REPORTING REFUGEES FOR ADVANCED BROADCAST JOURNALISM – REFUGEE WOMEN’S HEALTH
Reporting on female refugees and their experiences with the Australian health system was a valuable experience for both my journalism career and personally.
Extensive research was involved in this topic; particularly because there was a lot of information on the health system to piece together and it was often difficult to grasp a good understanding of.
The first step was to research the different health rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. We found a useful page from the parliamentary Library (2011) outlining the differences between asylum seekers and refugees in general and what each group is entitled to. Also from the Parliamentary Library was another page we used for information on history, facts and figures, and specific entitlements.
This page gave us a starting point and a firm understanding of the basic rules and regulations. It also helped form ideas for which direction we wanted our package to head in.
The Department of Health was another source we looked to for background research. The department’s page on refugees and the health system gave good insight into what rights refugees have when entering Australia and what illnesses and struggles they can encounter. Since the page focused solely on refugee women, we discovered interesting facts for use in our package, such as many migrant women experience a double disadvantage due to lower levels of English proficiency than male migrants, which impacts on the ability to access health related knowledge and health services, or that the adoption of Western diets and lifestyles and changed environments can accelerate the development of diseases and conditions in some groups.
In this assignment it was imperative we gained a full and complete understanding of the programs, services and limitations of the Australian Health System. The question in our minds was what do we offer, and what can we improve on? It wasn’t until speaking to the refugees themselves that we got a better understanding of the main concerns that they have with the system – being difficulty with language barriers and navigating the health system. This helped piece our story together. A helpful paper collated by Foundation House offered insight into why it is so important for these people to have an interpreter and the special health concerns of refugees. This paper supported the argument of the refugees we spoke to.
We found many of the refugee service sites suggested that a cultural respect framework or tool be developed to assist health policy makers and program managers more effectively address health issues for immigrant and refugee women.
After researching all this information, one struggle we had was an overflow of information – there were so many interesting facts and angles we could take that we simply had too much and therefore had to cut the package down significantly, focusing on just one or two key points. This was probably my biggest struggle, as I was quite attached to this story and missing out on facts I thought would interest audiences was a shame, but it was an important lesson – sticking to word limits or time limits will always be an issue I will encounter in my journalism career.
PRIOR PERSPECTIVES
Before this project I had limited contact with refugees in person. I often saw them reported on in the news, but there were no opportunities for me to engage with them personally. I did complete a story on an annual refugee breakfast at the University of Canberra for my job as a journalist at Monitor, but was not actually required to interview the refugees themselves. Many of these refugees had such interesting stories from coming from their home countries, some sad, others happy, but all were deeply moving. I was pleased to get a chance to explore their lives further with this assignment.
ON ASSIGNMENT FOR #REPORTINGREFUGEES
I didn’t have a full understanding of refugees and their entitlements prior to this project; something I realised whilst researching. The portrayal of refugees and asylum seekers in the media is often in a negative light. Particularly in the John Howard era, they were usually portrayed as trouble-makers, a nuisance, invading our country, or put in the ‘too hard basket.’ (Sydney morning herald article, 2011) According to Jeniceck, Wong and Lee (2009) many media articles rely on culturally racist and classist stereotypes of minorities to demonstrate the claimants’ legitimacy. Meanwhile, Kampmark (2006) believes there is an ‘Australian’ slant in the media towards refugees that demonstrates a subtle process of marginalization and exclusion based on notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ refugees.
From this limited information I didn’t know enough to make a formed opinion myself. The reporting on refugees I saw was always quite distant and cold. Julie Posetti stressed the importance of talking to your talent rather than about them, and now I know why. I can’t say I had ever heard a story like the packages we did for this assignment. It was always talking about what the “boat people” and the government’s policy, and refugees were put in the same basket as “the boat people.” They weren’t really ever treated like individuals. Despite their perils, I didn’t realise so many of them are just like us. They are too often seen as “the others”, or a “threat to Australian values and norms” (McKay and Thomas, 2011).
While researching for this assignment I realised I had misunderstood the differences between refugees and asylum seekers. I learnt there is actually a very clear difference to their entitlements and management but I (and others in my broadcast class) actually placed them in the same category.
Because of this I had assumed refugees would get limited entitlements to the health system (as asylum seekers do), but they actually get just as much as most Australians. It was instead the language barriers and cultural differences which weren’t really being addressed by the government, which perhaps defeats the purpose of these people having wide-ranging entitlements when these barriers prevent them from seeking medical help in the first place.
I learnt that the services available for refugees were wide-ranging but not “user-friendly” for people whose first language is not english. Even then many refugees do not have access to the internet or even know where to start when navigating the health system so it is extremely difficult for them. There are services that are available that can help, but unfortunately in Canberra the services available are quite limited and are often small, voluntary groups who do not have the capabilities to handle large amounts of refugees (Department of Health, 2011).
Scholarly resources such as Hollifield and others (2002) support the argument that data about refugee trauma and health status are often conflicting and difficult to interpret.
Sadly, I feel there is still a stigma between Australians and refugees, an inequality that was explored in our package and supported by Chindu Day, one of the refugees we interviewed.
LESSONS FROM THE FIELD
First and foremost, this project has taught me to speak “to” refugees rather than about them. Another important lesson was altering my interviewing techniques when dealing with talent who have experienced trauma. We found the refugees we spoke to were extremely shy and cautious around new people, since they are often coming from extremely violent and disturbing backgrounds. They found it hard to trust people and were reluctant to speak about their experiences. Therefore getting to know your talent in this instance is key if you want them to open up to you. Simply thrusting a microphone in their face is not enough. When we found our talent, a group of female refugees working with the multicultural advocacy group, my ABJ partner Rafa Ehsan and I were invited to first meet with the multicultural advocacy counsellors, then attend a cocktail party the refugees had organised to familiarise ourselves with the women before interviewing them. Although they were shy at first, thanks to the relaxed, familiar setting the women begun to open up to us with casual chatter (understanding we weren’t just out for a good story, we actually wanted to hear what they had to say and help them). This made it easier for us to return the next day for the interview and we got much more warm, natural responses than we might have had by just turning up on the day, interviewing them and then leaving. There is also the misunderstanding that refugees just want to “complain’ or speak about sad experiences – many of them are the opposite, wanting to talk about the positive side of their experience, for example how happy they are to be here and how nice people have been. They are so often portrayed in the media as people to feel sorry for, so many of them seemed keen to steer away from that stereotype.
Next time I am assigned with a story like this, I will ensure I am well prepared beforehand. There is a lot of research involved in a topic of this nature, and it is quite complicated, so it is very important to get your facts right. If you only know half the information, your story will reflect this. I think we did the research required so our story benefited from it.
Next time I also won’t worry so much about accents – although I could understand her, I was concerned the audience wouldn’t understand my talent because she had a strong accent. However Ginger said this is often only a concern of mainstream media and quite a racist view by them – since we are such a multicultural country we should embrace it and not shy away from using the more experienced person with an accent, as it is assuming our audience aren’t educated.
Overall this project gave me an excellent insight into the lives of refugees. It was rewarding and assisted with my interviewing techniques, research techniques, vocal techniques and general knowledge.
REFERENCES
Briskman, Latham and Goddard, (2008) “Human rights overboard: seeking asylum in Australia”, Journal of refugee studies. (http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/4/539.short).
Hollifield and others (2002) “Measuring trauma and health status in refugees – a critical review”, the JAMA. (http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/288/5/611.short).
Jeniceck, Wong and Lee (2009) “Dangerous shortcuts – misrepresentations of sexual minority refugees in the post 9/11 press”, Canadian Journal of Communication. (http://cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/viewArticle/2119)
Kampmark, B. (2006) “‘Spying for Hitler’ and ‘Working for Bin Laden’: Comparative Australian Discourses on Refugees”, Journal of refugee studies. (http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/1/1.short)
Mckay and Thomas, (2011) “‘It would be okay if they came through the proper channels’: community perceptions and attitudes towards asylum seekers in Australia,” Journal of refugee studies. (http://jrs.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/10/22/jrs.fer010.short)