Australia: Imagining Latin America in Australia Workshop

Imagining Latin America in Australia: Migration, Culture and Multiculturalism is a two day workshop which aims to explore the increasing flows of people, commodities, ideas and practices from Latin America. It will consider how Latin America is represented to the Australian public, how Latin American communities represent themselves, and how these communities interact with each other within multicultural Australia. The workshop is being held in Sydney on the 12-13th of August. It is hosted by the Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney.

From the Conference organisers:
The 2006 census estimated Australia’s Latin American-origin community, including Australian-born children, at 120,000 (ABS 2006). However, patterns of migration are shifting. More established communities (Chile, Argentina and Uruguay), which arrived in the 1960s and 1970s, are shrinking, while newer ones (Brazil, Mexico and Colombia) are growing rapidly. While the first arrivals were mostly unskilled, working-class migrants, the latest arrivals are skilled, middle-class migrants. International relations between Australia and Latin America are also changing. In March 2001 the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Trade established the Council of Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR) which has since then been promoting Australia’s economic, political and social relations with Latin America.
The workshop discussions thus address the following issues:

• Multiculturalism and a pan-Latin American identity. Do these communities share resources or is national identity more relevant to them?
• What differentiates the new Latin American immigration to Australia, and research about it, from the extant research on the first significant Latin American immigrant waves to Australia in the 1970s and 1980s?
• What are the new trends in Latin American migration to Australia?
• How is Latin America imagined in Australia? What kind of impact does the increasing flows of people, ideas, and commodities from Latin America have on this imaginary?
• How do Latin American migrants and cultural producers deal with the tension between using stereotypes and emphasising the continent’s inner diversity in their endeavour to carve a place in Australia?

Keynote Speakers:
Professor Stephen Castles (University of Sydney)
Associate Professor Manuel Vásquez (University of Florida)
Registration Costs (includes lunch, morning and afternoon tea)

• Two days $50.00
• Single days $30.00

Registration for the workshop is now open (closing date July 29).
Please visit www.uws.edu.au/ccr/events_and_news to register.
Organising Committee:
Dr Cristina Rocha (UWS) – c.rocha@uws.edu.au
Dr Gabriela Coronado (UWS) – g.coronado@uws.edu.au
For further information, visit: www.uws.edu.au/ccr

Image credit: Dicktay2000 (2010) ‘Chilean Dancers (3)’, Flickr. Online resource last accessed 21 July 11: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34094515@N00/5054723509/