Papers by Melinda McPherson
Journal of Refugee Studies, Nov 17, 2010
Abstract The discourse of integration has been ascendant in migration policy internationally, par... more Abstract The discourse of integration has been ascendant in migration policy internationally, particularly after western concerns linking terrorism with cultural separatism. Retreats from multiculturalism signal a view that conformance by outsiders with a normative, universal, and static national citizen subject will facilitate social cohesion. The discourse of integrationism, perpetuated through the practice of UnSpeak (Poole 2006), represents resettled refugees as innately problematic against dominant, normative values (Marston 2004). I explore these ...
The Modern Language Journal, Jun 1, 2021
International perspectives on migration, Sep 10, 2013
Representations of women in refugee policy have commonly acted to invisibilise or marginalise tho... more Representations of women in refugee policy have commonly acted to invisibilise or marginalise those women’s interests, resulting in negative material effects. In this chapter I discuss the operation of such representations in the field of settlement education policy and draw on refugee women’s voices as a means of contesting such representations. Drawing on feminist theorisations of Foucault, I explore settlement policy representations through the lens of Foucault’s Microphysics of Power, and make an appeal to the women’s ‘marginal voices’ as a mechanism for interrupting those dominant representations. My empirical work entails interviews with nine long settled refugee women in Melbourne about the role they believe education should play in society. Interview feedback indicates a central concern for the role of education in developing autonomous capabilities such as independent thought. I explore the women’s perspectives through the lens of Olssen’s Capabilities for Freedom, and consider the implications of their responses for representations of their subjectivities in policy. In particular, I argue that dominant representations in policy are premised on privileged views of refugee women that de-emphasise agency in the subject. I conclude that education policy must commence from a perspective that imagines and values self-authorship and self-representation in refugee women.
The Modern Language Journal, 2021
International Perspectives on Migration, 2013
Representations of women in refugee policy have commonly acted to invisibilise or marginalise tho... more Representations of women in refugee policy have commonly acted to invisibilise or marginalise those women’s interests, resulting in negative material effects. In this chapter I discuss the operation of such representations in the field of settlement education policy and draw on refugee women’s voices as a means of contesting such representations. Drawing on feminist theorisations of Foucault, I explore settlement policy representations through the lens of Foucault’s Microphysics of Power, and make an appeal to the women’s ‘marginal voices’ as a mechanism for interrupting those dominant representations. My empirical work entails interviews with nine long settled refugee women in Melbourne about the role they believe education should play in society. Interview feedback indicates a central concern for the role of education in developing autonomous capabilities such as independent thought. I explore the women’s perspectives through the lens of Olssen’s Capabilities for Freedom, and consider the implications of their responses for representations of their subjectivities in policy. In particular, I argue that dominant representations in policy are premised on privileged views of refugee women that de-emphasise agency in the subject. I conclude that education policy must commence from a perspective that imagines and values self-authorship and self-representation in refugee women.
Journal of Refugee Studies, 2010
Abstract The discourse of integration has been ascendant in migration policy internationally, par... more Abstract The discourse of integration has been ascendant in migration policy internationally, particularly after western concerns linking terrorism with cultural separatism. Retreats from multiculturalism signal a view that conformance by outsiders with a normative, universal, and static national citizen subject will facilitate social cohesion. The discourse of integrationism, perpetuated through the practice of UnSpeak (Poole 2006), represents resettled refugees as innately problematic against dominant, normative values (Marston 2004). I explore these ...
Journal of Refugee Studies, 2011
We are pleased that, in keeping with the recommendations of the Palmer Report (2005), which drew ... more We are pleased that, in keeping with the recommendations of the Palmer Report (2005), which drew attention to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's (DIAC)'lack of openness and transparency', DIAC has chosen to respond to an invitation to comment on our critique of their processing of women who may be eligible to claim asylum on grounds of gender-based persecution (GBP).
Journal of Refugee Studies, 2011
Abstract Women's experiences of violence often remain in... more Abstract Women's experiences of violence often remain invisible or discounted in asylum law and practice. Gender is absent as an overt ground for protection under the Refugee Convention and readings of the Convention have commonly excluded it. Although Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has acknowledged women's special protection needs with instruments such as the Guidelines on Gender Issues for Decision Makers (DIAC 1996, 2010), the article investigates whether these are translating ...
Women Against Violence: An Australian Feminist Journal, 2009
Several shootings that took place in the Central Business District of Melbourne, Victoria, Austra... more Several shootings that took place in the Central Business District of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 18 June, 2007 cast into sharp relief the continuing prevalence of discriminatory reporting on women. Journalistic treatment of assault victims Kara Douglas and Autumn Daly-Holt implied the women's culpability in their own, and others', assaults by tapping into stereotypes that suggest'women ask for it.'This paper theorises the operation of a straw woman-an externally constituted effigy-upon whom the press drew, instead of the real ...
Federation University Australia, 2010
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Papers by Melinda McPherson