Using 'intimate citizenship' to make sense of the experiences of men with refugee backgrounds in Australia

This paper is based on a study exploring the experiences of men with refugee backgrounds from Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia (herein referred to as the Horn of Africa countries) during migration and on settlement in Australia. During data analyses, Plummer's concept of 'intimate citizenship' became a useful theoretical framework for understanding participants' experiences. Many men had migrated from traditional societies where individuals pursue intimacies within a constrained framework of acceptability dictated by collective cultures. Ravaged by civil wars, they were forced to flee their homelands and seek asylum in neighbouring countries. Eventually, these men were resettled in Australia, a society that provides a social space for individuals to exercise more choices in their personal lives. On arrival in Australia, participants in this study had to adjust to these new ways of pursuing intimate relationships. Some men found this process overwhelmingly difficult while others saw it as an opportunity to organise their intimate lives beyond the confines of traditions and cultures as well as family and community influences. Intimate citizenship helped in construing the opportunities, conflicts, tensions and ambivalences that characterised participants' experiences in Australia.