Analysis of Social Economic Status of Karen People in Queensland

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the socioeconomic status and health of the Karen people residing in Queensland, Australia. It begins with an introduction to the Karen community, highlighting their origins in Myanmar (Burma) and their displacement due to conflict and oppression. The essay defines socioeconomic status and explores its impact on health, focusing on income, education, occupation, and living standards. It examines the Karen community's migration to Australia and their distribution across different cities, with a particular focus on Queensland. The essay delves into the health conditions of the Karen people, comparing their situation in Myanmar to that in Australia, considering factors like life expectancy and mortality rates. It also discusses the social determinants of health, categorizing them into upstream, midstream, and downstream factors. The essay further analyzes the employment and education levels of Karen people in Queensland, and the challenges they face. This essay utilizes a conceptual framework to analyze the health concerns and conditions of Karen people in Queensland. The essay highlights the importance of understanding the cultural and social context of the Karen community to address their health and well-being effectively.

Running Head: Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
Karen People
Essay
System04104
6/3/2019

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
1
Introduction
Karen community is one of the oldest ethnic groups of Myanmar (Burma) and was
involved in conflict in Burma with other ethnic groups in the country. Myanmar is a South-
East Asian country and shares it border with India, China, Bangladesh, Laos, and Thailand.
The Karen people were forced to leave the country after a long oppression under the
succession of military regimes in Burma. However, there are so many ethnic groups in Burma
and most of them spread in different countries of the world like Thailand, Australia, USA,
India, and China. There are more than 7,500,000 Karen people are living all over the world
and among them 6,000,000 people belong to Burma and 1,000,000 Karen people are living in
Thailand as refugee people (Fuertes, 2010). However, the large number of people migrated to
Australia. Australia is known for its refugee and asylum seeker’s policies and there are large
numbers of Karen refugee people are living in the Australia and its different cities. The
present work helps to understand the social economic status of Karen people in Australia and
impact of various determinants of social economic framework (such as education,
employment, occupation) on their health.
What is Social economic Status?
Social economic status can be defined as a combined measure of social and economic
status and tends, which is positively associated with the better health of a group or
community people. The social economic status focuses on the income, education,
occupations, living standards, and its impact on the health of people or on a particular
community. The social economic status normally provides an understanding of inequalities in
access to resources, issues related to privilege, and problems related to power and control
within a society or country for a particular group or community of people (Sugiyama,
Villanueva, Knuiman, Francis, Foster, Wood, & Giles-Corti, 2016).
This essay provides an analysis of social economic status and health situation of
Karen people in Australia by considering the Upstream, midstream, and Downstream
determinants of social economic status. This essay also provides an overview of the health
conditions of Karen people in Australia along with their traditional views and ethnicity. The
report uses the conceptual framework that categorizes the key determinants of socioeconomic
health equalities of Karen people in Australia. The conceptualisation of this framework will
help to understand the major determinants of the health of Karen people in Australia.

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
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Karen People in Myanmar
The total population of Karen people in Myanmar is around 6 million, while 400,000
peoples reside in Thailand. The life expectancy of Karen people in Myanmar is 61 years.
However, the infant mortality rate inn Karen people in Australia is 106 per 1000, while the
same stats are tremendously decreased in Australia where the mortality rate is 4.6 out of 1000
(Horstmann, 2011). The major language of Karen people is Burmese, but people who spread
in different part of the world adopted the local languages and speak different other languages
as well. Indigenous people in Australia have their own language and they have more than 126
dialects. However, apart from these languages, people speak some other language such as
Pwo Karen, Karen, Pa’O, S’gaw etc. ( Aung, Lorga, Srikrajang, Promtingkran, Kreuangchai,
Tonpanya, & Payaprom, 2012)
Social Economic Situation of Karen people in Australia (Queensland)
A large number of Karen people (almost 3500) were placed in Australia during the
1947 to 1959 as result of the rise of nationalism after Burmese Independence from Britain.
However, according to the Australian census 2001, more than 11,070 Burmese born people
were living in Australia and this is 9% increased reported in compare to their population in
1996 in Australia. However, form 200 to 2005 more than 1875 Karen people arrived in
Australia and it is increasing every year (Nawyn, 2010).
(Source: Nawyn, 2010).

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
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The large numbers of Karen people are distributed in Australia in different cities of
the country. However, more than 1200 Karen people residing in New South Wales and
Victoria state among them while 724 people arrive during 2001-2005. In the same duration,
419 Karen people were arrived in Western Australia and 104 Karen people were arrived in
Queensland. However, the Australian government does not disclose the identity of the Karen
Community because of security reasons. Burmese are the largest ethnic groups in Australia
and the largest indigenous population is Karen people. The other indigenous races are Shans,
Katchin, Chins, Mon, Rakhine etc. (Nawyn, 2010).
(Source: Nawyn, 2010).
The major concerns with these Karen people are related to their health concerns as
more, more people from Karen community are suffering from infectious disease, and they
even do not believe in modern medicine and treatment policies. These people generally
depends on the traditional method of treatment of diseases while in Australian Karen people
are now using the latest medical care facilities which is provided by the Australian
government to the refugees in different camps (Zwi, Woodland, Williams, Palasanthiran,
Rungan, Jaffe, & Woolfenden, 2018). The most of the Karen people are following Buddhism
and Christian religion in Australia. Approximately 90% of the Karen people are estimated to
Theravada Buddhists in Burma and 20% are estimated to be Christians in Burma. Therefore,
a large number of people who arrived in Australia are belongs to Buddhist religion or
Christian religion. However, the expected life expectancy of Karen people in Australia is 83

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
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years (81 years for male and 85 years for females) while it is only 66 years in Burma (64
years in males and 6 years in females) (Rist, Miles, & Karimi, 2012).
(Source: Brees, 2010)
There is Karen 590 people arrived in the Queensland from 2006 to 2010. The number
of Karen people arrived in 2009 and 2010 is tremendously increased as total 2427 Karen
people arrived in Australia out of them 372 Karen people arrived in Queensland, and 1476
Karen people arrived in 2010 in Australia, among them 208 Karen people arrived in
Queensland. It means the number of Karen people in Australia and Queensland is increasing
every day (Brees, 2010).

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
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Census of Karen people in 2016 (Source: Deloitte Access Economies, 2016)
There are many health related problems found in Karen people in Burma where large
numbers of Karen people are suffering from depressions, anxiety symptoms, and post-
traumatic stress disorder problems. Apart from this large number of people are also suffering
from high blood pressure, Sugar, and Tuberculosis. There are so many people who migrated
from Burma to Australia are suffering from latent Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B, and other
infectious disease. However, if we compare this situation with Australia Karen people then it
can be easily found that Karen people in Australia are more healthy and fit. It has been found
in the research that Karen people in Australia have low rates of obesity problems, low level
of respiratory symptoms, and use of Alcohol and tobacco is also under control. People are
used to eat high rates of fruits and vegetable and they are also doing exercise. The Karen
community normally do not give importance to the women in the community while the men
are dominating over the women. The average children per family are 2-3 children, while it is
two in Australia Karen community (Schweitzer, Brough, Vromans, & Asic-Kobe, 2011).
Social Determinants of Health in Queensland (Australia)
The health of Karen people in Queensland is also a major concern but it is
comparatively very good than Myanmar and Thailand Karen people. Karen people are facing
large number of health related issues in Burma and Thailand. The infectious disease like
Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, HIV/AIDS are some of the common infectious disease by which
Karen people are suffering more. Apart from this, diabetes, obesity etc. are some of the major
health issues that affect the health of Karen people. However, the major issues are that they
still believe in the traditional system if healthcare and treatment. The situation of women in
the Karen community in worldwide is so pity as number of rape cases, torture, and horrors
cases has been reported in the Burma and Thailand. People in this community are mainly
suffering from mental health related issues, posttraumatic disorder, malnutrition, chronically
mental health problems etc. (Brees, 2010).
The Queensland government of Australia provide them all the facilities and
healthcare services to keep them healthy and fit. The Australian government provides the
facilities to be part of the Australian national healthcare program. However, the large number
of Karen people takes the registration in the national health program of Australia but only
few of them are taking the benefits of Australian healthcare facilities in the Queensland
(Harkins, 2012). However, it has been seen that most of Karen people in Queensland uses the

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
6
modern healthcare facilities for their infectious disease and the number of healthcare issues in
Australia is continuously decreasing as large number of people are taking benefits of
Australian primary healthcare services. However, the healthcare framework of this
community can be divided into three broad categories: Upstream (Macro), Midstream
(Intermediate), and Downstream (Micro) factors. The framework given by Turrell and
Mathers consist of three separate yet narrowly interconnected stages of levels that help to
analyse the health concerns and conditions of Karen people (Fredericks, Adams, & Edwards,
2011).
This type of terrible situation is Burma and Thailand almost forced these people to
leave the country and migrated to other countries like Australia and USA. However, the role
of government in the Burma and Thailand is also questionable because the Barman
government allowed its military forces to unfairly treating these people and force them to
leave the country. This is the reason why more than 1 million people are living in the
Thailand refugee camps. The poor government policies and health related policies for the
Karen people force them to migrate in other countries. However, most of the Karen people
not only migrated to Australia rather some of the people (around 15000 Karen people) moved
to USA for better life (Watkins, Razee, & Richters, 2012).

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
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Upstream (Macro) Health Determinants
In upstream factors, there are number of factors included that help to understand the
impact of various environmental, governmental, and global economic factors on the health
and well-being of individuals or populations. The upstream factors include a wide range of
interrelated factors such as employment, occupation, education, and working conditions. The
framework also shows that these factors are also influenced by many other upstream factors
such as government policies and factors associated with globalisation (Centres for Disease
Control and Prevention, 2018).
The education level in the Karen people almost absence in Burma and Thailand Karen
community. While considering the fact that the Australian government provides all the basic
facilities to Karen people to improve their education level. The Australian government
focuses on the basic education facilities that are helpful in educating the children of Karen
people (Miller, Sonderlund, Coomber, Palmer, Tindall, Gillham, & Wiggers, 2010).In
Australia, 14% Karen people have good command over English while 7% people speaks
good English, and 31% of people speaks poor English among 1875 people who arrived
Australia from 2000-2005. While other people either not able to speak English or their
language was not recorded. However, the large number of Karen people in Australia speaks
Burmese (47.6%) while 38.7% of people are able to speak English and 2.6% speaks Chinese-
Mandarin (Nawyn, 2010).
(Source: Nawyn, 2010).

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
8
However, talking with the employment situation, then it can be easily found that these
people have their own work and they are usually working in the agriculture works and doing
farming on local lands. However, the Australian government are not able to provide them
employment opportunities. The new arrived Karen people from 2000 to 2005 are facing
problems in finding jobs in Australia (Gifford & Wilding, 2013). The employment rate in
Karen people in 2016 was 70% in Berdigo and Victoria. However, the same thing is very low
in Queensland in Australia where 55% of people are employed out of 3200 Karen people
(Deloitte Access Economies, 2016).
Employment rate in Karen people in Victoria and Bendigo (Source: Deloitte Access
Economies, 2016)
The Queensland government has no policies to provide them jobs in the country as
large number of people are spreading in the country in different cities. The working
conditions for the Karen people in Queensland is also not good as large number of people are
unemployed and are nothing to do in the city. The Karen people in Queensland are facing
problems related to employment and proper social and local support, but the health facilities
they get in the queens land is really good compare to their Burma and Thailand. However, the
unemployment and poor income of people leads to mental tension and premature death in
Karen people in Queensland (Paxton, Sangster, Maxwell, McBride, & Drewe, 2012). Karen

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
9
people facing job dis-satisfaction with their current working conditions which leads to major
health related problems such as mental distress, heart disease, and other risk factors that leads
to hurt disease in the Karen people. However, it has been seen that large number of Karen
people registered themselves under the Australian national healthcare programs but not
taking the advantage of health care facilities. This is the major reason in the city that people
are still facing major health elated issues.
Midstream (Intermediate) Health Determinants
The psychosocial factors and health behaviour of people are major midstream health
determinants. People in Queensland are majorly facing problems related to social support,
which is a part of the psychosocial factors. Social support in the area is still a major concern
for the Karen people in the Queensland because the government does not disclose their
identity in the society because of the social security reasons. However, the perception of
people about the new tradition and Australian culture is different and they give priority to
their own traditional culture. The living style of people is still influenced by their own
traditional and ethnic culture rather than modern culture of Queensland. However, the food
provision in the city for the Karen people is just like another Australians and there are no
separate or other health problems in the country (Block, Warr, Gibbs & Riggs, 2012).
The Queensland government also provide same food and education facilities for the
Karen people, but the major concern is that only few Karen people children join the primary
and higher school on regular basis. The school distance from the children, homes are also so
far and they have to cover more distance to join the school. The large number of Karen
people are suffering from mental distress and traumatic mental disorders that shows that their
mental health conditions in the country is not good. This is generally seen in those people
who arrived Queensland during 2001-2005. Only few people in Queensland are registered to
premature death or suffering from any dangerous infectious disease in Australia, because
Australian government provides all the basic healthcare facilities to them (Brink, Shannon, &
Vinson, 2015).
Considering the health behaviour of Karen people in Queensland, then it has been
found that many of the Karen people are addicted to smoking and tobacco products. The
numbers of people are habituate to use the Alcoholic products (Martin, Swannell, Hazell,
Harrison, & Taylor, 2010). Therefore, the health related issues such as lung cancer and

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
10
Tuberculosis is usual in the Karen people. People live in rural areas normally habitual for
drinking and using tobacco products that affect their health on a greater concern. However,
the Queensland government and Australian government provide all the basic facilities to the
Karen people to improve their life conditions. People in Australia are normally supporting the
healthcare problems of Karen people and the National health program of Australia also
provides benefit to the Karen people to leave all these bad habits and live the life healthy and
fit. The current situation of Karen people in Queensland is really good in compare to other
cities or country. However, the Karen people still need social support from the Queensland
people and employment opportunities that helps the people to improve their current situation
in the country (Weiß, 2018).
Downstream (Micro) Health Determinants
In the downstream health determinants, there are several social determinants such as
psychological system (such as immune and endocrine), Health determinants (such as
mortality, morbidity, and life expectancy), and other biological reactions. People in
Queensland are not facing stream problems related to immune system. Although people who
arrived in Queensland during last 15-18 years are getting better healthcare facilities and
security from the government. The Queensland government helps the Karen people to get the
best healthcare facilities in the country. However, there are still a large number of Karen
people who lived in Queensland and Australia is suffering from chronic disease such as
diabetes and Obesity (Jenkinson, Young & Kruske, 2014).
(Source: Roennfeldt, 2010)

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
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The mortality rate in Karen people in Australia is really good. It has been noted that
the average life expectancy in the Karen people in Australia is 83 years (81 years for male
and 85 years for females) while it is only 66 years in Burma (64 years in males and 6 years in
females). It means the mortality and life expectancy rate in Australia of Karen people is quite
good in compare to their origin country. Considering the infant mortality then it has been
found that the infant mortality rate in Karen people is very low in compare to other countries
where this community resides. Apart from this, the biological reactions in the Karen people
can easily be observed. People who live near the river or using un-purified water are suffering
from many diseases. Apart from this, the alcohol and tobacco product consumption is still a
major issue for the community people (McClure, Hughes, Ren, McKenzie, Dietrich, Vardon,
& Newman, 2010).
Current initiatives and efforts for the Karen people in Queensland (Australia)
The Queensland and Australian government provides all the basic healthcare facilities
and resources that are required to improve their living standards. The living standards of
people also improved because of education and employment opportunities given by the
Australian government. The Australian government formed an organisation called ‘Australian
Karen Organisation’ (AKO) which is national organisation that entertain all the issues and
health related issues of Karen people in the community. People from various states such as
New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria etc. raise their issues towards the AKO (Goris,
Komaric, Guandalini, Francis & Hawes, 2013).
AKO cares for the affordable housing and rental housing arrangement for the Karen
people and also working on providing private and community houses for the Karen people.
Apart from this, the Karen people are also helped by many Australian Indigenous and rural
development plan where they have provided better healthcare facilities and fitness care
programs (Horstmann, 2011). The Australian government encourage the Karen people to
register in the Australian National Health care programmes so they can get better healthcare
services and facilities from the government. It is also considerable that these people are
treated same as the common Australian people in both Queensland and other part of the
country. The healthcare facilities not only helped to decrease the mortality rate and infant
mortality rate in Australia, it also reduces the chances of chronicle disease because people
now can get better medical and healthcare facilities in the Australia, including Queensland.

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
12
This is the reason that the life expectancy rate in Karen community is more than other Karen
people live in the other part of the world (Henderson & Kendall, 2011).
Recommendations to improve the situation of Karen people in Australia
The Australian government provides all the healthcare facilities to Karen people in the
country and treating them as their own citizens. However, the major concern is that the Karen
people are still finding jobs and facing issues related to find unemployment. The majority of
Karen people are suffering from mental disorder and stress because they are not doing
anything in the cities. People in Queensland are living their life like a common Australia
people, but security of these people still a major concern for the Queensland government.
However, education is another concern by which Queensland government has to deal
(Mitschke, Mitschke, Slater, & Teboh, 2011).
The Australian government including the state government like Queensland, New
South Wales, and Victoria etc. must focuses on improving the wellbeing of Karen people and
provide them opportunities to prepare themselves to find a job and remove the unemployment
and other problems like poverty and poor health issues from their community. However, the
Australian government needs to formulate a new planning and agenda for the Karen people
and trying to provide them all the necessary and basic facilities, and encourage them to use
and participate in the government health and employment programs. However, the major
problem is that Karen people are still not using the government healthcare facilities (Mueller,
Schmidt, Staeheli, & Maier, 2010).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the situation of Karen people in Australia including Queensland is
quite good in compare to the other Karen people who live in Burma, Thailand, USA, and
India. However, the major concern is that the ethnicity and tradition view of Karen people act
as an obstacle between the Australian development program and development of Karen
people. The Karen people are still facing large number of health related issues in the country,
the Australian government needs to done a lot of work to improve the life style, and health
conditions of Karen people. Apart from this, the old and traditional mentality of Karen people
is also some of the key causes behind their underdeveloped community and poor situation of
people. However, if the Australian government will provide a better healthcare and
employment opportunity program for the Karen people, it will be really beneficial for their

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
13
health and overall development of these refugee people in the Queensland and in Australia as
well.

Karen People in Queensland (Australia)
14
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