The South Asian Community Link Group (SACLG) successfully organised a workshop forum on the topic “Integration challenges in south Asian migrant youth community and resolution” on 21st July 2018 at 440 Grand Blvd, Craigieburn, Victoria.
The program was attended by various representative community leaders of different countries, youth representatives, parliamentarian Hon Ros Spence MP, Victorian Multicultural commissioner Dr Mimmie Watts , Hume city councillor Cr Drew Jessop , Former VMC councillor and Multicultural engagement director , Swinburne university of Technology Chin Tan, Senior Sergeant Victoria Police Monique Kelley , Monash University – Dr Helen Forbes – Meweet and academic, govt representatives and community at large. Mr Hari Pandey, SACLG coordinator for the event welcome all guests and participants and announced the program details.
The program comprised of three parts and commenced with the formal inaugural remarks by guest speakers on the theme topics from, followed by case study presentations from participants Dr Helen Forbes – Meweet from Monash University, Mr Bwe Thay from Swinburne University, Ms Niru Tripathi from Nepalese consulate office and Sam Atukorala from Ethnic council Shepparton and later panel discussion on the presentation outcome.
Hon Ms Ross Spencer in her remarks highlighted the importance of the workshop and said she is also helping to organise an employment workshops to provide necessary counselling to youth employments. Dr Mimmi Watts VMC commissioner also said how youth have been disillusioned due to lack of many barriers and such workshop is helpful to understand those factors. Chin Tan, former VMC commissioner also emphasised need to understand the connectivity between assimilation and integration and bring practical solution to youth problems.
Dr Raju Adhikari, President SACLG gave a presentation on the theme highlighting the major issues, underpinning challenges and measures that needs to be considered moving forward. Mr Hari Pandey, program coordinator, discussed about the importance of this discussion and encouraged everyone to have their say using community survery and also highlighted how feedback from the participants is crucial to the to find solution to such a complex issue.
Dr Helen from University shared her research data of past few years and said that Indian migrants in Western suburb face more challenges and difficulty to employment prospects than other suburb. Bee Thay from Swinburne University talked about initiatives from Swinburne University in this regard.
The discussion has highlighted several challenges such as linguistic, cultural, employment and also discussed the underlying issues such as relocation stress, social loneliness, clash of culture, fear inside community, community support group, migrant mindset & cultural gaps. Integration is complex issue and require more collaboration between communities, government, universities, businesses and other stakeholders.
Asian migration in last two decades has changed the multiculturalism paradigm in Australia. Migration categories mainly comprises of refugee, humanitarian and skill. Studies have shown that youth communities from this region face many challenges such as social disharmony, intergenerational conflicts, disillusion, language barriers, domestic violence, homelessness and depression in trying to adopt to an Australian way life in early days of settlement process and also post settlement.
SACLG acknowledged the support of VMC, Hume City Council, Universities, South Asian Communities and individuals for their participation and support to help organize this workshop. The workshop will also hold a panel discussion attended by the experts from both community and policy makers and submit recommendation from the findings of the workshops.
SACLG is thankful to participants, Victoria Multiculturalism commissioner office and other supporting organizations for the encouragement and support through grants which was critical to help achieve our goals.
For more details please visit www.saclg.org.au
Or contact hari@saclg.org.au