‘My Kids Won’t Grow up Here’: Policing, Bordering and Belonging

Abstract

Police researchers have long posited a connection between policing and belonging, or between policing and related concepts such as citizenship. However, much of this literature does not include empirical data demonstrating the actual impact of policing experiences on individuals and communities. Where it does, belonging is rarely located at the centre of analysis. In this article, I explore the role of policing in generating experiences and perceptions of belonging. I connect the theoretical literature on policing, borders and belonging by conceiving of everyday policing as a racialized process of social bordering, and present evidence from a qualitative study with migrant communities in southern-eastern Melbourne, Australia. I conclude that discriminatory policing reinforces social boundaries that are relevant to both ‘belonging’ and the ‘politics of belonging’, and identify police, in conjunction with other social actors and institutions, as potentially powerful agents of ‘governmental belonging’.

Parenting Black children in White spaces: Skilled African migrants reflect on their parenting experiences in Australia

“…Because of this, we utilize the term 'Black African' and focus this study upon participants who are 'read' as such within the Australian context. Previous studies have documented the profoundly negative impacts of racial profiling and racial scrutiny upon Black Africans, their families and communities (Benier, Blaustein, Johns & Maher, 2018;Gatwiri, 2020;Weber, 2020). More specifically, Ramsay (2016) has explored the ways in which biases towards Black African parents can lead to removal of children through the child welfare system, revealing the 'institutionalised logics of whiteness and the intersecting assumptions of race, culture and class that these encompass' (p. 332).…”

Mothering after Moomba: Labelling, secondary stigma and maternal efficacy in the post-settlement context

“…Most participants were young women (n=25) as we struggled to recruit a balanced sample that included young men who were more directly targeted by the media narratives. The young women were nevertheless affected by the post-Moomba climate and discussed how they and their male siblings the population, cumulative disadvantage, and ongoing experiences of discrimination and over-policing (Shephard & Spivak 2020;Weber 2019). experienced stigma and changes in parenting practices as a consequence.…”

The Complexities of ‘Home’: Young People ‘on the Move’ and State Responses

“…Weber (2020) draws on the work of Ghassan Hage to point out the significance of ‘governmental belonging’ referred to as the power to legitimise who should feel ‘at home in the nation’. This is not merely a concept based on formal citizenship, but has more to do with community acceptance.…”

“…Representations of home and what children and young people are leaving in these circumstances is central to responses. Agencies and professionals can be significant in the co‐construction of home for young people forced to leave home (for example, see Kohli (2014) and his discussion of the Scottish Guardianship Service), yet State responses can also be fundamental in negating a sense of home (All Party Parliamentary Group/Children's Society 2019; Maccanico, Hayes and Kenny 2018; Weber 2020).…”