It’s been four months since I returned from my Churchill Fellowship research and I’m excited to have already had several opportunities to share my learnings with regional Australian towns and government policy makers.
Last week I made a submission to the Australian Government Joint Standing Committee on Migration’s inquiry into migration in regional Australia. With mounting interest in regional population planning across government and community, this is a timely inquiry which will hopefully result in a more coordinated approach to newcomer attraction and retention. My submission makes 7 policy recommendations based on my findings:
- Involve people from migrant and refugee backgrounds in all elements of attraction and retention initiatives and policy making.
- Implement place-based approaches which involve all levels of government, community and business. Doing so could break down information and program silos, thereby enhancing efficiency and potential resource and knowledge sharing.
- Invest in social capital building and creating connections between newcomers and community members.
- Build the capacity of mainstream services and programs to meet the specific needs of people from migrant and refugee backgrounds.
- Develop a more strategic approach to engaging with migrants and refugees in cities to actively market regional employment and lifestyle opportunities.
- Help regional employers to recruit, develop and retain a culturally diverse workforce.
- Demonstrate leadership by communicating the benefits of immigration and contribution migrants and refugees make to society. Investing in community consensus building and preparedness is a key determinant of newcomer retention.
Regional Australia has critical skills shortages and positions that cannot be filled locally. It needs migrants to build the local workforce, support entrepreneurship and contribute to local communities. However, over the past five years only 15% of refugees in Australia have settled in regional areas. At the same time, moved by media images of the global humanitarian crisis, more and more Australians in regional areas have put their hand up to bring refugees to their town. Recent policy decisions in Australia and overseas have emphasised visa incentives which force migrants to remain in regional towns for fixed periods of time only to see them move away when the time is up. Regional communities need to focus on how they can make themselves attractive to migrants and refugees so that people come and then choose to stay. At the heart of this is building a welcoming community where people feel valued and like they belong.
My research explored the role that secondary migration can play in reinvigorating towns. Secondary migration is when migrants or refugees choose to relocate from their initial destination to a new location. It involves challenging misconceptions amongst refugees in cities of what it’s like to live in a regional town. It takes careful planning and coordination to find the right match between the skills, characteristics and motivations of refugees and the social and economic objectives of the town.
In places I visited, I saw how important it is to take the time to build community consensus on the need for migration. Reframing the image of refugees as people in need of help, to people who can contribute the skills, workforce and qualities that are desperately needed by the town, helps build support.
There is no quick and easy solution to attracting and retaining newcomers. However, finding ways to engage and coordinate all levels of government, community leaders, business and civil society is important to maximise efforts and develop new approaches.
These findings will be illustrated in more detail in my report which is due to be launched in November. It will be available for download on this website.