La importancia de una perspectiva crítica de la evaluación.

A small group of women perceived a positive acculturation outcome in Australia. Few of them experienced a personal transformation when they returned to their countries of origin for the first time after immigration. Comparisons between life and opportunities in Australia and Latin America made them value more the horizons opened for them as independent women in Australia.

My adaptation didn’t occur until my trip to Argentina, two years after my arrival in Australia. Back then I made my own comparisons and my own “set up”. I went there thinking of investing in something, check things there, compare and buy something there, start a business maybe. But no! After 15 days I wanted to come back running! After my own comparisons, I said: “I don’t come back here!” I like going there because it’s my country, I love my people, they live differently. But I wouldn’t move back, here in Australia I had the chance to develop myself in a way I wasn’t able in Argentina. So I came back with three ideas. First, to buy a music system because I brought my husband all his tango music. Second, to buy a car for myself. And third, to buy the house. That one was my decision to establish myself here. I was having a good time in Argentina, but I wanted to come back… (Betina)

I think that I wouldn’t go back, I don’t know how I would be in Argentina. Each time we go and we how the neighbourhood is, exactly how we left it 30 years ago…then I think that I am happy to be in Australia. I think that we made a positive change, yes…I think so (Alma).

Many researchers (Fozdar & Torezani, 2008; Olson & Roese, 2002; Pettigrew, 2002; Smith & Walker, 2002) have indicated that individuals’ overall satisfaction with life is a subjective measure and strongly depends on relative comparisons. In this way, the concept of “relative deprivation” was formulated in order to describe that satisfaction is not a direct result of concrete characteristics but rather a subjective outcome of relative comparisons. As a result, individuals compare their present circumstances with past

experiences, perceived objective circumstances of other people and personal expectations and ideals. This theoretical construct facilitates the understanding of immigrants’ overall satisfaction with life in Australia in spite of having experienced so many acculturation struggles such as work limitations, lack of social support and gender and ethnic discrimination, among others. Individuals’ seemingly contradictory perception that the immigration and acculturation outcome was mostly positive reinforces other research results attained by Fozdar and Torezani (2008) with immigrants and refugees in Western Australia. According to the authors, although experiences of discrimination and negative life events are felt as harmful, its impact is perceived in relative terms, as a low price to pay to live in a safe and stable country like Australia. Isabel’s own experience reflects these issues:

I think that it was good for me to come to Australia. It’s a quiet country, we came from such a mess in Chile…Over there, we wouldn’t have remained quiet with the dictatorship, so we would have had very bad times or maybe we wouldn’t have existed any more.

The concept of “relative gratification” (Pettigrew, 2002) seems useful to explain why immigrants are still satisfied with their lives in spite of experiencing negative events in the host country. According to this concept, individuals compare themselves with those worse off and feel relatively gratified with the results experienced. That is a common finding among women who indicated being satisfied with their lives in Australia, as they compared themselves with the context and people left behind when they decided to

immigrate. Apart from that, the perspective of providing a better future for their children made a great influence in women’s perception of personal satisfaction with the immigration outcome.

Motivated to provide a better future for their children, some women indicated that they needed to be mentally and emotionally present in the country where they chose to live and work, accepting and embracing Australian life. In these cases, women decided not to feel divided between what was left behind and their lives in the new country. They acknowledged the positive influences of their own culture and the Australian one, and tried to live harmoniously with the combination of both. These women worked consciously on their own integration process in order to feel active members of the community.

I got very adapted because I saw that I could give much more to my kids here than I could in my country. All that we would work, it would pay out. That’s what made me stay. Many people couldn’t put up with all the things here and they left, but the fact that my kids one day would be professionals pushed me to stay. Today they are both accountants and they do very well. Now Australia is my country. I feel that I have adapted slowly to this place, …I won’t say I have intimate friends, but people I know who have opened doors for me (Rita).

Now I feel integrated to the Australian community. After 31 years I consider myself truly Australian. When I’m in Argentina, I feel I’m different than the rest, and I’m not Australian because everyone notices that I have an accent although I speak

live happily, I don’t have any problem with that, at least I have enjoyed both cultures, something that most people can’t say, they only know one culture. In fact, I feel pity for those who live here and spend all the time going and coming back. At the end, you are neither here nor there, do you understand? It’s simply the fact to accept that yes, I was born in Argentina, I love Argentina for what it was during the time I lived there, but I’ve lived most of my life here, I am 45 years old, I am also used to the Australian system, I couldn’t live in Argentina any more (Esther)

Nevertheless, the feeling that Australian mentality does not absorb and integrate immigrants’ background and life stories as part of the broader national community was a frequent referred factor. Many women indicated that although they worked towards their own integration process, they often did not feel accepted as equal members of the Australian society.

Until today, 30 years later, people still ask me “what do you do? When did you arrive? Why did you come?” It makes you feel that you never belong to this place! Here I feel like they have a second thought when they ask me that, like… “and when do you leave? (Elsa)

The national mentality doesn’t absorb. The last intimate contact never happens. You always remain wanting for more. So, those marvellous stories immigrants bring with themselves, so meaningful, they are not part of the national picture. They are not! What a waste! They get to know about immigrants’ stories when someone

writes a book or something like that. Experiences of people or children of people who were in the Holocaust, or similar things, …they are not part of the national culture. When someone writes a book with those experiences …they say “ohhh” and they remain open-mouthed! But they had them by their side all their lives and they didn’t know it? (Carmen)