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Access to educational opportunities is instrumental for social integration of refugee youth. This paper reports on a qualitative case study of educational aspirations and experiences of refugee-background African youth (RAY) in Melbourne, Australia. Guided by a capability approach to social justice, in-depth interviews were conducted with two groups of RAY: those who have transitioned to higher education (HE), and those who have not transitioned to HE after completing high school. The findings show that: (a) RAY share a firm belief in the value of HE; (b) but they are differently positioned to convert opportunities into achievements – e.g. only the refugee youth with high levels of navigational capacity take advantage of the available flexible pathways to HE; (c) the stress of racism pervades the educational experiences of both groups; and (d) some African refugee youth have shown a considerable level of resilience in that, despite the challenges of racism, a history of disrupted educational trajectories and a lack of scholarly resources at home, they have transitioned to and thrived in HE. In light of these findings, the paper draws some implications for equity policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the role that migrant women leaders play in sustaining precarious spaces of community-led volunteering. The voluntary sector has been theorised as an interstitial yet connective space that nourishes unmet needs of migrant women in the context of familial demands, labour market marginalisation, and a diminishing welfare state. While state-funded initiatives are often intended to address these gendered asymmetries, less is known about the dynamics of precarious spaces of community-led volunteering, and in particular about the leaders who appreciate and navigate the complexities of these spaces. Grounding our analysis in feminist geographies of volunteering literature, and employing the concept of institutional work, we interview multiple stakeholders in a network of Local Migrant Women's Clubs (LMWCs) in Australia. In this precarious space, migrant women leaders are required to bridge contradictory logics of migrant women's vulnerabilities and escalating administrative expectations under poorly-resourced conditions. Our analysis advances institutional work as a productive frame to trace linkages between divergent institutional agendas at the macro-level, and the distributed agency and invisible labour of migrant women leaders at the level of lived experience. Overall, the lens of institutional work foregrounds the tacit and intensive investments required on the part of poorly resourced migrant women leaders to maintain required circulations of care in their local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adds to the existing insights into the occurrence, explanations for and experience of Islamophobia in Australia by focusing on contact with the 'other' in suburbs with high concentrations of Muslims. The study was conducted in two diverse and socio-economically disadvantaged localities with high Muslim concentrations in metropolitan Melbourne. A mixed method approach was used: a quantitative analysis of 2016–2017 survey data in two suburbs (N = 301), Broadmeadows and Fawkner in Melbourne's north, followed by local experiences of Islamophobia, drawing from 36 semi-structured follow-up interviews with local residents, while keeping in mind specific local circumstances. It was found that positive contact with diverse neighbours makes people less Islamophobic, but negative experiences makes them more Islamophobic. These findings provide evidence for the 'contact theory' as well as the 'threat theory' in explaining local variations in the levels of Islamophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates end-of-life decisions, ethnic influences and memorialisaton of Chinese immigrants in Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on interviews with 41 participants including 25 individuals and 16 community or industry stake holders, we present insights into what this group experiences and how they negotiate end-of-life choices to accommodate their hybrid circumstances as immigrants. We find evidence of merging cultures that suggests a new Chineseness played out in diverse ways. We also found this group of Chinese had acquired a sense of belonging relating to being together with family and friends that they wished to continue beyond their lived experience. Their adopted new home in Australia provided an opportunity to be together now and forever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks comparatively at the process of social change and its impact on local community cohesion in two Melbourne suburbs, ‘Northburb’ and ‘Greenburb’. The two localities are geographically close, part of the same local government area and both highly ethnically diverse, but considerably different in terms of their socio-economic and ethnic profiles. Based on ethnographic data collected through individual interviews, focus groups and participant observation in 2012–2013, the paper shows how the process of deindustrialization and the switch to service economy over the past decades took distinctly different turns in the two localities. Our data suggest that the processes of social change seem to have diminished local community cohesion in both localities. In Northburb, gentrification has contributed to socio-economic polarization, while Greenburb has lagged behind in socio-economic indicators and experienced ethnic fragmentation due to a considerable influx of new immigrant groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the advertising industries in both Sydney and Melbourne and the development of a truly national industry from the 1920s to the 1980s. The relationship between the two cities has been largely complementary rather than confrontational, with Sydney's business acumen complemented by Melbourne's creativity. However, the growing concentration of business in Sydney would see its agencies and their client-focused culture emerge as the dominant partner in the two-city relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]