010) Australia's Hidden Homeless: Community-Based Approaches to Asylum Seeker Homelessness, Melbourne: Hotham Mission Asylum Seeker Project.
Mares, P. (2010) ‘Talking about our population’, Inside Story, 1 September.Google Scholar
McNevin, A. (2007) ‘The liberal paradox and the politics of asylum in Australia’, Australian Journal of Political Science, 42, 4, 611–30.Google Scholar
McNevin, A. (2010) ‘Border policing and sovereign terrain: the spatial framing of unwanted migration in Melbourne and Australia’, Globalizations, 7, 3, 407–19.Google Scholar
Megalogenis, G. (2010) Trivial Pursuit: Leadership and the End of the Reform Era, Quarterly Essay 40, Melbourne: Black Inc.Google Scholar
National Shelter (2011) Housing Australia Factsheet, Sydney: Shelter NSW.Google Scholar
Nethery, A. (2010) ‘Immigration detention in Australia’, Ph.D. thesis, Deakin University, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Pitty, R. and Leach, M. (2004) ‘Australian nationalism and internationalism’, in Boreham, P., Stokes, G. and Hall, R. (eds.), The Politics of Australian Society: Political Issues for the New Century, Sydney: Pearson Education, pp. 93–108.Google Scholar
Spinney, A., Hulse, K. and Kolar, V. (2010) ‘Reframing family homelessness: a citizenship approach’, Parity, September.Google Scholar
Tavan, G. (2005) The Long, Slow Death of White Australia, Carlton: Scribe.Google Scholar