Shared Experience
Recent Refugee Settlement Experiences in Australia: Research Findings and Policy Initiatives
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jock Collins, Carol Reid, Violet Roumeliotis
Australia has in per capital terms taken in more refugees than most Western countries. The current annual humanitarian intake is 18,000 per year. In addition, Australia took in a one-off cohort of 12,000 refugees from the Syrian Conflict – from Syria and Iraq - most of whom arrived in 2017. That meant that in 2017 Australia had received more than double refugee intake of previous decades. Given that refugee intakes are the most controversial aspect of Australia’s immigration program it might have been expected that 2017 was a crisis year in Australian refugee settlement. And yet the reality appears to be much different. The settlement service organisations (including SSI, the major settlement service organisation for refugees arriving in Sydney and NSW) were very stretched in terms of staffing and resources yet coped with he extra caseload. Many of the refugees themselves have settled successfully in Australia (mainly in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne) with the major settlement problem related to employment. In this workshop, Violet Roumeliotis will discuss how the settlement services in Australia respond to new refugee arrivals and the innovative programs that SSI has introduced in recent years, including a program designed to assist newly-arrived refugees to set up a business. Jock Collins and Carol Reid will report on the findings of the first year of their research project – funded by the Australian Research Council - on Settlement Outcomes of Syrian Conflict Refugee Families in Australia and interviews with 250 refugee families.
A Cross-Cultural Education Experience : The Case of Greek Graduate Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anastasia-Olga (Olnancy) Tzirides
The socio-financial crisis that started in Greece in 2009 jointly with the educational and work opportunities offered to people in the globalized society we live in, has led thousands of young Greeks to migrate to other countries seeking a better life (Argeros, 2018). Many of these immigrants have moved to the USA, for graduate level studies in popular US institutions. This paper focuses on the experiences that Greek graduate students face in a large US Midwestern institution. A semi-structured survey questionnaire was distributed to the students of Greek origin during Spring 2019. The results consider the main reasons of migration, as well as the cultural and educational challenges that the students face during their transition from the Greek to the US setting. These results give us an insight into the life of the new generation of Greek immigrants. The information about the reasons that they left Greece is an important source for considering how to stem the brain drain. Finally, based on the students’ perspectives about their cross-cultural experience as learners, workers, and citizens, we explore the value of intercultural understanding and diversity in education and society, in general.
Cultivating Women’s Voices and Banishing the Inner Impostor
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Amy Landis
The impostor phenomenon was first identified by Clance and Imes (1978); people who experience the impostor phenomenon often feel that their achievements are not a result of their competence, despite meeting or exceeding external standards. Although the impostor phenomenon is common among academics and researchers, it disproportionately affects women, minorities, and LGBTQ people. Due to STEM’s systemic culture of discrimination, women experience unique communication challenges and stereotypes including uptalk, difficulty speaking up in meetings, interruptions, and unwinnable dichotomy of self-presentation (e.g. women can’t be assertive and humble in the STEM workplace without facing consequences). These communication biases also enhance feelings of being an impostor, while a person’s inner impostor enhances negative communication stereotypes. This paper summarizes the findings from three workshops focused on impostor and communication. The workshops were developed in collaboration with the Alan Alda Center for Science Communication at Stonybrook University. The goals of the workshop were to 1) explore the prevalence of impostor syndrome in STEM, 2) gain a deeper understanding of their own inner impostor and how it might affect their career 3) understand the body of research around bias toward women in STEM, 4) gain valuable skills in communication that foster career advancement and manage their inner impostor. We reviewed examples of bias against female scientists showing up in diversity statements and how an inner impostor impacted the job application materials of a female scientist. We present results of a survey of women participants on their experiences with communication and the impostor phenomenon.
Greek Educational Minority in Albania and Heterotopia
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anila Mammou, Eugenia Arvanitis
The establishment of the Albanian state brings a lot of turmoil to Greek-Albanian relations, as the northern part of Epirus is annexed after long term disputes in Albania. The Greeks living in northern Epirus are trapped in Albania and are forced to adapt to the new conditions. Despite the declarations of the Albanian state, the Greek National Minority (GNM) is deprived from its political, religious, and educational freedom and rights (Τσιτσελίκης & Χριστόπουλος, 2003). In the educational sector, the Greek National Minority continues to face serious problems today experiencing a liminal status after a century of its official recognition. The purpose of this study is to reflect on the liminal status experienced by the GNM using the concept of heterotopias (Foucault, 1986). A bibliographic review will be combined with a thorough content analysis of anecdotal data elicited by the GNM educational stakeholders. The GNM stakeholders experience a sense of liminality as they have been trying for decades to integrate and build a sense of liminal belonging. Anecdotal data indicates that Greek minority members in Albania feel a double exclusion as they feel they do not belong neither “here” (Albania) nor “there” (Greece) but somewhere in between (Turner, 1969). The GNM members build their own “other” places, so they can be fully accepted and integrated. These places can be disturbing, intense, incompatible, contradictory, or transforming. Heterotopias are worlds within worlds, mirroring and yet upsetting what is outside. Heterotopias can act as locations for struggle and resistance to oppressed subjectivity.
