Young Iraqi and Syrian refugees are feeling true blue
Farid Farid |
Two in three young Iraqi and Syrian refugees who escaped conflicts in their homelands with their families in the last five years feel Aussie.
A four-year study has tracked how Australia coped with double the number of refugees who arrived in 2017 via a special one-off intake of 12,000 from the Syrian conflict.
The 150-page report Refuge and Family Futures in Australia released on Monday examined everything from education to employment.
Female refugees aged between five and 18 adjusted best and felt at home in Australia, calling themselves Australian.
“This is a remarkable outcome given that they generally had been in their neighbourhood for only 12-18 months,” the report said.
“Young refugees were very impressive in their confidence and strong aspirations.”
The study also found 90 per cent of refugee families are happy to be living in Australia, 98 per cent say it is a good place to raise children and 76 per cent said it was easy to make friends.
About 98 per cent of all respondents said they felt safe living in Australia.
Unlike most of Australia’s refugee intakes, those who came from Syria were middle class and Christian.
Norma Medawar is one of 14 million Syrian refugees worldwide who were forced to escape the decade-long sectarian civil war, which has claimed about 500,000 lives.
“We are safe, we have jobs and homes and our children can have bright futures,” she said.
“While Syria will always be in my heart, Australia is now my home.”
Funded by the Australian Research Council, researchers from various universities interviewed hundreds of families in NSW, Victoria and Queensland from 2018 to 2021.
Syrians made up the largest cohort, followed by Iraqis and Afghans.
The Afghans surveyed had lived longer in Australia and were used as a control group.
The interviewees were recruited via refugee resettlement agencies across metropolitan and regional areas.
But it was not all rosy with most of the respondents worried for their families back home, wanting to reunite with them as well as finding decent jobs that matched their qualifications.
The report recommended more government funding to support refugee settlement agencies.
AMES Australia CEO Cath Scarth said the study showed the strength and capacity of Australia’s humanitarian settlement system.
“The positive outcomes described in the study are no accident. They are result of a sophisticated, flexible and well-resourced settlement program,” she said.
The study also encouraged authorities to resettle more refugees in regional areas pointing to 5000 Ezidis, who were the target of militant group Islamic State, living in Toowoomba as a successful integration experiment.
AAP
