Living one visa at a time: experiences of permanence among Brazilian migrants in Australia

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Mason, Robert

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Suliman, Samid

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2024-02-27
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Abstract

The migration from Brazil to Australia is a relatively recent and understudied phenomenon. Brazilians are one of the diasporic communities in Australia that grew the most between 2000 and 2020, and Brazilians have become an increasingly visible presence in urban and coastal cities of Australia. This influx primarily comprises highly educated middle-class migrants who initially arrived in Australia as international students. Their relatively cosmopolitan and privileged profile contrasts with the Brazilian diaspora in other parts of the world and challenges representations of Latin American migrants in wider scholarly literature. The rise in Brazilian migration to Australia coincided with a major shift in the country's immigration landscape - the emergence of 'temporary migration' as a predominant pattern. Historically, from the post-war period until the 1990s, most migrants who entered Australia to reside in the country were granted permanent visas upon selection and arrival, conferring them the status of 'permanent residents'. However, since the 1990s, there has been a notable shift towards temporary visas. Embedded in this transformed paradigm, most Brazilian migrants in Australia hold temporary visas and the legal status of 'temporary residents'. The term 'temporary resident' can be misleading, as it implies residency of a short-term and transient nature. In reality, many migrants find themselves living in Australia with temporary status for several years. This state of legal temporariness is generally imposed by restrictive migration policies. Australia tightly controls the number of permanent visas granted each year, making the process of obtaining one highly competitive and challenging. Consequently, many migrants live in Australia for years as de facto permanent residents but are officially categorised as temporary. 'Temporary residents' occupy a precarious position in Australian society. Despite their contributions through work and tax payments, they are denied many 'universal' rights and services, such as public healthcare, social security, educational funding, and electoral rights. Nevertheless, as explored throughout this thesis, migrants are not passive recipients of these restrictions. When confronted with restrictive migration policies, they exercise agency to navigate imposed temporariness and 'enact permanence', negotiating their temporariness and attempting to transition to more secure visas and statuses. This thesis, therefore, asks: How do migrants negotiate permanence in a context of imposed temporariness? [...]

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Thesis (PhD Doctorate)

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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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School of Hum, Lang & Soc Sc

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The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.

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migration

Australia

Brazilian disapora

temporary resident

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