February marks two anniversaries that highlight the generosity and success of Australia’s approach to refugee resettlement.
The most seismic shift we have seen in our sector over the past two years has been the arrival of COVID-19 and its implications for the individuals and families we support.
Unfortunately, the health consequences of this pandemic have fallen heavily on CALD communities. This was recently affirmed in the Fault Lines report, where Professor Shergold and other colleagues conducted an independent review of Australia’s pandemic response that found people experiencing social inequalities or particular vulnerabilities suffered unnecessarily during the pandemic.
Coming out of the pandemic, there has been great recognition of the strength of community services organisations and community leaders, who stepped up to keep individuals and families informed and safe.
With the effects of the pandemic now dwindling in our communities, the time is ripe for change.
The community services sector is ready and willing to play a more prominent role in forming policy and helping to promote a stronger and more socially inclusive Australia.
As I said at the DCJ conference, we can bring to the table our insights and solutions, but we also rely on government to drive foundational change that will shift the dial for multicultural communities.
This could include wider application of a diversity lens. For example, strengthening multicultural resources and the use of bilingual resources and organisations into day-to-day departmental work.
There is also an opportunity to introduce more dynamic, iterative mechanisms for engaging with our sector.
Existing boards, councils, and committees play an important role in enabling our sector to contribute to government decision-making, but these are often static mechanisms, pulling feedback from a small number of people, rather reaching to the heart of our sector and communities for a dynamic, two-way dialogue.
It is also important to authentically engage us in co-design during the seeding stage, not later, when the tree has already branched out.
I also believe there is a need for government to ring-fence specialist roles that elevate issues for CALD communities and ensures effective engagement
I do want to reinforce thought this is not about vulnerability. This is not about approaching multicultural communities from a deficit base. Both multicultural communities and the services that support them are strong, innovative, and resilient.
By working collaboratively with government — from service gestation through to delivery — we can fortify our sector and ensure that we are equipped to respond to crises that affect multicultural communities, both now and into the future.
Mahsa’s death while in custody of the country’s morality police has sparked protests across Iran, as both men and women rally against a regime where a young woman can lose her life for failing to wear a hijab in public. These have fanned out to protests globally, as people around the world seek to stand in solidarity with the women of Iran.
As a social justice organisation, SSI has a deep commitment to human rights – to the right to live free from violence, oppression and discrimination. SSI stands with the women of Iran and supports their right to protest injustice and to seek to uphold their basic human rights.
Human rights are universal. They transcend race, culture and gender.
So what can we do to stand in solidarity with the women of Iran? We can educate ourselves about the situation unfolding in Iran. A great starting point is this article from Iranian journalist, Masih Alinejad. We can also use our voices – take to social media to show our support and to amplify the voices of Iranian women, including following the hashtag #Mahsa_Amini. You can also join some of the protests happening in your area.
We all have a right to live free from persecution. Those of us privileged enough to already do so have the right and responsibility to show we stand in solidarity with Mahsa, Masih and all the women of Iran in their fight for justice and equality.
Prime Minister Albanese has released a draft, simple form of words that could be put to Australians in a referendum, paving the way for First Nations people to take a rightful place in their own country.
Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities have an important role to play in supporting this proposal and elevating understanding of the challenges facing community members whose voices are often invisible to mainstream Australia.
There are many synergies between the First Nations and the migrant/refugee experience.
The sense of connection to their land of birth is important to those who leave their homelands to come to Australia – many arriving with a rich cultural and spiritual legacy and deep connections with the land.
Migrants and refugees can also relate to issues of land loss, trauma and being torn away from their people and traditional ways of life.
Those we work with, and many who work for multicultural community organisations, know firsthand what it is like to feel as though they don’t belong.
I’ve seen this in my work in CALD organisations, and in my own family, where many family members struggled to build a connection to mainstream Australia after migrating here from Greece after the second world war.
It is heart-breaking to be misunderstood or discriminated against simply because of difference. Whether that is difference of language, difference of customs, different spiritual beliefs, or different skin colour. We all benefit when our differences are recognised and celebrated. Sense of belonging grows when we are treated equally.
A key role of organisations working in the multicultural space, like Settlement Services International, is to welcome people from all over the world to our country.
We welcome them to a place where First Nations people have had a continuous connection to the land for more than 60,000 years, contributing culture, wisdom and care for the land that has not always been acknowledged, respected or considered.
But we reached a point in time where many of our First Nations people often don’t feel welcomed in their own land.
It is something that cuts to the heart of the experiences of multicultural communities too, where individuals and families often feel cutoff from the mainstream, despite making significant cultural, social and economic contributions to their new homes.
I acknowledge that discussions of constitutional matters can seem complex, and the debate might seem confusing or perhaps even not very relevant to migrants or new Australians who have their own issues to deal with.
However, to use the words of Prime Minister Albanese, it really boils down to ‘common decency, common courtesy and common sense’.
As he says, when governments listen to people, their policies can be more effective. Just as we want politicians to listen to CALD communities from hundreds of different backgrounds, and to understand their needs so that they may live a life where they can achieve their full potential, so we should ask it for First Nations people. It’s the right and decent thing to do.
What can we in the community services sector do then to help support this momentous opportunity for positive change?
Individually, we can reach out to First Nations people and organisations in our local area to better educate ourselves about Aboriginal culture and history. We can incorporate their voice in the work we do, and ensure we engage and hear from them often.
We can recognise that just as the newcomers we work for are from a variety of different nations, First Nations people in this country are from various countries with different customs and protocols. We need to make sure our consultations are place based and incorporate the appropriate cultural awareness.
Each day we can play our part in creating culturally safe places for First Nations people, whether at work or in community.
We can learn more about the Uluru Statement of the Heart and the Indigenous Voice to Parliament and talk to our family and friends about it, so that when the time comes, we can support the referendum.
CALD organisations are uniquely positioned to help educate new arrivals and create allies to the cause.
We can do this by incorporating recognition of First Nations people into our service delivery and encouraging respect and curiosity about the world’s oldest living culture.
CALD groups can support reconciliation by creating a First Nations voice in everything they do, as we are committed to doing at SSI.
SSI fully supports the recommendations made in the Uluru Statement of the Heart and we will play our part in supporting a yes vote in a referendum.
I urge you to join us. It’s time, Australia.
On World Refugee Day, June 20, Fatima Payman became Australia’s first Afghan-born Australian elected to the federal parliament.
Ms Payman’s refugee father brought her to Australia with the rest of her family when she was 8. She is also the first hijab-wearing member of parliament and the third youngest to be elected to the Senate.
This is important for many reasons.
We all benefit when our nation is governed by diverse representatives with lived experience they can bring to the floor of parliament. But, as Ms Payman herself said in her first public interview as a senator, young girls and other women “can’t be what they can’t see”, and so I hope that her win serves as inspiration to others, whether from refugee or other backgrounds.
The second heartwarming thing was the release of new research from Amnesty International, and Ipsos, showing Australians’ strong support of refugees.
Highlights from Amnesty’s research, released on June 19, found that 72 per cent of Australians support either maintaining or increasing Australia’s humanitarian intake and that most Australians support refugees being settled in Australia. Fifty-seven per cent back community sponsorship if communities can support the refugees.
Amnesty’s annual Human Rights Barometer also found that most Australians think our government spends too much money keeping asylum seekers locked in detention.
The Ipsos research paints an international picture and includes Australian respondents. It found that three-in-four adults across 28 countries surveyed agreed that people should be able to take refuge in other countries to escape war or persecution.
It also found attitudes towards refugees have become more positive on average, since last year.
SSI will continue to work with the Federal Government to advocate for refugees and asylum seekers. We hope to soon see an increase in Australia’s humanitarian intake, community sponsored refugee program intake, and other key settlement changes Labor took to the election as promises.
I want to leave you with some more positive information.
When I’m asked to speak about those who come to our country as refugees, asylum seekers or migrants, I like to remind people of this research from Oxford University Professor Ian Goldin, who found that migrants are:
- 2 to 3 times more likely to start a business
- 2 to 3 times more likely to win Nobel Prizes
- 2 to 4 times more likely to lodge patents!
Of course, that doesn’t include the rich cultural and social contributions they bring, along with admirable traits like resilience and adaptability.
At SSI we are privileged to be able to offer a warm welcome to our new arrivals and help them adjust to living in a new culture and society where much of what they find is different, can be complex, and at times overwhelming. Every day I get to meet the most amazing people!
I hope you have been able to participate in some of our celebration events, had a chance to meet some of our refugees, or simply took a moment to appreciate that we truly are the lucky country in a world where millions of others face wars, famine and displacement.
We welcome your support outside of Refugee Week of course. We welcome donations and have many volunteering opportunities. Perhaps you might listen to some stories to understand more about the refugee experience, extend a warm smile, or the hand of friendship.
Building awareness of the refugee and migration experience helps promote understanding and greater community harmony.
In today’s world, this is a rare and precious thing.
Let’s all play our part, every day of the week, to welcome and celebrate refugees and contribute to a better and more cohesive multicultural Australia.
Violet Roumeliotis
Diramu Aboriginal Dance and Didgeridoo Performers at the launch of SSI’s Reconciliation Action Plan.
Sorry Day commemorates the Stolen Generations – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their families and communities.
National Reconciliation Week falls on the same dates each year to commemorate the 1967 referendum that amended the constitution to include First Nation Peoples in the census and allowed the Commonwealth to create laws for them, and the 1992 High Court Mabo decision, that recognised First Nation Peoples as the Traditional Owners of this land.
This is one reason why an Acknowledgement of Country is so important. I acknowledge, and encourage us all to acknowledge, the Traditional Custodians of the lands that we work across at SSI and Access, and pay our respects to past, present and future Elders of this nation. At SSI, we recognise the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
For non-First Nations Peoples, National Reconciliation Week provides opportunities for listening, learning, and reflecting. Underpinning this is recognising the past and continued intergenerational trauma that colonisation has caused First Nations Peoples, so that healing can be fostered.
Uncle Charles (Chicka) Madden, a respected Elder from Gadigal country who holds several titles including Director of the Aboriginal Medical Service, discusses the importance of acknowledging the past wrongdoings in SSI Group’s Reconciliation Action Plan.
“It’s important to talk about and acknowledge the poor treatment of Aboriginal People in the past, and only once it is acknowledged and spoken about can we move on to Reconciliation.
“We need to communicate the truth of what happened in the past, in order to move forward in the future.”
This year, the theme for National Reconciliation Week is “Be Brave. Make Change”. Reconciliation Australia states on its website that during this time all Australians are “challenged to tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation so we can make change for the benefit of all Australians”.
Reconciliation is not a passive term – it requires two parties to openly communicate, so that a deep sense of understanding can be established and relationships can grow and thrive.
We all play a role in this process. We can all take time to expand our own learning. We can all help to create safe and supportive spaces for First Nations Peoples, Educators and Elders to share their stories and histories, in a spirit of compassion.
I encourage you to see this week as an opportunity to be an active supporter of Reconciliation, by attending an event (click here to see events that have been registered with Reconciliation Australia; you may know of others in your local communities).
Be brave, make change – now is the time to come together to connect and grow as an Australian community.
Violet Roumeliotis