This paper reports findings of an Australian study on cross-cultural communication and employment of several African birthplace groups of former refugees. The study was conducted in the greater Brisbane area in 2009Á10 and collected both quantitative (based on a short questionnaire) and qualitative (based on 12 focus groups) data. Drawing on the uncertainty reduction theory (URT), the segmented labour market theory (SLMT) and Bourdieu's concepts of linguistic and cultural capital, the paper focuses on cross-cultural communication aspects of job search (particularly the job interview situation), the workplace (communication with supervisors and co-workers) and overcoming linguistic and cultural obstacles in building bridging social networks. Existing power relations that structure the communication process, especially the 'symbolic power' aspect of Australian ethnic relations, are the context of our analysis. We also report on gender differences that additionally structure these processes in the job search and workplace contexts. This paper reports findings from an Australian study focusing on the job search and employment experiences of recent 'culturally and linguistically diverse' (CALD) immigrants. 'CALD' is the most recent bureaucratic descriptor of immigrants who arrive in Australia from non-English-speaking countries and we use it because it Aparna Hebbani (PhD, University of Memphis) is a Lecturer at the University of Queensland. She is an intercultural communication scholar who researches refugee settlement and acculturation.

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Objective There is substantial evidence that refugees' employment experiences are marred by a range of hurdles as they settle in their host country. This study investigated the relationship between a range of independent variables such as, demographic factors, acculturation, acculturative stress, and resilience and the dependent variable that is the employment status of former refugees. Method Questionnaire data were gathered from 169 participants from the Ethiopian, Congolese, and Myanmar communities settled in Brisbane, Australia. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to investigate the factors that predicted employment status. Results Resilience and demographic variables such as age, education, gender, and country of origin were not associated with being employed. Length of stay and English proficiency increased the likelihood of being employed. Surprisingly, an increase in acculturation was associated with the likelihood of being unemployed, while an increase in acculturative stress was associated with the likelihood of being employed. Conclusions These findings indicate that unemployed participants perceived themselves to be acculturated and integrated, while those who were employed reported more acculturative stress. Furthermore, employment despite its positive impact can also be stressful. The study has practical and theoretical implications for stakeholders involved in the employment of refugees.

Given the steady rise in the number of Hazara seeking asylum in Australia, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of media in their acculturation and to explore whether their level of English language proficiency played a mediating role in selecting certain media platforms over others. Data were collected through 29 participants completing a survey, followed by in-depth interviews with ten Hazara male youths (age ≤18 years) in Brisbane, Australia. The findings suggested that young Hazara men were very selective in their media choice. While some used media to improve their integration into Australia, others consciously chose to separate and be more "Afghan" than "Australian". In this selection process, their self-awareness with regard to English language proficiency, coupled with how motivated they were to learn English, played a critical mediating role; certain participants who had limited English proficiency and wanted to improve it watched English language media to improve their proficiency. These media were avoided by participants with a similar proficiency who had no interest in improving it; participants representing this group resorted to Hazaragi/Dari media for information and news, instead of the local media. In this study, the latter group also displayed a separation approach of acculturation.

The present study used a mixed method approach to understand the employment related aspirations of former refugees from Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Myanmar, resettled in Australia. Aspiration was defined as the difference between the current and future aspired job. First, a quantitative approach was used with 222 participants, who completed a questionnaire with the help of interpreters. Analysis of variance was used to examine if the aspirations varied on the basis of the country of origin. Participants from DRC and Myanmar had higher aspirations than those from Ethiopia. Graphic data indicated that in general all three groups aspired for professional and managerial jobs. Second, using a qualitative approach, 47 former refugees from these three countries were interviewed. Thematic analysis indicated that, in general, many participants wanted to pursue their own business. Moreover, a range of obstacles in achieving these goals also became apparent. Limited English language proficiency, lack of information about how to secure these jobs, and personal and family members' ill health interfered in participants' ability to secure their aspired job. Lastly, we offer a few recommendations for relevant stakeholders.

Capturing the Experiences of International Teaching Assistants in the US American Classroom Aparna Hebbani, Katherine Grace Hendrix IntroductionPrior to the past two decades, the implicit message within instructional literature conveyed that the teaching experiences of professors of color paralleled those of their White counterparts in the classroom. Such literature has gradually acknowledged the existence of more heterogeneity among professors (Allen, Orbe, and Olivas 1999;de la Luz Reyes and Halcon 1990;Hendrix 1997Hendrix , 1998Hendrix , 2007Houston 1996;Jackson and Hendrix 2003;Ono 1997); however, the role of nonnative English-speaking instructors has yet to be fully explored even though international teaching faculty constitute an important part of the professionals at many US American universities being employed as either international graduate teaching assistants (ITAs) or on the tenure track. It is against this backdrop that this qualitative study was conducted investigating the perceptions of twenty-five ITAs toward US American undergraduates. The participants were about to engage in teaching for the first time or were reflecting upon actual classroom experiences. We begin with a brief description of qualitative methods followed by an overview of our study design and findings. We end with the autoethnographic reflections of one of the coauthors. Qualitative Research and MethodsQualitative research moves across disciplines, fields, and subject matter and is committed to a naturalistic, interpretative approach to investigating some phenomena or phenomenon. Employing data collection strategies, such as interviews, observation, and questionnaires, the investigator attempts to make sense of phenomena based on the meanings people bring to them, hence, seeking an emic (for example, insider) view of a routine, event, process, or problem (Denzin and Lincoln 2007;Hymes 1977). Qualitative researchers follow a paradigm that acknowledges: (a) multiple realities, (b) the minimized distance between researcher and participant, (c) researcher as embodied instrument, (d) the presence of value judgments in all empirical work, and (e) specialized rhetorical framing of an investigator' s findings (for example, word choice, such as understand and credibility versus validity and reliability; Creswell 1998). Richard and Morse (2012) observe that qualitative approaches to research are appropriate when "the purpose is to learn from the participants in a setting or a process the way they experience it, the meanings they put on it, and how they interpret what they experience, [and when] you need methods that allow you to discover and do justice to their perceptions and the complexity of their interpretations" (28).So far, much of the ITA research was conducted within a particular university, but we were aiming to reach ITAs from anywhere in the United States with a broad research question: What is the experience of being an international TA assigned to teach US American students? Previous research has primarily gathered voices of U...

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