engleski

Migrant development of communal space in Sydney

Immigrants mostly settle in towns and germinate communication at diverse social levels and directions. Ethnic collectives directly impact on the communication process alongside immigrant households and business enterprises. Through appropriated communal places ethnic collectives initiate and sustain communication webs characterized by diverse density, flows and directions that are not necessarily limited to members of their own collective and community, and the immediate neighbourhood. This chapter deals with the communication engendered out of the large-scale settlement of non-English speaking immigrants and the radical change in demographic structure in Sydney since the mid-last century. These changes reflect on urban culture and the communication process generating diverse opportunities and modes of communication. Diverse ethnic groups had to find solutions to satisfy collectively perceived spiritual, leisure, educational and welfare needs in a social environment characterized by diverse constraints, limited capability and at times even absence of willingness to satisfy the diverse needs of newly settled people. Many ethnic collectives mobilize scarce resources to appropriate badly needed facilities to conduct spiritual life, culture maintenance, leisure and sport, welfare and aged care, creating at the same time important urban and communication nodes. These communal places disseminate information about the arrival, established roots, capability, creativity, and sustainability of people who mostly arrive with little material possession but lots of hope. The effect of collective action undertaken by fragmented ethnic collectives in Sydney is illustrated with diverse data generated out of the process of appropriation of 393 communal places. Although the generated information pertains to this specific urban space, nevertheless, it provides insights for comprehension of other comparable experiences, taking into account the prevailing context.

ethnicity, settlement, communication, collective action, communal places

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