The Refugee and Migrant Services Advisory Council and the Commonwealth Coordinator-General for Migrant Services have collaborated to produce ‘An Employers Guide to working with Refugees‘. Not only do businesses that employ refugees help to ensure the success of Australia’s settlement program but they also reap the benefits that come from a diverse and inclusive workforce.
The Australian Institute of Family Studies via the Child Family Community Australia has produced a set of resources for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families.
The Foundation House Disability Project Community Advisory Group was made up of people living with disabilities and their carers who had settled in the northern suburbs from Iraq and Syria in the last five years. This report details themes and advice from the group to improve services and systems for people from refugee backgrounds living with disabilities and their carers. A summary is available in English and Arabic.
The United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force has released a pocket book in order to strengthen the awareness and protection of human rights in border security management. The pocketbook is a useful primer on human rights for asylum seekers and refugees crossing borders.
Growing up African in Australia is an interesting book – each contributor writes in the first person with grit, emotion, childhood stories or poetry. Stories of racism, stories of separation from the homeland, stories of setting in Australia and learning a new culture – all in the first person, compelling and gripping reading. Think of young girls with (afro) (no, this is not the right term) being interrogated by hairdressers; mums and dads, the school playground. These are really stories of growing up in Australia. Best read of this year so far.
As Australia’s population has steadily increased over time, so has the diversity and makeup of the people within it. Victoria becomes more culturally diverse each day and unfortunately many of these more recent Australians have not received water or swimming education that is so important to their safety due to a number of barriers to participation.
Creating inclusive multi-faith workplaces is a new resource for DCA members to help workplaces move away from simply ‘accommodating’ the needs of their multi-faith employees, towards making workplaces inclusive for everyone in Australia’s increasingly religiously diverse workplaces.
The Australian government has announced a variety of changes to the regulations surrounding migration in 2019, leaving many confused as to how they will be impacted. Earlier this year, the government announced that they would drop their overall immigration cap from 190,000 to 160,000.
Reducing Racism is a new project that engages Victoria’s African and Muslim communities to help them understand their rights and how to exercise them and make it easier for them to report racism.
The Fathering Across Cultures Website is for people and organisations in the community and health services sector, as well as in the multicultural and settlement sector, who engage with new and expectant fathers from migrant and refugee backgrounds as part of their work.