Term Paper on "Social Exclusion on the Health"

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The United Nations Convention took place in 1951 came up with the definition of a refugee. The definition was used for the determination of the eligibility of an individual for entrance into Australia as well as other nations as pointed out by Jupp (2003).The definition that is provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is;

'A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country...' (UNHCR, 2004)

Rationale

The Sudanese refugees in Australia arrived there via various programs that are aimed at their resettlement. These programs are run and monitored by the Australian government. It is however good to note that these programs come with their specific bottlenecks that are heavily underpinned by the extensive trauma caused by conflicts. There is therefore a need for an elaborate settlement support. There have been various organizations as well as the government who came up with intensive programs that were aimed at the identification and the supporting of the refugee's strength in order to enable them to establish as well as to rebuilt their lives in a dignified fashion (Pittaway et al.,2006).The Sudanese refugees are however discriminated on racial and cultural grounds by the Australian healthcare providers. They also get excluded from the mainstream social networks which are integral in the process of job searching -- an important factor in the attainment of financial stability for the purpose of enabling the refugees to meet their basic needs. The resulting lack of resources subsequently leads to poor health among them. Health in this context is used to refer to the physical fitness which is made up of physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, environmental and societal dimensions. The 2005 DIMIA report indicated that about 11,000 refugees from Sudan were absorbed into Australia in 1996.Of this lot, about 8,000 were lucky to be granted visas in 2003 and 2004.

The concept of social exclusion can be effectively traced back to Weber who positively identified that exclusion is among the social closures that are present in our society (Weber, 2000).He attributed it to the attempt of one particular group to come up with a way of securing itself a certain privileged position. A move which they take at the expense of another group via a process of subordination. An extreme example is that of the Australian community that has access to high quality health care services as coupled with top notch security in order to prevent outsiders such as the Sudanese refugee community from deriving benefit from the same services.

Not much literature has been dedicated to the concept of social exclusion among refugees in terms of health care. Therefore the literature searched is mainly concerned with 'social exclusion' and 'poverty' among the refugees. These factors can be conceptualized in many ways since it has been proven that there is a correlation between poverty and poor state of health. For this purpose, it can positively be cited that poverty is a key factors that results as a result of social exclusion. The idea of poverty has several undertones such as low income, too much expenditure, unemployment and lack of income support. It is therefore necessary to ensure that we discuss all the aspects of social inclusion that faces the Sudanese refugee community in Australia. The social exclusion witnessed in Australia as a result of a program referred to as 'border protection'. Some refugees who are in the process of seeking asylum have been removed forcefully (physically) as they approached Australia. Yet again others have been detained for years in designated detention centers waiting processing for deportation. The argument given by the Federal Government is that the persons who are being excluded are never legitimate. It is worth noting that certain aspect of the said social exclusion which is faced by the refugees is never experienced by the rest of the refugee community.

Models of social exclusion

The main models of social exclusion in relation to the referees as well as the asylum seekers in the UL and Australia are the Burchardt's model of the dimensions of social exclusion. This model involves consumption materials such as social security, health, housing as well as settlement support. The next is production which includes employment, education, training and job skills. The other factors included in this model are political engagement as well as social interaction-these include family reunion, language barriers, victimization, travel and geography as well as cultural barriers.

The aim and objectives

The aim and objectives of this paper is to find out the effect of social exclusion the health of the Sudanese refugee community in Australia. The general objective however is to assess the impact of social exclusion on the health of the Sudanese refugee community and also to find out how social exclusion of the target group affects the refugee community at large. This research aims at the assessment of how the health of Sudanese refugee community is directly or indirectly affected by social exclusion in Australia.

The social determinants of health

Before we proceed with the paper, it is important to note that there are certain social factors that affect the health of an individual. These factors, also known as the social determinants of health (SDH) are used to refer to the various conditions in which an individual is born, nurtured, work and even age.These conditions can on be used in the making of informed action.It has also been noted that the main themes that underlie the concept SDH are health equity as well as the right to health: Issues that can best be addressed within the established health system and by the primary health care (PHC) providers.

It has been suggested that social exclusion of the Sudanese refugee community in Australian renders them unemployed. This state of unemployment according to Burnett and Peel (2001) affects their mental health. As an illustration, it has been widely acknowledged that a very tiny percentage of the Sudanese refugee community actually manages to get jobs in the Australian job market as compared to the general population who are otherwise unemployed. This inability to acquire employment subsequently leads to a significant level of poverty for the Sudanese community which leads to poor health.

Literature review

Extant literature has been dedicated to the study of social exclusion of refugees and its effects. Colic (2005) investigates the effects of visible difference on discrimination of refugees and its effects of employment. This study which was carried in Western part of Australia revealed that there is:

A high level of employment among refugees who are skilled

A huge loss in terms of the occupational status among the refugees who are skilled

A high level of persistence of the Australian segmented labor market which results to the culturally and racially visible refugees being allocated jobs that are unattractive despite their skill levels.

The social exclusion leads to a loss in human capital since some of the refugees who are professionals (doctors and engineers) end up doing inappropriate jobs such as driving of taxis.

The significance of Colic's (2005) work is that it helps to illustrate the fact that social exclusion of the Sudanese refugee community in Australia leads to renting of poor houses while having a low level of living standard which… READ MORE