Melbourne Social Equity Institute and Researchers for Asylum Seekers (RAS) are partnering to present a fortnightly seminar series on a range of topics related to forced migration, refugees and people seeking asylum.

RAS is a voluntary group concerned about the mandatory detention of people seeking asylum, the detention of children, the application of offshore processing to people seeking asylum who reach Australian waters or shores, and other unfair and inhumane treatment of people seeking asylum and refugees.

The Refugees and Forced Migration Seminar Series will return in Semester 2. Please subscribe to our email list for updates.

Past Seminars

TUESDAY 2 MAY
* please note new date *
Where Does Prejudice Come From? Presenting a Model of Underlying Motives and Processes
Presented by Dr Ryan Perry

The notion of generalised prejudice suggests that some individuals are more likely to discriminate against members of all or most other social groups. Other approaches to understanding prejudice focus on specific intergroup relationships that seem to engender prejudice, particularly relationships characterised by competition and threat. The Dual Process Model of Ideology and Prejudice (DPM) encompasses both these perspectives, proposing two basic motivations that predispose individuals to be either prejudiced or tolerant. The DPM also describes how these dispositions are activated by the nature of intergroup relationships. Consistent with the DPM, findings indicate that targeted groups tend to be perceived as (a) competing with the perpetrators group for resources, (b) threatening to social security and stability, or (c) both.

TUESDAY 7 MARCH
Count Me In: Promoting Social Inclusion Through Sports Participation for Refugee-Background Young People
Presented by Dr Karen Block

Participation in organised sports is associated with improved physical and mental health as well as a range of psychosocial benefits. For refugee and migrant youth, it also has the potential to be a critical mediator for successful settlement and social inclusion. Young people from CALD backgrounds have low participation rates however, with identified barriers including costs, discrimination and a lack of cultural sensitivity in sporting environments, a lack of knowledge of mainstream sports services, lack of access to transport, culturally determined gender norms and competing family priorities. This presentation will focus on the development and early findings from a pilot project which employs bicultural Community Support Coordinators to work with clubs and families to increase participation in a range of sports.

TUESDAY 21 MARCH
Songs of Celebration and Suffering: Musical Representations of Refugeity
Presented by Dr Samantha Dieckmann

Functionalising music to address political or humanitarian concerns is an exercise in galvanising emotions, whether celebratory, sympathetic or hopeful. In the context of issues surrounding forced migration, music has been used to foster public understanding and validate Australian belonging for refugees and asylum seekers. This seminar examines the musical performance of refugee and asylum seeker narratives and identities by considering the relationship between whose voices are being represented and whose voices are being heard.

TUESDAY 4 APRIL
Australian Compared to Canadian and German Approaches to Asylum Seeker Intakes
Presented by Professor Lesleyanne Hawthorne

In the past decade sharp distinctions have emerged between Australian responses to onshore asylum seeker applications for settlement, relative to offshore applicants and global comparators such as Canada and Germany. Based on recent empirical research, factors contributing to this are defined, compared to contemporary issues in Canada and Germany.

For further information email social-equity@unimelb.edu.au