Education is something many Australians take for granted. But not Sajeda Bahadurmia. The young refugee has lacked access to formal education for much of her 29 years – an absence she is quickly making up for, driven by a desire to give her children a better life.

The New Beginnings: Refugee Arts & Culture Festival 2016 was a standout success, with more than three thousand people coming together to celebrate the talents and skills of artists who were refugees and asylum seekers.

Starting a business takes perseverance and hard work. That is especially true in a foreign country with different business practices and a new language, like Syrian refugee Zaher Batal has done.

An innovative partnership between Allianz Australia and Settlement Services International (SSI) will deliver new career opportunities and support for refugees and migrants who have settled in Australia. Today’s joint announcement by Allianz Australia Managing Director Niran Peiris and SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis coincide with the first week on the job for five recruits under the partnership employment program. The partnership aims to improve employment and educational opportunities for SSI clients as well as enhance workforce diversity at Allianz.

Welcome to the SSI Food Blog. Whether they are SSI employees, volunteers, refugees or people seeking asylum, the people featured here all share a love of food. One of the many benefits of multiculturalism is delicious food, so let’s enjoy!

Migrants from Western Europe who arrived in the "50s and "60s in Australia were seen with hostility and suspicion by many in the local community. These are now well-settled communities but as new comers, they struggled to fit in. 

Hayder completed a BA in Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad, in his native Iraq, in 2008. From 2009 to 2011, he worked as an art teacher with the Ministry of Education of Iraq.

SSI has come a long way as an organisation since, April 2011 when we had just one staff member. Just how rapidly the organisation had grown and developed was very clear on July 1, when we officially began work in three new contract areas.

Settlement Services International (SSI) and Social Enterprises Sydney have announced that from July 1 they will join forces to offer social enterprise services.

Water safety for refugees The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a report* revealing that drowning claims the lives of 372,000 people per year, making it the third leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide. Australia’s statistics aren’t great, the latest figures† show 332 Australians drowned in one year. It is people from low- and middle-income regions, such as those that many refugees arrive from, who are most at risk of drowning.

Customers of Sydney bank teller Asif Haideri come and go, never suspecting he is much different to them. Those who he strikes a conversation with are shocked, he said, to learn he is ethnic Hazara from Afghanistan and was once kidnapped and tortured by the Taliban. “I’m a bank teller and people talk to me every day,” Asif said. “When I say I am from Afghanistan and I came to Australia two years ago, they are shocked. They say, ‘really, I thought you were born here’. I say, no, have you heard of boat people? I am like them. They are shocked.”

Settlement Services International’s (SSI) third Speakers’ Series event for 2014 will explore the theme: Perception is reality: How do we form our perceptions of refugees and asylum seekers? The live panel discussion will approach the complex question from different angles following a presentation by Professor Andrew Markus, who heads the Scanlon Foundation’s Mapping Social Cohesion research program based at Monash University. The 2014 Mapping Social Cohesion report suggested that the majority of Australians support a humanitarian settlement program, which assesses refugees overseas but are negative towards asylum seekers arriving by boat. The predominant view is that asylum seekers are illegal economic migrants. Claims of persecution are often ignored as a push factor. These views have increased since 2011. 

Yasmi Houmi, 101 years old, from Iraq, has survived the Assyrian Genocide, World Wars I and II, the Iran-Iraq war, US and Allied Forces wars in Iraq, and the Syrian civil war, to arrive safely in Australia. Having endured many conflicts across several countries, Yasmi was accepted as part of Australia’s humanitarian settlement program for refugees and brought to Sydney in January. She now lives with long-time friends in western Sydney and is supported by Settlement Services International’s (SSI) Humanitarian Settlement program. SSI CEO Violet Roumeliotis said Yasmi was a living treasure and her resettlement as a refugee in Australia after a lifetime of struggle is something all Australians would be proud of. “Yasmi has survived too many conflicts for one person,” Ms Roumeliotis said, “but she has still managed to live a fruitful life and remain positive.” Yasmi is just one of the 2.5 million people who have fled Syria to escape the violent civil war, and she is one of 13,750 refugees who will resettle in Australia this year under the Humanitarian settlement program.   “The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has described the Syrian conflict as the largest humanitarian operation in history, so, as a humanitarian organisation and as Australians, we are proud to support Yasmi and other refugees seeking a safe haven.

Settling in Australia presents recently arrived migrant and refugee families with many new opportunities but the process of settlement and the associated adjustments to a new country can also be challenging. “The first few years after arrival are when many migrant and refugee families face some of their greatest challenges,” Settlement Services International (SSI) CEO, Violet Roumeliotis said. “As our population grows, it has become imperative that we work together to make the change as smooth as possible for migrants and refugees.” Ms Roumeliotis said SSI had, for the first time in NSW, brought together leaders and experts from diverse organisations to provide an insightful and engaging interactive program at a one day symposium to be held on June 5 in Parramatta, titled ‘Cultural Shift: symposium on supporting migrant and refugee families through settlement.’ Please read on for snapshots of just some of the presentations and workshops at the symposium. SSI can arrange pre-event interviews with presenters and can arrange for interviews if a journalist would like to attend on the day.   

Settling in Australia presents recently arrived migrant and refugee families with many new opportunities but the process of settlement and the associated adjustments to a new country can also be challenging. “The first few years after arrival are when many migrant and refugee families face some of their greatest challenges,” Settlement Services International (SSI) CEO, Violet Roumeliotis said. “As our population grows, it has become imperative that we work together to make the change as smooth as possible for migrants and refugees.” Ms Roumeliotis said SSI had, for the first time in NSW, brought together leaders and experts from diverse organisations to provide an insightful and engaging interactive program at a one day symposium to be held on June 5 in Parramatta, titled ‘Cultural Shift: symposium on supporting migrant and refugee families through settlement.’ Please read on for snapshots of just some of the presentations and workshops at the symposium. SSI can arrange pre-event interviews with presenters and can arrange for interviews if a journalist would like to attend on the day.