About this research
Armidale, NSW, is Australia’s newest regional settlement location, with Ezidi refugees settling there from early 2018 onwards. The University of New England, in partnership with SSI, initiated research to empirically gauge community attitudes during the initial stages of refugee settlement. Successful settlement and integration involve mutual adaptation between the host community and newcomers, and initiatives that work with the full spectrum of community attitudes and concerns. Through six pulse surveys the research provided regular insights to SSI and others on the concerns and hopes of different segments of the Armidale community.
The research, in two reports (2023) and (2019), documents changes at the community level in attitudes to refugees, which became more positive, and changes to the levels of concern during the study period. The research is complemented by a policy and practice paper on a whole-of-community approach to regional settlement developed by SSI (2019).
