The lives of refugee and immigrant populations have become central to often intense debates about cultural differences and their implications for multicultural societies. The cultural practices assumed to be characteristic of such populations are the object of media comment and policy initiatives, and preoccupy social service practitioners daily. Drawing on an ethnographic examination of the everyday experiences of Iraqi refugees in a small regional town in Victoria, Australia, this article explores how social service practitioners address cultural difference as they seek to assist and support integration. The wider implications of emphasising cultural difference as a defining feature in determining and evaluating refugee integration are also explored. We argue that this emphasis fails to address structural inequalities that contribute to common forms of exclusion and marginalisation experienced by refugees and immigrants in Australia. This emphasis also risks contributing to what, in recent times, has become a dangerous stereotyping of refugees. © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Australia Social support Cultural difference Integration Iraqi refugees

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