Refugee Education & 'BIG Australia'

 The article I am looking at in regards to refugees outlines that most people desire a stable population compared to the 'Big Australia' that the pollies refer too. Keeping a stable population as understood by the population would mean a number of things: It would mean improving housing affordability, cost of living would ease due to not having to keep up with expansion of infrastructure etc. the use of natural resources such as fresh water, agricultural land and energy reserves can be maintained for a longer time at a stable population.

The reason why i mention the above and why articles such as the one i am referring to are so important is because these types of media articles mold public opinion and as we can see refugees are held with a negative connotation.

Robert Hattam and Danielle Every outline that the way refugees experience education is based heavily on how the school itself presents the experiences of refugees, but also, the way the 'public culture' thinks about refugees and asylum seekers.

The media constantly refers the 'refugee problem'- automatically dehumanizing the people we should be showing hospitality too. The word refugee seems to hold a negative connotation and no doubt this is due to the way the media handles it. People seem to be quite anxious and nervous when talking about refugees who are overpopulating our country and taking our jobs.

The governments seem to use refugees as a political tool, for example the Howard governments campaign against asylum seekers in 2001 claiming that asylum seekers were throwing their children overboard, even though this claim was proved to be false, refugee animosity remained high.These negative constructions of refugees- being called 'terrorists, illegals and queue jumpers' takes a extreme affect on the way refugees are thought about in the public domain and more importantly the way refugees and asylum seekers are treated in the education system.

Hattam and Every Suggest the governments role in portraying anti-refugee rhetoric and continues in explaining that teachers need to counteract any micro-aggressions which may take place in the classroom due to this negative portrayal.

Minikel-Lacocque forces you to observe aggression through a different light compared to the original understanding, the taxonomy of racial micro-aggressions outlines the many ways which micro-aggressions occur: 

In examining the taxonomy it is obvious to see that the negative connotation towards refugees itself is a micro aggression, sitting underneath the 'microinvalidation' which is often unconscious- meaning the behaviors and opinions that nullify the group of people. Also 'micro-insults' being opinions/ behaviors that convey insensitivity and rudeness.

Hattam outlines the idea of liquid community, where some have an identity forced upon them, where their identity is dehumanised and vilified- finding themselves at a complete loss. I think this is exactly what is happening with the refugee public opinion- refugees are seen as being outside of the community and this microagression is going to take affect when the refugees are being taught in the classroom as well as how the story of refugees is taught to other children in the classroom, therefore producing a cycle which regurgitates the same narrative,keeping the micro-aggression repeating itself.

References:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/oates-a-big-australia-is-a-costly-gamble/story-fnii5yla-1226735716916

Hattam, R., & Every, D. (2010). Teaching in fractured classrooms: refugee

education, public culture, community and ethics. Race Ethnicity and

Education, 

Minikel-Lacocque, J. (2013). Racism, college and the power of words: Racial
microaggressions reconsidered. American Educational Research Journal,
50, 432.