Australia welcomes refugees. Building a New Life in Australia, the first large-scale study in a decade involving 2,400 immigrants in all states and territories in Australia, found three-quarters of humanitarian migrants felt they had been made welcome in Australia.
In a research presentation to the 13th Australian Institute of Family Studies' conference this week, researchers report that half of the new arrivals said they had 'always' been made welcome, while a further 28 per cent said they'd felt welcome 'most of the time'. The Institute's Senior Research Fellow, Diana Smart said around 70 per cent of humanitarian migrants also felt a sense of belonging in Australia, despite some struggling with health and housing issues. "The people in the study are very diverse: some are single, some are in families, there are people from Middle Eastern countries, Asia and Africa, aged anywhere from 18 to 83 years old, from the highly educated to those with little or no education,” Ms Smart said.
'Australia is a bigger cage': the ongoing trauma of Nauru's child refugees. “I don’t live in a tent any more.
Now, I live in a house made of concrete walls instead of plastic,” says 21-year-old Sara*. “I don’t have to take two-minute showers under the guard’s eyes any more, no one can invade my privacy here, security officers won’t check my ID all throughout the day any more. The extreme hostile living environment of Nauru is gone. Qualitative exploration of the impact of employment and volunteering upon the health and wellbeing of African refugees settled in regional Australia: a refugee perspective.
Through the lens of a strengths-based approach, our examination of refugees’ experiences with employment and volunteering uncovered the ways in which these vocational activities created purpose.
Despite stresses involved in working, and difficulties associated with integration, paid and unpaid work facilitated growth in self-identity, self-efficacy and self-appraisal and ongoing personal and professional development for our participants. Participants valued work that reflected their skills and personal values, and afforded them security and stability, which in turn promoted health-seeking behaviours. Shared cultural backgrounds led to recurring themes about the ways in which participants engaged with work and subsequently with their host community. While their personal experiences of migration and trauma were disruptions to their lives and careers, these experiences also motivated participants to work towards a goal beyond themselves, and serve their local and global community. Asylum Seekers and Resettled Refugees in Australia: Predicting Social Policy Attitude From Prejudice Versus Emotion. Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2014).
Education and Work, Australia, May 2014: Level of highest non-school qualification. Retrieved from Australian Press Council. (2012). 'Asylum seekers', 'illegal immigrants' and entry without a visa (Standards of Practice, No. 262). Retrieved from Bauder, H. (2008). Australian Government Assistance to refugees: fact versus fiction. 11 November 2014 PDF version [268KB] Luke Buckmaster and Jonathon Guppy Social Policy Section Contents Introduction.
Australia's refugee policy: An overview. Download factsheet: Australia's Refugee Policy: An overview Australia’s key refugee policies briefly explained, including turnbacks, offshore processing, immigration detention and the situation of people in the ‘legacy caseload’.
A history of Australia's offshore detention policy. When Parliament defeated the government and passed a bill allowing the medical evacuation of asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru to Australia, refugee advocates celebrated nationwide.
But the Coalition reacted swiftly, both in words and actions. One frontbencher warned voters about a feared influx of refugees, predicting "rapists and murderers" would now enter the country. And it was announced that the Christmas Island detention centre would be reopened at a cost of more than $1 billion, with plans to send sick refugees there for treatment. The battle lines of the 2019 federal election appear to have been drawn.
SBS News How did we get here? University of Sydney immigration law specialist Mary Crock told SBS News that Australia's history of offshore processing goes back to the 1960s. Australia's refugee policy is out of step with global standards and breaks international law: report. The government needs to take several steps to bring Australia's refugee policy in line with other countries around the world and to comply with its international obligations, a leading research centre on international refugee law has found.
New Australians feel abandoned as they battle social isolation, struggle to find employment. Updated 16 Oct 2019, 4:01amWed 16 Oct 2019, 4:01am Anas Barbaree was a qualified pharmacist working overseas, but has never been able to work in Australia in his chosen field.
Key points: Each year, about 200,000 people move to Australia from overseasMulticultural Development Australia says the biggest challenge for new Australians is gaining employmentMany new arrivals struggle with communication and social isolation He's not alone, with refugees and migrants facing significant barriers to skilled employment which is causing impacts to mental wellbeing. Social isolation among new Australians is so severe that some are asking how to return to refugee camps, and some live without necessities like power, a South-East Queensland refugee and migrant service has warned. Mr Barbaree fled war-torn Iraq with his family when Islamic State militants invaded the city of Mosul in 2014.
"We had to leave everything behind, and we were searched at checkpoints for valuables like mobile phones. " Asylum seekers and refugees: what are the facts? Updated 2 March 2015 PDF version [400 KB] Janet Phillips Social Policy Section.
#WorldRefugeeWeek: How Australians feel about refugees. Results from the 2017 Lowy Institute Poll reveal how Australians feel about refugees being settled in Australia. Almost half (48%) of the 1200 Australians surveyed believe that refugees currently in Nauru and Manus Island detention centres should never be settled in Australia (versus 45% who agree they should be settled in Australia). Moreover, almost 40% see asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat as a ‘critical threat’ to Australia’s interests. These views towards resettling refugees may come as a surprise, given a finding from last year’s poll that was conducted at the height of the refugee crisis. The 2016 poll found a significant majority (62%) of Australians supported the government’s announcement to resettle 12,000 Syrian refugees in Australia. Taking these two results together suggests that, when it comes to refugee resettlement, Australians are not immune from the NIMBY phenomenon.
These two graphs reflect the desires of most refugees fleeing atrocities. Asylum seeker on Manus Island sustains injuries after self-harming. Updated 25 Jun 2019, 1:54amTue 25 Jun 2019, 1:54am A man from India has sustained injuries after self-harming on Manus Island. Key points: Two men who have attempted suicide this week on Manus Island are aliveSelf-harm and suicides on Manus have increased since the Coalition was re-elected in MayThe Morrison Government has pledged it will repeal the medevac laws passed back in February A Papua New Guinea Government source involved in responding to the incident told the ABC that a fire had been extinguished and police remained at the facility.
Workers for Paladin Security, which manages the camp, broke down the door and dragged the man out, the source said. The man, who resides at a facility known as Hillside Haus, had allegedly returned from the local medical centre where he sought treatment for back pain before reports surfaced that his room had been set ablaze. Police took the injured man to Pacific International Hospital. "It's extremely alarming. Cruel, and no deterrent: why Australia's policy on asylum seekers must change. The Coalition’s election victory on May 18 had an immediate psychological effect on the refugees on Manus Island, with reports of several people attempting suicide.
Two class-action lawsuits currently before the High Court allege “torture”, “persecution” and “other inhumane acts” in Australia’s offshore detention centres. This action follows an action for damages in 2018 that the federal government settled for A$70 million, effectively admitting that the claims of mistreatment were well-founded. The Iranian-Kurdish journalist and poet Behrouz Boochani, who has been detained on Manus for six years, has borne witness to a cruel system in his book, No Friend But the Mountain.
Written secretly on a mobile phone, the book has won a swag of major Australian literary awards. Asylum seekers in detention 200 times more likely to commit self-harm than Australians, research finds. Updated 14 Oct 2019, 8:44amMon 14 Oct 2019, 8:44am New research has found that rates of self-harm among asylum seekers in detention are more than 200 times the rates of hospital-treated self-harm among the Australian community. Key points: Asylum seekers on Nauru self-harmed at a rate of 260 incidents per 1,000 peopleResearchers say the figures are "conservative at best" because rates of unreported self-harm are unknownGovernment claims that self-harm has increased under Medevac laws — a claim refuted by doctors who work with asylum seekers A study from University of Melbourne researchers examined all self-harm incidents reported between August 2014 and July 2015, finding there were 949 over the 12-month period.
Data released by the Australian Government under Freedom of Information laws showed the highest rates of self-harm occurred in offshore detention, at 260 incidents per 1,000 people on Nauru and 54 incidents per 1,000 people on Manus Island. 8 Amazing Benefits of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. In this era of technology and globalisation, many companies are making an effort to succeed in cultural diversity in the workplace. There are some very positive benefits that can be hard from having a more diverse workforce. Let’s discuss eight amazing benefits to individuals and employing companies; Increased productivityImproved creativityIncreased profitsImproved employee engagementReduced employee turnoverImproved company reputationWider range of skillsImproves cultural insights Before we dive in to the main benefits though, what exactly do we mean when we say diversity? What is cultural diversity in the workplace? Cultural diversity in the workplace is when companies are open to hiring employees from all sorts of different backgrounds; regardless of race, religion and culture.
Think of the human race as a whole; we are a very diverse species across the globe, with many different cultures, languages and beliefs. Most refugees feel welcome in Australia but housing among greatest hurdles. Most refugees feel welcome in Australia and positive about the future despite having little English and enduring war, persecution and violence in their homelands, according to a new study. But they have a hard time finding housing, are often separated from family and have significantly higher levels of psychological distress than the general population, the report says. Building a New Life in Australia, by the federal government’s Institute of Family Studies, has examined the lives of more than 2,400 permanent humanitarian visa holders in Australia, from 35 countries and speaking more than 50 languages. The migrants were both “offshore” and “onshore”, including asylum seekers who arrived by boat. The study paints an overwhelmingly positive experience of the Australian resettlement experience.
Refugee settlement challenges & impact on children. Leaving everything behind in one life and beginning another in a different country with different laws, different education and health systems, different languages and different cultural expectations requires a period of adjustment. For people who seek asylum and refuge this process is all the more difficult due to the circumstances under which they depart their home country. Services in South Australia - Refugee Council of Australia.
Refugee resettlement to Australia: what are the facts? Updated 7 September 2016 PDF version [376KB] Contact - ARA.