Language barrier and internal conflict among Iranian migrants in Australia: a case of unsettling tension

This study discusses the barrier of English in the Iranian community in Australia as well as the unreceptive feeling of some Iranian migrants towards Iranian asylum seekers. It looks at the concepts of linguistic capital and habitus (Bourdieu in Language and Symbolic Power. Polity Press, Oxford, 1991) in terms of Persian concepts of ‘zerangi’ (cunning cleverness) and ‘zaher’ (appearance) vs. ‘baten’ (inner self). The findings discuss eight participants’ lived experiences gathered through individual interview sessions—an equal of four from each group. It was revealed that asylum seekers suffer the most because of their exclusion due to a) little command of English and b) their identity marker labelled as ‘boat people’. This identity marker emerged out of the discussion on asylum seekers’ social class and education background by the other group of immigrants.