Links to reports, commentary and research on the NSW State Budget, employment, youth and migration.
SSI
SSI and the NSW Budget: SSI collated a short response to some relevant areas in the 2018-19 NSW State Budget.
Employment
Refugees as Employees: Good Retention, Strong Recruitment: Report released by the Fiscal Policy Institute and the Tent Partnership for Refugees finds that employers that hire refugees see positive outcomes for their businesses. The study finds that when employers hire refugees they see lower turnover rates among refugees, and widen their pool of potential employees. In addition, many see overall improvements in the company, with their managers becoming more versatile as they adjust to working with a more diverse workforce.
The missing workers, locally-led migration strategies to better meet rural labour needs: Locally-led migration strategies have demonstrated their capacity to effectively overcome the barriers which are currently constraining the movement of migrants to meet permanent workforce shortages in rural areas. Support for more locally-led efforts across rural Australia is key to future population and economic growth in small towns
Youth
What’s it like to be Young and from overseas in Australia?: Nearly 2000 young people aged 15-25 from refugee and migrant backgrounds took part in Australia's first-ever Multicultural Youth Census led by the Youth Research Centre, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne and CMY. See infographic results and read the related article.
(Re)Claiming social capital: improving language and cultural pathways for students from refugee backgrounds into Australian higher education: The research by the Department of Education and Training conducted by the University of Newcastle, Curtin University and Macquarie University finds that transition into higher education is strongly influenced by a student’s age, familial responsibilities, future vision support networks and understanding of higher education, as well as by persistent challenges faced in educational and settlement contexts.
Settlement outcomes of humanitarian youth and active citizenship: MYAN Australia worked with AIFS BNLA research team to produce the latest research summary on how young people aged 15-25 years old from humanitarian backgrounds are settling in Australia. The summary finds that humanitarian youth improve their English skills and show increased participation to study or training over time. Young people from humanitarian backgrounds also demonstrate increased integration through wider social networks; however they also report increased discrimination over time which impacts their well-being negatively.
Refugee Youth Mentoring Project – Final Report: The purpose of this project was, in partnership with young people, to investigate how peer mentoring can be used to facilitate youth settlement and design a peer mentoring program for young people from refugee and refugee-like backgrounds.
Migration
Lowy Institute 2018 Poll: Understanding Australian attitudes to the world (Notably, see p14/15, 29) - A majority (54%) say ‘the total number of migrants coming to Australia each year is too high’; 30% say it is ‘about right’; and 14% say it is ‘too low’. The same sized majority say ‘Australia’s openness to people from all over the world is essential to who we are as a nation’. However, 41% say ‘if Australia is too open to people from all over the world, we risk losing our identity as a nation’.