No One Teaches You to Become an Australian
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA No one teaches you to become an Australian Report of the inquiry into migrant settlement outcomes Joint Standing Committee on Migration December 2017 CANBERRA © Commonwealth of Australia ISBN 978-1-74366-717-0 (Printed Version) ISBN 978-1-74366-718-7 (HTML Version) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License. The details of this licence are available on the Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/. Contents Foreword ........................................................................................................................................... ix Committee membership ................................................................................................................ xiii Terms of reference ........................................................................................................................... xv Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. xvii The Report 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Conduct of the inquiry ......................................................................................................... 1 Structure of the report .......................................................................................................... 2 Economic benefits of migration ........................................................................................... 2 2 Settlement services .................................................................................................. 7 What is settlement? ............................................................................................................... 9 What are settlement services?............................................................................................ 10 Pre-Arrival settlement services ............................................................................. 10 On-Arrival settlement services ............................................................................. 11 Post-Arrival settlement services ........................................................................... 15 Committee comment .......................................................................................................... 23 Time for settlement ............................................................................................................. 23 Committee comment .......................................................................................................... 27 State settlement services ..................................................................................................... 28 Duplication of Commonwealth and State services ............................................ 30 iii iv Local settlement services .................................................................................................... 31 Support for Migration Program arrivals (skilled/family visa holders) ........... 33 Support for Humanitarian Program arrivals ...................................................... 34 Committee comment .......................................................................................................... 35 3 Education and language ....................................................................................... 39 English language proficiency ............................................................................................ 39 Pre-Arrival ............................................................................................................... 41 Primary/Secondary education ............................................................................... 45 Adult Migrant English Program ....................................................................................... 47 Adult Migrant English Program challenges ....................................................... 51 Committee comment .......................................................................................................... 55 Additional community views on settlement support .................................................... 57 Lack of transparency in school funding .............................................................. 57 Committee comment .......................................................................................................... 62 Skills for education and employment............................................................................... 63 Academic proficiency ......................................................................................................... 65 Transitioning to mainstream education and employment ............................................ 68 Key reasons for leaving school .......................................................................................... 71 Children as interpreters ..................................................................................................... 73 Committee comment .......................................................................................................... 74 4 Employment ........................................................................................................... 77 The importance of employment ........................................................................................ 77 Statistical snapshot of migrant employment ................................................................... 78 Barriers to employment ...................................................................................................... 80 English language and literacy ............................................................................... 80 Skills recognition and working in low-skilled roles .......................................... 83 Discrimination in the workplace .......................................................................... 87 Jobactive ............................................................................................................................... 89 Community views on Jobactive ............................................................................ 89 v Committee comment .......................................................................................................... 91 Youth Transition Support Pilot ......................................................................................... 93 Committee comment .......................................................................................................... 95 5 Additional challenges facing migrants ............................................................. 97 Community perceptions..................................................................................................... 97 The role of the media ............................................................................................ 100 Housing .............................................................................................................................. 101 6 Extracurricular activities ..................................................................................... 105 Sport and the arts .............................................................................................................. 105 Challenges in accessing sporting events ............................................................ 111 Committee comment ........................................................................................................ 114 7 Migrant youth ...................................................................................................... 117 Young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds .............................................. 117 Possible factors leading to involvement in crime and gangs .......................... 120 Youth Crime ....................................................................................................................... 123 Victoria ................................................................................................................... 124 Intervention strategies ...................................................................................................... 134 Mentoring programs ......................................................................................................... 138 Committee comment ........................................................................................................ 141 Justice re-investment ........................................................................................................ 142 Committee comment ........................................................................................................ 143 Cancellation under the Migration Act ............................................................................ 146 Community views on the character test......................................................................... 154 Violent extremism ............................................................................................................. 165 Committee comment ........................................................................................................ 174 8 Delegation report ................................................................................................. 179