Serina Saka (L) captured with her family.
Arriving in Sydney airport in 2019, the Saka family were greeted by Settlement Services International (SSI), who provided them with wrap-around case management services, including finding temporary accommodation.
Ms Saka is currently enrolled at Mary Mackillop Catholic College as a Year 11 student. She did not speak English when she first arrived and has demonstrated her determination to learn the language through her volunteering at the school library and providing student support through orientation activities.
“I help new students by providing orientation of the school and helping them to feel welcome,” Ms Saka said.
“Some of them don’t know the language like me, and I want to help them.”
Recently, Ms Saka requested assistance from her SSI case manager to find a casual job within the Fairfield area and was supported in developing her resume. She met with her case manager at Neeta City Fairfield, and they went to over twenty local shops, requesting to speak to store managers and hand in her resume.
The manager of the café, The Big Hot Dog, was impressed with Ms Saka’s positive attitude and offered her a trial starting the next day.
After only a trial period of two short days, where she was making coffee, serving customers, and wiping down tables, Ms Saka was offered paid employment. She said that she was very grateful for the support of her case manager.
“Everything at work is good, I love it so much,” she said.
“I work every Saturday and Sunday, thanks to the help of my SSI case manager.”
Ms Saka spent her first payment on getting professional driving lessons as she obtained her learners permit in August last year, but didn’t have the opportunity to drive yet. When asked what she thinks about Australia, Ms Saka expressed that she feels settled in her new home.
“Australia is so good, we love it so much,” Ms Saka said.
“Here in Australia, you can reach your dreams and find work, but back in Iraq, it’s harder as a woman, you marry when you’re 18.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed underlying racist tendencies among members of the Australian public, media and government. First, Asian Australians bore the brunt of racial abuse, and now some are shifting the blame onto migrant communities as a whole.
New data emphatically challenges the prevailing narrative that newcomer communities are somehow responsible for the second wave of the virus parts of Australia are experiencing.
In fact, our recently published study into COVID-19 knowledge and prevention among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities highlights that these groups actually take the pandemic very seriously – disproving much of the racist stereotyping seen in the media in recent months.
As part of this study, SSI conducted a survey of 810 clients from different families in our Humanitarian Settlement Program residing in Fairfield, Liverpool, and Campbelltown Local Government Areas. The aim was to understand their experience and perception of COVID-19 and to ensure they were receiving up-to-date information.
Data collected suggests that respondents are engaging in all the recommended safety measures and are taking active measures to ensure their safety and the safety of the community at large.
Unsolicited, individuals from these communities offered hand sanitiser, hand washing, social distancing and minimising going out and wearing masks as some of the actions they were taking to minimise the risk to themselves and others.
These actions are not exceptional; rather, they are expected to be practised by communities right across NSW. Unfortunately, there is no widespread data capturing behaviours in the wider community for comparison.
We are all responsible for the spread of COVID-19 and, just like the wider community, newcomers are aware and engaging with COVID-19 information in high numbers.
But, once again, we are using our troubles – this time in the form of a pandemic – to blame and alienate newcomers. First, migrants were to blame for housing prices, then a rise in crime, then congestion and now the spread of a virus.
As we face the single biggest economic, health and social crisis to emerge in our lifetime, perhaps it is not surprising that we would look for a way to simplify and shift responsibility for the situation.
So, what do these findings teach us about effectively communicating COVID-19 awareness and prevention practices to all communities, including culturally diverse ones?
We have found, time and time again, that for a message to get through to people, they need to hear it from their communities, and that they want support through their own community networks. To achieve this, it requires working effectively through thorough engagement with community leaders and groups.
Solidifying this is the immense determination we have seen from community leaders across NSW to connect with people, peer-to-peer, through trusted relationships, to communicate health and safety messages.
It is time to reflect on whether the top-down approach to communication is actually effective. My conclusion is that it is not. Responses to the pandemic, and indeed any crisis, need to be tailored to diverse audiences, and communicated through channels they know and trust.
We cannot assume that a one-size-fits-all approach will filter down to the grassroots level, particularly without the information infrastructure support of organisations like SSI.
In challenging times, it seems the public react with what appears to be Australia’s muscle memory, to blame the foreigner, the minority and those who are different to us.
To move forward from this unsettling habit, it is important that we take a step back, review the facts – which in this case, clearly identify CALD communities as responsible, aware members of a COVID-19 society – and look to ways we can do better to ensure a safer, fairer environment for all.
Paula with some of the week’s Care Package supplies and pre-made meals to be distributed to those in need.
Ever since COVID-19 hit Australian shores, Paula has been working to ensure individuals and families seeking asylum in Australia, who are not eligible for federal government employment support packages, do not go hungry.
Paula leads SSI’s Care Package program, which was designed in early March following government issued shutdowns across NSW.
The program was developed to support individuals on temporary or on bridging visas who lost their source of income due to the shutdown and as a result were struggling meet their basic needs.
Since the care package initiative’s inception, over 350 households, including single adults, young families and women at risk have been supported to put food on the table and meet their basic needs.
“I am seeing people in dire situations. Living standards are in many ways like situations I witnessed abroad while working in resettlement. It troubles me that this is happening here in Australia,” said Paula.
Paula explained that at the beginning of the pandemic, she met with families who had lost their source of income and could not receive support from the Jobkeeper and Jobseeker initiatives. As a result, many had burned through their savings and fallen four to six weeks behind on rent.
Now, with no clear end to the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, these families are facing over 14 weeks of rent arrears.
“Some of the people [seeking asylum] are now homeless. I have seen abusive text messages from landlords and heard stories of young single women being evicted from the security of their homes.
“At the same time, I have seen a letter from a landlord begging for rent money because he has lost his job and his wife has just given birth,” she said.
It is not just individuals and young couples on bridging visas who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, Paula has seen many parents and young children visit SSI seeking support to feed their family.
“Children are not exempt from this hardship. Many, too young to understand the situation are going hungry and cold while other children who are old enough to understand what is happening have shared that they feel the burden that falls on them,” explained Paula.
Settlement Services International, dedicated staff such as Paula and other non for profit organisations are doing their very best to support the individuals and families struggling with the ongoing fallout of COVID-19. Despite their best efforts, there are still individuals in our community falling through the cracks, with limited support from the government’s welfare safety nets.
“I want to ask Australians, how do we expect to come back from a situation like this?” Asked Paula, “Should we be more accountable on a personal and community level or should this be left for the state and federal government alone?”
“The answer is both. SSI is just one part of a great unmet need. We should all keep in mind that this current crisis is affecting all of us and we can do and be better especially now.
“The first step is being kind and reaching out to your community members. You can also write a letter to your local MP expressing your concern,” said Paula.
Click here to donate to SSI’s care package program.
Learn how to write to your local MP here.
For single mum, Linh, becoming a foster carer has been one of the most rewarding experiences of her life.
(more…)In the middle of our country’s health and economic crisis, it is tempting to let this news pass unnoticed. Between the bushfires, COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession, 2020 has been a year for the history books and wreaked a devastating toll on our communities.
But most of us alive today have also been witness to another part of Australian history – one that I am certain will be viewed alongside the frontier massacres and the Stolen Generation as a dark blight on our shared heritage.
Offshore processing was first introduced under a Labor government in 2013, and it has continued under our present leadership as a deterrent to people seeking asylum in Australia by boat.
According to Human Rights Watch, more than 3,000 people have been interred on the camps on Manus Island and Nauru, and today, around 370 still remain there in limbo. Some 700 were resettled in the United States, while another 1,200 were transferred to Australia for medical treatment. More than 200 of these people are still detained in detention centres and hotels.
Those who have been fortunate enough to move to the community have experienced intense hardship – and this has only worsened with the recent pandemic. A survey SSI conducted in May showed that temporary visa holders like these people seeking asylum are going without food and medicine as a result of COVID-19.
Still, there is a glimmer of positivity in Friday’s news that Behrouz Boochani has been offered a permanent safe haven in New Zealand. As I’ve previously written, Behrouz obtained a temporary visa to visit New Zealand for a literary event last year. Being officially recognised as a refugee means he now has a permanent future away from Manus Island.
“I am very happy to have some certainty about my future, I feel relieved and secure finally,” he told The Guardian.
In Australia, we have also seen our state governments step up with funding and support for temporary visa holders, including people seeking asylum, international students and working-holiday makers.
You don’t have to be a government decision maker to help people seeking asylum during this pandemic. For example, SSI has opened up a referral and support clinic in Parramatta that is open to all people in need – regardless of visa status. This has created support for people seeking asylum who are ineligible for many government-funded programs and welfare. We’ve also begun offering tailored support for entrepreneurs from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds to assist them to navigate this pandemic and implications for small business.
They are small steps in what we hope is a larger shift in the way our country perceives and treats people based on their visa type. This pandemic has shown that we are only as strong as our most vulnerable community member.
Violet Roumeliotis
SSI CEO
He now uses his firsthand experience and academic expertise to help other people from migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds find home in Australia.
After arriving in Australia, Bashar, like many newcomers, struggled to find employment and find his place in the wider community.
“I was really lost, and I went through a stage of depression. I couldn’t work as an engineer and I couldn’t find any simple job. It was a struggle,’ he said.
Bashar explained his breakthrough moment was beginning work in the real estate industry, where he developed a strong connection to Sydney’s refugee and migrant communities.
“When you work in the real estate industry, you meet people. You enter their houses and are more exposed to their struggle. I was very successful in that area, but I realised that I felt the need to help people in different capacity.”
Now, 15 years on, Bashar has shifted professions from Engineering and business into the social and education sectors; having gained a degree in Adult Education, a master’s in Social Sciences and a Diploma of Art Therapy, among various complementary qualifications.
He now works as a Community Liaison Team Leader at Prairiewood High School, Arts and Community Development Consultant at the Fairfield Arts & Community Development Centre and is President of the Australian Mesopotamian Cultural Association Incorporated.
As a leader in the Sydney’s migrant and refugee communities, Bashar uses his skills to help newcomers survive and thrive in this rapidly changing COVID-19 world.
For example, throughout the pandemic, Bashar has continued running the Centre for Arts and Community development, a privately funded community organisation he established in 2014.
One of the programs Bashar currently runs out of the center is the Community Engagement and Empowerment Program (CEEP), which is proudly funded by the Scanlon Foundation and an auspiced by STARTTS. CEEP works with people from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds to help them increase their capability and build their capacity to find a job.
Throughout the pandemic Bashar has also collaborated with Sydney’s creative community to develop Arabic language videos for the public, to support their wellbeing and reduce stress during COVID-19. He plans to continue developing online in language content and expanding his focus into English language learning. You can find Bashar’s videos here.
Bashar and his team of volunteers at the Arts and Community Development Centre have also been working hard to adapt to changes in the employment sector driven by the looming economic crisis.
“We want to know how we can help the community be ready for a new, and little bit tougher stage. This stage requires individuals to develop new skills to remain competitive on the job market and a new mentality.
“On top of this, people, particularly those who have survived trauma, need to be able to maintain their wellbeing. Wellbeing is so important, because if you lose your inner peace, your world and work challenges will attack you, and this can trigger their PTSD from within,” Bashar said.
Driving these projects is Bashar’s passion for supporting people from refugee backgrounds to harness their skills and achieve their full potential.
“People from a refugee backgrounds who have managed to live through war zones and the trauma that comes with it are survivors. They have already taken the step to be engaged with life, so we [the wider community] just have to activate their inner powers and let them believe they can do anything,” said Bashar.
Visit the Arts & Community Development Facebook page here.
Learn more about another of Bashar’s projects, The Peacemakers Ensemble here.
* pseudonym and stock photo used to protect individual’s identity
“I was forced to leave my marriage and had to leave my kids with my mother. Once I arrived in Australia I said, ‘I can’t go back because I am so free’. Sometimes I cry for them, so if I could help them come here to Australia, I would be a happy person.”
While Saira continues to deeply miss her two daughters, aged seven and five, over the past two years the 32-year-old has surrounded herself with her Australian family.
“[Australia is a] very different country to Africa. I have my family back in Africa, but the people I have met [in Australia] are also like my family.”
Arriving in a foreign country with little contacts and no family is an extremely daunting task. In the first year of settlement, Saira found it difficult to find a job due several factors, including her lack of local work experience. She explained that she desperately needed to work to support her daughters and was beginning to lose hope about settling in Australia.
In an effort to pursue work in the disability sector, Saira completed a Certificate IV in Disability shortly after moving to Australia, however she faced barriers to gaining employment in this field.
In March 2019, she contacted SSI, who delivers the NSW Government’s Refugee Employment Support Program (RESP), to seek support in finding employment. In the first three years of the
program, RESP has supported nearly 2,000 individuals from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds like Saira to gain employment.
Saira shared she was eager to build her savings to save for purchase a new vehicle, which she would use as transport when working as a disability support worker.
She was then supported by the RESP to map out a career plan that would provide her with the steps she needs to take to become job ready, find employment and start saving. She met regularly with RESP staff and received guidance on different topics such as Australian work rights and work culture, practicing interview skills, and applying for jobs through online job websites.
As a result of the support Saira has received from the RESP, she went on to complete studies in Process Manufacturing from Gateway Training Academy and found employment with TOLL Group for a pick packing role in November 2019.
Saira explained the support of those around her, and especially Sandra, her case worker, has been key in establishing herself.
“Because of the Coronavirus I lost shifts in my job. So, I had to call Sandra and ask, ‘Sandra I do not know how to pay my way’ and she showed me what to do, told me where to go and who to contact if you are an asylum seeker and need help.
“Now, I know who to call when I need some food and they help me by bringing it to my house. Sandra has always helped me and told me what to do next. She is just like that. She is like a sister to me.
“This is what Australia is to me. I have received a lot of help.”
Saira is extremely grateful to have found employment and is working towards to her dream of working in the disability sector with the support of the RESP team.
“I have a lot of empathy and want to help children. So, my goal here is to work in disability, particularly with children.
Learn more about SSI’s Employment programs here
To mark ‘The Year of Welcome’, SSI and the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, launched new research during a virtual event on June 18. The research challenges narrow economic definitions of successful refugee settlement and, instead, suggests social and civic dimensions are equally valid markers of refugee integration.
Foundations for Belonging: A snapshot of newly arrived refugees, reveals that refugees are building mixed social networks, which helps them to trust Australian institutions and fulfil social responsibilities. It points to a series of actions that governments, policymakers, service providers and civil society can pursue to strengthen their contribution to settlement and integration.
SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said, “It is fitting that, in a Refugee Week with the theme ‘Celebrating the Year of Welcome’, this study shows that refugees have a strong sense of welcome and belonging in their everyday lives.
“They feel part of the Australian community, regularly seek to get to know people from cultural backgrounds other than their own, demonstrate high levels of trust in their neighbours and neighbourhoods, and, despite language barriers, are developing social bridges grounded in the sense of welcome and support offered by the broader Australian community.
“This research will provide a solid foundation for community engagement initiatives that facilitate meeting and exchange between receiving communities and refugees.”
The launch featured a panel discussion moderated by ABC News reporter Lydia Feng, with research co-author and Western Sydney University Senior Research Fellow Shanthi Robertson, SSI Settlement Services Manager Dor Achiek and Refugee Council of Australia Policy Officer Shufuka Tahiri. The discussion was preceded by a presentation of the research findings by the paper’s co-authors Tadgh McMahon, SSI Research and Policy Manager, and Shanthi Robertson, and included Q&A.
Click here to tune into the recording of the virtual event. As the Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA)’s event partner, SSI contributed to the ‘Year of Welcome’ campaign to educate the Australian public about refugees and to celebrate the contribution that refugees make to community.
Due to the current climate, SSI and RCOA engaged communities and the wider public by virtual means, and developed a suite of online resources, webinar-style events, and mini interactive online activities and campaigns across SSI’s and RCOA’s websites and social media channels. Refugee community champions and ambassadors were identified to lead creative activities.
RCOA and SSI co-hosted a forum focused on refugee and asylum-seeking women and leaders of frontline services to share their experiences of life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
SSI curated a virtual exhibition, Connecting through Welcome, showcasing submissions from the community about what welcome means to them.
Here are some of SSI’s key media highlights for Refugee Week 2020:
What you may have missed in all of this is NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller speaking out about the officer’s unblemished record, saying that “you would have to say [the officer] has had a bad day”.
What concerned me about this was not Commissioner Fuller coming to the defence of an employee – I’m the leader of a large organisation myself and understand that nuanced responsibility.
But I couldn’t escape the parallels between his words and those we have worked so hard to eradicate in situations of domestic and family violence: words that excuse the behaviour of perpetrators of violence as a one-off snap by an otherwise good father/husband/son/community member.
When Hannah Clarke and her children were burned alive by her husband, media headlines focused on her husband’s former rugby league career – some even characterised the murders as a ‘horrific car fire’.
Even once the circumstances were clarified, we still heard tone deaf remarks from those in charge of the investigation – indicating they were keeping “a completely open mind” – and reference to those who might think it was “an instance of a husband being driven too far”.
As journalist Juanita Phillips pointed out about media reporting on another DFV incident: “The “good bloke” descriptor in domestic murder cases is so automatic the headline writer used it even though nobody in the story actually described him that way.”
Admittedly, police officers do face different – and additional – pressures to those we find in domestic violence situations. Every day, they deal with vulnerable and sometimes violent individuals where the use of physical force is necessary. They have to make snap decisions and often place themselves in situations of great physical danger.
But, as police officers, they also make a commitment to serve our community and role model the laws they enforce.
If officers were called out to a domestic situation where a parent had pushed a swearing teenager to the ground and restrained them, I would be appalled if they accepted the excuse that the parent was just ‘having a bad day’.
Thanks to technology, our behaviour is subject to more intense scrutiny. As pillars of the community, it is up to police – both officers and leaders – to step up to the standards we set for them and to act with integrity.
Violet Roumeliotis
SSI CEO
Abdallah Al Tibi was a peer researcher in a project led by the NSW Coordinator General for Refugee Resettlement, Peter Shergold.
As a middle child of six siblings, Mr Al Tibi was a mere sixteen-year-old when his family had fled Syria in seek of safety.
Before 2011 and the outbreak of war, the Al Tibi family lived a comfortable existence in their hometown, the tranquil and agricultural city of Daraa, where their father, Ayman, held dual occupations; one as a civil servant working at Syria’s department of telecommunications, and another as the owner of several successful farms in the region specialising in the cultivation of fruits such as grapes and pomegranates.
The Al Tibi family were among the earliest groups of Syrians to flee the war as the city of Daraa had been one of the first areas of Syria to be under attack. Mr Al Tibi recalls the incremental changes in their day-to-day lives, starting with electricity cuts and being stuck at school unable to go home during the attacks.
“It was like a horror movie; during that time, we were often unable to leave school if the area was under attack; it was very stressful.”
Mr Al Tibi spent three years in limbo in Jordan before his family had been granted their humanitarian visas to Australia in 2014. During this period, he and his siblings had limited access to education as they were not able to attend local schools in Jordan during the day and only during after-hours.
When the Al Tibi family were given the news that they were being resettled in Australia, Mr Al Tibi said that they were overwhelmed with a sense of relief.
“We knew it was a life-changing opportunity, and as we are a family of high achievers, we put double the effort to learn English when we arrived.”
Arriving in Sydney airport in December of 2014, the Al Tibi family were greeted by Settlement Services International (SSI), who provided with them with wrap-around case management services, including finding temporary accommodation.
Today, members of the Al Tibi family have demonstrated their high-achieving streak with most of the siblings completing degrees. Mr Al Tibi has a brother who is undertaking a civil engineering degree, another brother who is completing his degree in architecture, and a sister who is completing her degree to become a primary school teacher. Mr Al Tibi is also completing his Bachelor of Social Work at Western Sydney University (WSU) while working at MYAN in community outreach and SSI as a part-time bi-lingual guide.
In the past, Mr Al Tibi worked for Thrive LMA for almost two years supporting refugee youth, and more recently, Mr Al Tibi has been able to expand on his data analysis skills and had the opportunity to become a peer researcher in a person-centred project led by the NSW Coordinator General for Refugee Resettlement, Peter Shergold.
The project aims to improve the settlement experience of young people from a refugee background in NSW and builds the capacity of young people to understand and influence the policy process and the NSW Government to design policies that are informed by lived experience.
The initiative is an innovative case study for policymaking in NSW that can inform future participatory design initiatives. It is a unique opportunity for young people from a refugee background, community and the NSW Government to improve programs collaboratively.
Last year, Mr Al Tibi was a speaker on the project at the annual FECCA 2019 conference sharing its findings.