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Robertson's Argument Analysis

Decent Essays

Robertson’s article is in response to a research question centring around the implications and significance of temporary migrants in urban Australia. Robertson focuses specifically on student and tourist workers as temporary migrants and their role and social position in society. In this piece, I will be critically analysing the writer’s argument, especially in terms of her use of supporting claims, evidence and assumptions. Robertson argues it is the concept of time that determines temporary migrants as different from urban locals, permanent migrants and even, from each other. This construct of time sometimes works in conjunction with ethnicity and culture to force these migrants into varied, and yet similar, social standings within Australian …show more content…

This large amount of evidence suggests Robertson’s piece is based on significant research and is addressing a well-documented issue. The detailed case study of five Korean student and/or tourist workers, beginning the piece, is significant to the overall strength of the writer’s argument. Opening the article with a recognisable urban lifestyle, helps readers to understand that, despite the upcoming heavy use of complex concepts and jargon, this piece is based on relevant matter. This matter being, as Robertson contends, that student and tourist workers, as temporary migrants, obtain and construct varied identities and social relations in urban Australia.
Firstly, the writer claims that student and tourist workers, due to their temporal status, are limited more than permanent migrants, in their opportunities for employment. Robertson argues that migrants’ value as labour is determined by the length of their visas, rather than the skills they may have and thus, defines them as ‘different’ to Australian citizens and permanent migrants. The writer uses the expert opinion of herself and other academics, as support for this claim. She too, uses a case study of five Korean shift-working …show more content…

Robertson contends that differences are marked between these migrants, when some decide to be identified as sojourners and others attempt to be identified as serious migrants. According to the writer, to be considered the latter, student and tourist workers must reject their temporal status and adopt Western culture. This often requires a segregation within the temporal migrant worker category. To support this claim, Robertson uses both expert opinion and the personal accounts of these two types of temporary migrants. These types of evidence, in combination, help to validate Robertson’s opinion. In making this claim, Robertson is assuming that this assimilation and identity performance requires conscious effort and that it is an act to receive serious employment. Thus, Robertson is failing to consider that this process could actually occur naturally and/or be relished by migrants, for other means. Robertson also relies on the assumption that migrants are only truly valued if they show commitment to the culture and lifestyle of the country they have migrated to. This adds strength to her claim and argument as migrancy tends to be characterised by a sense of displacement and a need to fit in. Though, perhaps, without revealing claims by all Australian employers, there is a struggle to definitively determine

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