Karen People in Queensland

This essay explores the health-related situation of Karen people in Queensland, Australia, and the challenges they face. It discusses the population, language, and health issues of the Karen community, as well as the government policies and support provided. The essay also highlights the psychosocial and downstream health factors affecting the Karen people in Queensland.

Running Head: Karen People in Queensland
Karen People
Essay
System04104
5/1/2019

Karen People in Queensland
1
Introduction
Almost 2000 years ago, the Karen people were one of two main groups that settled in
Myanmar (now it is Burma). The Karen people like to call Burma as Myanmar. Myanmar
shares its border from India, Bangladesh, China, Laos, and Thailand in Southeast Asia. Karen
belongs to ethnic groups within Burma, who follow their own old tradition and culture. There
are more than a hundred different ethnic groups in Burma and Karen group is one of the
oldest ethnic groups among them (McGready, Kang, Watts, Tyrosvoutis, Torchinsky, Htut, &
Nosten, 2014). However, all ethnic groups in Burma share some unique culture and
traditions, but these ethnic groups have one thing in common- they have all been troubled and
feared by the military forces in the country and they are forced to migrate in other countries.
The population of Karen people all around the world is more than 7,500,000 among them
6,000,000 people belongs to Myanmar and 1,000,000 living in Thailand as refugee people
and remaining lives in different countries of the world like USA, Australia, India (in
Andaman and Nicobar), Canada, and Sweden (McConnachie, 2016). This essay explains the
health-related situation of Karen people and shows how these people are suffering from many
infected diseases in Australia (Queensland). The situation of Karen people in Queensland is
not a major concern because the state and Federal government provide all the security to
these people, but health is still a major concern for this ethnic community. The present work
provides a public health framework of Karen people and their health-related issues. It shows
how Karen people face many physical and mental health-related issues and the problems they
are facing currently in Australia (Queensland Health Multicultural Services, 2011).
According to the 2001 census, 11,070 Burma/Myanmar born people were living in
Australia and it was more than 9% from the 1996 Census. However, the number of Burmese
people increases every year from 2001 and during 2000-05, 1875 more Karen people arrived
in Australia as a refugee.

Karen People in Queensland
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(Source: Commonwealth of Australia, 2006)
The Karen community is distributed in Australia in various regions. However, more
than 1200 people are living in New South Wales and Victoria. While the settlers' number in
Queensland in only 104. However, the Australian government care for the privacy of these
kinds of people and do not disclose the location where more or less than 20 Karen people are
living.
(Source: Commonwealth of Australia, 2006)

Karen People in Queensland
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The Karen people speak many languages because they are distributed in Myanmar
and Thailand and in some other countries. However, Karen, S’gaw, Karenni, Pwo Karen, and
Pa’O some of the popular languages of Karen people. However, the Australian Karen people
speak Burmese (47.6%), English (38.7%), and Chinese-Mandarin (2.6%). However, large
numbers of people are good in English apart from their native language. However, more than
52% of people speak the English language (very good, good, or poor).
(Source: Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018)
Karen People in other parts of the world
Karen people are facing numbers of mental and physical health problems because of
their traditional thinking and old cultural tradition. Infectious disease is the major concern for
this community as they are suffering from HIV, Hepatitis, etc. The other problems in this
ethnic group are rape, torture, and other horrors in the region where they live. People are
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, serious injuries, malnutrition, chronic mental
health problems, and various other diseases. However, the situation of these people in Burma
and Thailand is almost questionable. The government imposed obligatory sick policies and
encouraged the army for treating these people so unfairly. The poor and unfavorable policies
of Myanmar government forced 1,000,000 Karen people to enter Thailand as refugee people.
The poor government policy and strategies for Karen people in Myanmar forced them
to migrate in the USA and Thailand. Even some of the Karen people from Thailand are also
migrated in the USA. According to a fact given by the USA department of state bureau,
around 15000 people migrated from Thailand and Burma to the USA in 2014 because of poor

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government strategies and approach towards these people. After the end of ceasefire in 2004,
the Karen and Myanmar government was brokered, but there were many cases of human
rights violation were done by the Barman government on Karen people (Horstmann, 2011).
(Source: McConnachie, 2016)
Karen People of Queensland (Australia)
The small number of Karen community members lives in Queensland as a refugee.
The government never disclose their identity because of security problems. However, people
belong to Australia and living in other parts of the country believe that Australian medicine
can cure anything (Aung, Lorga, Srikrajang, Promtingkran, Kreuangchai, Tonpanya, &
Payaprom, 2012). However, people in Queensland from 2006-2010 is increasing
tremendously. There were 590 Karen people who arrived in Queensland from 2006-2010.

Karen People in Queensland
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(Source: Queensland Health Multicultural Services, 2011)
These people are more inspired by these medical staff people as they prefer a warm
welcome and give a business type approach to these medical staff. The public health
framework of this community can be divided into three broad categories: Upstream (Macro),
Midstream (Intermediate), and Downstream (Micro). However, this not only affects their
health rather they are suffering from many infectious diseases. The children of Karen people
are suffering from serious malnutrition diseases (Brees, 2010). Every one child out of three
children in the Karen community is suffering from acute malnutrition. These stats are better
in that Karen community, who are living in the refugee camp in Australia, where the
Australian government cares for their health and provides some basic primary health
facilities.

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(Source: Queensland Government, 2018)
Upstream (Macro) Health Factors
In upstream factors, Government policies determine the health concerns of this type
of person. However, government policies like economic policies, welfare policies, health
policies housing policies, transportation, and taxation policy determines connected with
determinants of health such as education, employment, occupation, income, working
conditions, etc. If we consider the Australian government then we found that the policies and
strategies for the development of Karen people are not so worst in compare to Myanmar or
Thailand Karen people. The Karen people are facing so many difficulties to live their lives
freely in the country. Apart from this, the old culture and tradition of these people also a
major concern in the development of this ethnic community (Low, Tun, Mhote, Htoo,
Maung, Kyaw, & Pocock, 2014).
The Australian government supports them as their own citizens. However, these
people are still fighting for their rights, basic facilities, house, and proper employment policy
in Australia and its several regions. In Burma, 70% of people depend on agriculture and
agriculture is the life for them, while the people living in Queensland depend on fishing and
labor work. The situation of these refugees is also not very good in Australia. Instead of
creating sustainable development for Karen people, the Australian government has enacted
unfavorable facilities and not providing any employment opportunities for these Karen
people.
However, the Australian government approaches towards these people is not very
appreciable because people are still facing several major issues related to health and

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employment in Queensland, New South Wales, and in Victoria. These human rights
violations were in the form of forced labor, race discrimination, and not protecting people for
infectious disease (Lee, 2012). The lack of basic health facilities in Australia gives many
physical and mental health problems for these people. The government is not serious about
education, child health development; neither provided any employment opportunities for
these people.
Psychosocial (Intermediate) Health factors
The continuous torture of Myanmar government on Karan people gives them
depressive and anxiety disorders in both male and female populations. These two diseases are
increasing among people every day. However, the same condition found in Thailand refugee
camps where 41% people are facing depression, 40.8% people are facing anxiety and around
5% of people are suffering from Post-traumatic stress (Harkins, 2012). The current political
reforms in Myanmar was expected to bring greater civil society freedom and better
implementation of human rights improvements, but it is still expected by the Karen people.
The situation of Karen people in Australia is slightly better and they get some basic
facilities in Australian camps and various regions. The above problems are not a major
concern for these people in Australia rather they are facing strong problems related to
infectious disease and basic health problems. Some health care organizations are trying to
provide some basic facilities in remote areas where Karen people are living, but these
community-based health care organizations are not getting any help from the central
government. There are the major causes that Karen people are still suffering from several
psychological health problems. However, the poor government policies and its
implementation in the country for human development are leading to several bad health
habits in Karen people (Brink, Shannon, & Vinson, 2015). People are usually addicted to
alcohol consumption, poor dieting habits, and facing many health-related issues that cause
several health-related problems for them in the future. Karen people are known for their large
containers of rice and smaller bowls of meat, fish, vegetables, chilies, and fermented fish
dishes and the share their food with neighbors and other people as well. However, in
Australia especially in Queensland, it is not possible for them to arrange a proper meal for the
family and children. This problem leads to the poor health of Karen children and Karen
people. However, poor government support and isolation from the society of Karen people

Karen People in Queensland
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create several other bad health behaviors like drinking alcohol, smoking, self-harm addiction,
and other preventive health care issues (Fuertes, 2010).
Downstream (Micro) Health Factors
There is a large number of peoples who are living in Australia are suffering from
chronic diseases such as diabetes and Obesity. Every year people are dying because of poor
strategies and policies of the government towards the Karen people. There are many
infectious diseases also infected to Karen people because of their poor traditional thinking.
Disease such as Helicobacter pylori infection, latent tuberculosis, Vitamin D deficiency, and
Strongyloidiasis are some the major infectious disease in the Karen community in
Queensland (Queensland Government, 2018).
According to the survey of Francesco Checchi and Colleagues, there were many
people of the Karen community caught in the war zone between ethnic civilians and
government in Burma. Moreover, this resulted in serious mental and physical health issues in
the Karen people including those people who are living in the Queensland and other
Australian refugee camps (Hoogenboom, Thwin, Velink, Baaijens, Charrunwatthana, Nosten,
& McGready, 2015). The children of Karen people are facing serious malnutrition problem
and the immunization policies of this country are still out of reach of this ethnic group
community. Apart from this, the mental and psychological health problems in Queensland
Karen people are somewhere related to their thinking about past and current life.
The unemployment rate in Queensland is almost absent because the Australian
government not provided any employment opportunities for these Karen people. The lack of
international protection for internally displaced people in Australian and other parts of the
country is also here a serious issue because the Australian government is not taking any
serious and effective steps for Karen people. The lack of medical facilities and poor
immunization rates of government in rural areas, especially in the areas of Karen people is
the major cause of their high mortality rate. The life expectancy of Karen people in Burma
and in Thailand is 64.5 years, where it is 62.2 years in males and 66.9 years in the female.
However, it is very low in comparison to Australian Karen people where the life expectancy
of Karen people is 81.7 years (Male 79.3 years and in Female 84.3 years) (Queensland
Government, 2018).

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However, the Australian government including Queensland provides a fair and equal
use of healthcare services, hospitals, and treatment facilities for Karen people who are living
as refugees in Australia (Watkins, Razee, & Richters, 2012). However, compared to the
Australian government the Barman Karen people only get some basic medical health
facilities from the government, which is provided by non-governmental organizations and
some community-based health organizations. In Queensland, there are many health care
organization and Healthcare services providers, which are related to NGOs, and other
organizations provide treatments to these people related to HIV/AIDS, vaccination, family
planning, maternal and child healthcare, tuberculosis, and nutrition programs, etc.
(Horstmann, 2011). Apart from this, most refugees are not aware of the symptoms of disease
or having a very poor understanding of various diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, or
malaria, etc. However, according to a report published by the UK research group, the GP
registration rates of Barman people in Australia are very high but the service utilization was
very low. It means the Australian government provides the basic health facilities to this
government, but Karen people are not using the healthcare facilities provided by the
government because of their poor thinking and traditional ethnic view.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, this study provides the present situation of Karen people in
Queensland and Australia. The situation of Karen refugees in Queensland is slightly better
than Burma and Thailand. However, people are still facing some serious health problems in
Queensland and other parts of Australia because of their poor traditional thinking and ethnic
views. The Karen people are facing strong health-related issues such as HIV/ AIDS,
Tuberculosis. However, the Australian government provides some basic and primary health
care facilities to these people which almost equal to the Australian people, but these people
are not using the healthcare facilities. The number of registration in GP is very high but the
number of people who are using the healthcare services are very low. It can be said from the
above study that a large number of people who displaced from Burma and Thailand to
Queensland and Australia are facing a high level of infectious disease. Although, despite
being better healthcare facilities in Australia and providing better treatment to people, the
Karen people are still suffering from mental and physical problems. Apart from this, the
failure of international protection laws and policy for refugee protection is also a major
concern in this case.

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Karen People in Queensland
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