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