Formal and informal communities of care play a pivotal role in transforming the lives of the groups they serve. This is particularly true for refugees and asylum seekers who often rely on such communities not only for resettlement support but also for fostering a sense of belonging in host countries. Brokers form one cohort of care providers who develop meaningful relationships with migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers at various points in their journeys and lives. In this chapter, we focus on the critical role of brokers as intermediaries who navigate, translate, and facilitate interactions with the communities they serve. Drawing on concepts of care (Power and Mee, Housing: An infrastructure of care. Housing Studies, 35(3), 484–505, 2020), social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, The forms of capital. In J.J. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258), Greenwood Press, 1986), home-making, and advocacy, we seek to unpack what their infrastructures of care encompass and how they offer care to refugees and asylum seekers. To do so, we draw from ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted with 16 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and asylum seekers and 10 refugee advocates in Australia. We present two vignettes—featuring two brokers of care (Shanaka and Blessing) and two asylum seekers (Arun and Priya) who give care and receive care from brokers—to tease apart the dynamic and sometimes complex role that brokers have within the Sri Lankan Tamil community. The findings underscore the importance of the social and cultural capital brokers rely on as well as their capacity to advocate, connect, care for, and ensure that refugees and asylum seekers develop a sense of home and belonging in a host country.

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Brokering Strength, Support, and Care Among Tamil Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Australia

  • Nadeeka Arambewela-Colley,
  • Charishma Ratnam

摘要

Formal and informal communities of care play a pivotal role in transforming the lives of the groups they serve. This is particularly true for refugees and asylum seekers who often rely on such communities not only for resettlement support but also for fostering a sense of belonging in host countries. Brokers form one cohort of care providers who develop meaningful relationships with migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers at various points in their journeys and lives. In this chapter, we focus on the critical role of brokers as intermediaries who navigate, translate, and facilitate interactions with the communities they serve. Drawing on concepts of care (Power and Mee, Housing: An infrastructure of care. Housing Studies, 35(3), 484–505, 2020), social and cultural capital (Bourdieu, The forms of capital. In J.J. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258), Greenwood Press, 1986), home-making, and advocacy, we seek to unpack what their infrastructures of care encompass and how they offer care to refugees and asylum seekers. To do so, we draw from ethnographic fieldwork and interviews conducted with 16 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and asylum seekers and 10 refugee advocates in Australia. We present two vignettes—featuring two brokers of care (Shanaka and Blessing) and two asylum seekers (Arun and Priya) who give care and receive care from brokers—to tease apart the dynamic and sometimes complex role that brokers have within the Sri Lankan Tamil community. The findings underscore the importance of the social and cultural capital brokers rely on as well as their capacity to advocate, connect, care for, and ensure that refugees and asylum seekers develop a sense of home and belonging in a host country.