Suchergebnisse

This book offers a timely insight into ideas of belonging in multicultural society from a Jewish perspective, one which is largely missing from the discourse on multiculturalism. There is a current climate in Australia, as there is in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, of rising tensions around migration, religious freedom, and far right extremism. These tensions have been fanned the Israeli-Palestine conflict coming under increased international scrutiny in recent months. Understanding how Jewish communities attempt to build and guide an understanding of what Jewishness means in contemporary multicultural societies is crucial for supporting the right to safety in diversity, not only for Jews but for multiple minority groups. In delivering such understanding, this book has insights not only in an Australian, but a broader international, context. This book explores how various facets of Jewish life are experienced and expressed in Australia, drawing on rich ethnographic and archival research conducted within the mid-sized Jewish community in South-East Queensland, Australia, which has never before been examined. Jewish Identity in Multicultural Australia explores how Jewish identity is manifested and experienced across a wide range of facets: religion and religiosity, ethnicity and ethnonational identity, history and memory, antisemitism and racism, Zionism and diasporic identity, and family and kinship. Across these key themes, the book builds on a core argument: that contemporary Jewish communities work in certain, set ways and promote certain, set norms within a framework of state multiculturalism to forge a safe, supported place for Jewish life, practice and identity of all shapes and sizes. Jennifer Creese is a lecturer in the SAPPHIRE Group at the Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, UK, where she is an expert in ethnographic research, immigration and emigration, and institutional culture. She is the author of a number of works on Jewish religion, culture, and history in Australia, including Jewish life in Queensland: celebrating 150 years since 1865 (2016). She received her PhD from The University of Queensland, Australia in 2020, and has conducted extensive fieldwork in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, in South-East Queensland. She is active on Twitter at @jennifer_creese

It can be difficult to define what "identity" means and encapsulates in groups and communities. This is particularly true in ethnic communities, where identity can overflow neat categories like religion, culture and nationality. Yet understanding what makes and shapes identity in a community can provide insight into its activities, tensions and motivations, aiding community research. In this paper, I document a methodology of the elicitation of self-understanding, from members of a community group, of their own identities within the group context, using a case study of members of an Australian Jewish community. The themes that arise from analyzing the elicited responses, and the participants' discussions of them, highlight key ways that contemporary identity might be understood within this particular community. The exercise uncovered trends and tensions within the negotiation of identity as part of a minority community, which could inform and enrich broader study with this group.

BACKGROUND: Since the 2008 recession, Ireland has experienced large-scale doctor emigration. This paper seeks to ascertain whether (and how) the COVID-19 pandemic might disrupt or reinforce existing patterns of doctor emigration. METHOD: This paper draws on qualitative interviews with 31 hospital doctors in Ireland, undertaken in June–July 2020. As the researchers were subject to a government mandated work-from-home order at that time, they utilised Twitter™ to contact potential respondents (snowball sampling); and conducted interviews via Zoom™ or telephone. FINDINGS: Two cohorts of doctors were identified; COVID Returners (N = 12) and COVID Would-be Emigrants (N = 19). COVID Returners are Irish-trained emigrant doctors who returned to Ireland in March 2020, just as global travel ground to a halt. They returned to be closer to home and in response to a pandemic-related recruitment call issued by the Irish government. COVID Would-be Emigrants are hospital doctors considering emigration. Some had experienced pandemic-related disruptions to their emigration plans as a result of travel restrictions and border closures. However, most of the drivers of emigration mentioned by respondents related to underlying problems in the Irish health system rather than to the pandemic, i.e. a culture of medical emigration, poor working conditions and the limited availability of posts in the Irish health system. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: This paper illustrates how the pandemic intensified and reinforced, rather than radically altered, the dynamics of doctor emigration from Ireland. Ireland must begin to prioritise doctor retention and return by developing a coherent policy response to the underlying drivers of doctor emigration.