‘Belonging' in The Land Down-Under: Insights from Three Methodologies

This paper considers differences in articulations of belonging in Australia generated using three different more or less innovative methodologies among different populations. Results from face to face interviews plus a photovoice exercise among refugee settlers are compared and contrasted with data generated in 20 focus groups with migrants and non-migrants across Australia using a set of images designed to elicit discussion around national, transnational and postnational identities. Membership Categorisation Analysis is used to interrogate the presumptions included in the prompts used to generate the data (interview questions, themes for photographs, and images for focus group discussion). The range of parameters of belonging from the political (civic and ethno belonging) to the interpersonal (family, friends, place) are noted, as well as the limits to belonging, particularly the category work done discursively to identify insiders and outsiders. The paper concludes that each method is useful in different ways to gain access to different experiences of belonging and un-belonging.