This research explores the relationship between immigration experiences and psychological well-being within the Indian and Bangladeshi communities in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. The researcher conducted individual in-depth interviews with thirty-eight adult Australian permanent residents/citizens born in India and Bangladesh with the aim of examining personal post-migration accounts of adjustment, acculturation and coping in a foreign society and the effect on their mental health. Through qualitative analysis, the personal experiences and stories of South-Asian migrants and the psychological consequences of resettlement in Australia are explored. The study investigated coping strategies and psychosocial protective mechanisms and explored factors relevant to both successful and unsuccessful resettlement, and their relationship to psychological well-being. The results indicated that social and emotional disconnection, isolation and alienation, lack of recognition of professional skills, experiences of racism and discrimination, cultural incongruity, feelings of cultural uprooting and inadequate English language competency, all may contribute to psychological distress, difficulties in adjustment to life in Australia and in some cases, repatriation to the country of origin.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, August 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 250-265).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 178 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-178).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-152).

Applied research project (D. Min.)--School of Theology and Missions, Oral Roberts University, 2007. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-203).

Inspired by my personal experience as a South Asian-American, I chose to create a series of paintings that seek to analyze the relationship between South Asians and a Western environment. I was further influenced by Bollywood painted posters, which I argue encapsulate postcolonial aesthetics in the form of fair skin, colored eyes, and exoticism. Moreover, I believe that Bollywood has continued to disseminate these aesthetics to the South Asian collective community. Bollywood and its implicit fascination with the West, in addition to its inherently South Asian identity, embody the struggle that many South Asians face. This struggle, which I as a South Asian-American woman painter have also experienced, includes a constant internal conflict between desiring to fit into Western culture and trying to maintain one’s cultural heritage within a Western environment. Ultimately, through these paintings and this essay, I seek to shed light on this complex relationship between South Asian culture and a Western context.

Research has shown that a high number of South Asian people suffer with mental health problems and that South Asian women specifically, are at high risk of attempting self -harm or suicide. However, there seems to be a low uptake of the mainstream services offered by the South Asian community as a whole, compared to their white counterparts. Furthermore, the existing literature in this area is scarce and focuses on identifying barriers that South Asian women face in accessing help. This mixed methods study explored the mental health help seeking experiences of British born South Asian women. For the first part of the study, six (N=six) women who had successfully accessed therapy were interviewed and the qualitative data was analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework for thematic analysis. The main superordinate themes identified included: therapy as a positive experience, perseverance and persistence, need to know basis, fears about being judged, the need for more publicising and awareness, recovery as an ongoing process, medical professionals needing to be more proactive, developing autonomy and putting your own needs first, developing understanding and the importance of the first step. Various subordinate themes were identified for some of these main superordinate themes. The second part of this study involved delivering a psycho educational workshop (which was partly based on the qualitative data generated in the first part of the study) to a group of South Asian women (N=25). Their attitude towards help seeking was measured before, immediately after and four weeks after the workshop using Fischer and Farina’s (1995) Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. An ANOVA Test indicated a statistically significant difference in attitudes to help seeking before, immediately after and four weeks after the workshop. This study helped to get a better understanding of the experiences of a marginalised group and demonstrated how such information can be used to develop new and innovative interventions that can be used with a client group that appear to have low levels of engagement with and referral to mental health services.

This study used a qualitative descriptive case study approach (Yin, 1994) to examine the influences on Sikh Indo-Canadian student selection of entering the applied social sciences at the university level. Seven students in the last two years of their undergraduate academic program participated in the study. The study examined (a) factors that had affected their academic and career path, (b) their perception of supports and barriers in pursuing their academic and career choice, and (c) and how they managed barriers. An analysis was conducted using the social cognitive career theory of Lent, Hackett, and Betz (1994) as a theoretical base to understand the process by which Sikh Indo-Canadian young women made career decisions to enter the applied social sciences. Across the sample of participants', personal factors, such as interests and various forms of learning experiences, were cited as significant in forming an individual's career choices. Contextual factors, such as norms held by the family and ethnic community, and requirements of academic institutions, were cited as potential impediments to career choice implementation but were seen as manageable by the participants. Self-efficacy played an important role in moderating the participants' view of contextual factors and their ability to create various strategies of resistance or coping strategies to maintain their career choice. The educational decisions of these young women were influenced by factors such as parental influence, cultural expectations, and considering marriage and family plans. Salient findings of the study in support of the social cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 1994) that applied to all the young women were that early immersion with helping people within their ethnic community contributed to their current career interest. Based on early exposure to helping others within their ethnic community, the participants felt confident with exploring their interest helping people in settings outside of their ethnic community. The participants also had developed outcome expectations of making a personal, social and societal contribution through their work. The longer the young women persisted in the field their sense of self-efficacy grew and they would set higher outcome expectations for themselves. They also believed that their career choice was a reflection of their fate. Findings from this study that were contrary to the social cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 1994) were that despite contextual influences in the educational system, family and ethnic community to engage in their career choice being perceived as not fully supportive, they still persisted in their career choice. The social cognitive career theory (Lent et al., 1994) suggested that if contextual influences were perceived as low, the individual's commitment to pursuing that career goal would also be low. In this study, the participants' planning behaviour and career choice goals were maintained despite the barriers that participants perceived. Lent et al. also posited that a lack of role models in the field would contribute to having lower levels of self-efficacy. In the study, having a lack of Indo-Canadian role models in the field did not have an effect on their sense of self-efficacy to do well in their chosen line of work. Future studies are required to address how Sikh Indo-Canadian young women conceptualize fate, balance career, family, and marriage expectations, and make life-career decisions after completion of their academic program upon entrance into the world of work. / Graduate

This thesis argues that women writers of the South Asian diaspora are inscribing a literary aesthetic which is recognisably feminist. In recent decades women of the South Asian diaspora have risen to the forefront of the global literary and publishing arena, winning acclaim for their endeavours. The scope of this literature is wide, in terms of themes, styles, genres, and geographic location. Prose works range from grave novelistic explorations of female subjectivity to short story collections intent on capturing historical injustices and the experiences of migration. The thesis demonstrates, through close readings and comparative frameworks, that an overarching pattern of common aesthetic elements is deployed in this literature. This deployment is regarded as a transnational feminist practice.

abstract: This dissertation discusses the processes of post-colonial minoritization of Hindus in Pakistan from the inception of the state in 1947 to the secession of the eastern wing (former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) from the country after a civil and international war in 1971. The dissertation analyzes the emergence and development of the minority question in Europe and connects it with Colonial India, where it culminated into Partition of British India and emergence of Pakistan in 1947. The dissertation analyzes post- Colonial minoritization of Pakistani Hindus as a gradual process on three different but interconnected levels: 1. the loss of Hindu life from Pakistan, 2. the transference of Hindu property and 3. the political minoritization of Pakistani Hindus. The dissertation does so by approaching the history of Pakistani Hindus in two distinct geographical locations, Sindh and the ex-Pakistani province of East Bengal. It also includes discussion on Pakistani Scheduled Castes and Tribes. The dissertation is based on indepth, detailed fieldwork in Tharparkar district of Sindh province and archival research in Pakistan and Bangladesh. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Religious Studies 2014