The question of whether it is a good thing when new refugees or newcomers from one ethnic group live close to each other is a hotly debated topic. I personally feel it is important to enable people to live close to supports from within their own cultural community when they first arrive, if they so choose. As a refugee who has come to a resettlement country after surviving displacement and persecution, being close to the familiarity of one’s own community can be an important source of both practical and emotional support.
But I also recognize that after a period of time this can sometimes lead to isolation from the broader community. That is why the work I have been doing over the past few years is targeting people who have been in Australia for some time and providing them with alternative options.
The Maritimes in Canada is world famous for its lobsters, harvested in the cold pristine waters along the north Atlantic coast. What’s the connection? I’ll let a team member from the Multicultural Association of Fredericton explain it in her own words:
“Do you know much about lobsters? It’s a known fact that if you take a box, and you put a lobster in it by himself, the lobster’s gonna get out. But if you put two lobsters or more in a box, they’ll never get out. Do you know why? Because as soon as one gets over the edge, the other one pulls him back.
That’s what happens when people go to big centres and you put them in big groups of thousands of people, their community is always pulling them back. But when you put them into a smaller community they can get out of that box easier, right? That’s the richness of spreading settlement throughout your country instead of keeping it in one place. To stop people from getting stuck in those places and pulling each other back.
It’s challenging because it’s hard for these smaller communities to support people without the monstrous amount of money that’s being poured into the bigger centres to deliver services. But in my opinion, people thrive better in the long run.”
For me it’s all about choice and empowering people to make decisions about their own lives. Let’s think about how we can help people get out of the box, when they are ready, by connecting them with alternative opportunities in other places.
