Racial/ised Visibility and Problematised Difference in Australian Workplaces: The Case of Skilled Black African Migrant Nurses

Abstract

The last three decades have seen a steady but significant increase in continental African migration (in particular, black African migrants) into Australia. Yet in spite of this increase, there is little research into black African migrant subjectivities in general, or specifically, the impact of their racialised 'visible difference' on their experiences of racism and racial discrimination. This chapter seeks to contribute towards addressing this gap in research by exploring the construction of black African visibility in Australia. The concern here is with the inscription of visibility onto black African migrant bodies. Hence, the premise of the chapter is that the 'visibility' of the black migrant body in Australia is not simply a matter of 'obvious' phenotypical differences, rather, it is a social construct, given meaning, produced and reproduced in social relations of race. We use interview data from a pilot study conducted with black skilled African migrant nurses, about their racial encounters within nursing workplaces, to draw out the multiple and paradoxical meanings that visibilise the black African body in Australia, and their implications for black embodiment. Analysed within the context of workplaces hailed as raceless, diverse and multicultural, the experiences of the black African nurses reveal how the racialisation of black visibility is informed by a white racial frame that operates to 'whitewash' the workplaces while 'spacing-out' the racialised non-white worker. Ultimately, this chapter not only exposes the significance of 'visibility' (visible difference) in race-making, but also makes the connection between black phenotype - constructed as 'different' in stereotypical and problematic ways - and the racial encounters of black African migrants.