The Resettlement of Refugees in Australia - Case Study Example

The resettlement of refugees in Australia Name Institutional affiliation Date Introduction The government of Australia has set up a humanitarian program that offers refugees with protection by resettling them and providing them with other human needs globally. A number of factors influence the size and composition of the Australians humanitarian program. Such factors include an estimated number of individuals likely to be considered in need of protection in the country, the organizations and individuals views conveyed in Australia during consultations by citizenship and immigration minister and the available level of capacity that Australia can assist. Hawkins (2008) argues that the Australian humanitarian program consists of two elements: first, it consists of the onshore component that gives protection to Australian individuals who meet the refugee definition in the convention of refugees. Secondly, it also consist of the offshore component that provide resettlement as a way of protection as well as a long-term solution for overseas individuals who need humanitarian help and do not have any choice available for them. The resettlement program has the category for refugees. In addition, it also has a special category for humanitarian program (Segal, & Elliott, 2012). For instance, the category of refugees includes individuals who have been persecuted in their mother country and need resettlement. Most of the refugee candidates regarded under this category is selected by UNHCR, and then referred to Australia. On the other hand, the special category for humanitarian program covers individuals who are refugees because of amounting substantial discrimination to human rights gross violation in their country. Sources indicate that places can be shifted between the offshore and onshore elements of the program according to the present need. However, the first priority is given to the visa of onshore protection. Moreover, protection visas places needed are usually taken from offshore places. By the end of the year, the unused places are then added to the coming year allocation. Australia does not allow dossier selection applications for resettlement (Hawkins, 2008). Body Just like meeting the threshold procedure of substantial or persecution discrimination, resettlement candidates to Australia has to convince the citizenship and the immigration department of decision makers that they have good reasons to be granted special consideration of obtaining a visa. It includes weighing various factors like: the level of harm suffered by the candidate, the level of the candidate’s link to the country, the ability of Australia to provide for the candidates resettlement. Moreover, the resettlement program may also weigh whether resettlement is the only appropriate choice for the applicant (Segal, & Elliott, 2012). However, all permanent visa candidates must meet the set rules and regulations. Such set of rules and regulation include safety, ability to access health services, public interest procedure intended to protect the health of the people of Australia, and national security. In some cases, the resettlement program may waive the health requirements, but character qualifications cannot be assumed (Segal, & Elliott, 2012). Under the Australian resettlement program, there is no special provision for elderly individual’s resettlement or medical needs refugees. However, the program does not isolate anyone automatically because of sickness, but if only the applicant is suffering from tuberculosis (Hawkins, 2008). It is argued that the migration program family stream in Australia allows the entire permanent visa holders to sponsor their immediate family member’s entry to the country. In fact, former holders and holders of humanitarian program permanent visa may propose to resettle their immediate family members within five years of the visa grant. Humanitarian minors who are not accompanied are under 18 year’s refugees who enter Australia under the program of humanitarian. This category of refugees does not have guardians or parents to take care of them in Australia (Hawkins, 2008). Therefore, minor refugees without guardians or parents to take care of them are put under the legal Multicultural Affairs and immigration minister guardianship. Statistics indicate that the resettlement of offshore is the biggest element of the Australian humanitarian program. This goes past global goals and reflects the Australian desire to help refugees who need humanitarian assistance. The government of Australia is dedicated to assisting humanitarian refugees in Australia and making them to be part of the community. The government of Australia has also actively promoted regional migration so that it can balance the employers need in the regional areas, as well as avoiding overcrowding in the major cities in Australia (Segal, & Elliott, 2012). It is believed that the focus of the service of the program of resettlement is to enable the Australian refugees to be self-sufficient very fast, and to allow them to fully participate in the Australian community. In addition, sources from the citizenship and immigration department in Australia in connection to the citizenship-planned test commented that the Australian government plays a vigorous role in promoting social cohesion (Hawkins, 2008). It stated that the government’s main policy is to enhance harmony in the community, ensuring government programs and services respond to the Australian community diversity and promote the business and economic benefit of cultural diversity of entire Australians. Via its plan of national action, the Australian central government offers assistance for community groups and local government in steps to encourage social cohesion (Hawkins, 2008). Australia government ability to apply culture concept to refugees The Australian Refugee Resettlement Advisory Council has implemented strategies that would enable the community organization, local government, territory, and state to work in unity to further implement and develop the strategy via Settlement Planning National Framework. Furthermore, the government of Australian pays and organizes for Australian passage of refugee visa holders. In addition, it meets the expenses of health assessment of any refugee candidate and SHP visas category (Hawkins, 2008). The Australian government has also introduced a pre-departure health screening for any refugee applicant before travelling to Australia, with the objective of making sure that the refugee candidate is fit to travel by air, and to identify any health problems that might require medication in Australia. Additionally, the Australian program for culture orientation for SHP entrants and refugees has been designed to deliver its services outside Australia. However, it is meant to represent the first steps of the process of settlement, and its main goal is to offer participants with the required skills and understanding to enhance their prospects of settlement and to demonstrate a realistic expectation for their life in Australia (Mares, & Mares, 2012). The program is on voluntary basis and accessible by entire refugees who are over five years old. Furthermore, the program offers different courses to the refugees such as children, pre-literature, youth program, and adult. They deliver the courses for over five days so that they can cover all the topics sufficiently. Topics covered during the course include Australian overview, including climate and geography, its government; housing,; finding working place; education; healthcare; climate adjustment; travelling to Australia; money management; transport; and Australian laws (Mares, & Mares, 2012). The government of Australia has also introduced a data kit for the selected humanitarian candidates. The kit is relatively in small print, detailed, and in English. When the approved refugee applicant arrives in Australia, they are able to have access to assistance and on-arrival reception under the program of IHSS. Such assistance helps the refugees to connect entrants to the needed local services during their first settlement stage. The humanitarian entrant’s settlement locations are determined by various factors (Mares, & Mares, 2012). For instance, an entrant location will depend whether the applicant has friends or families called links, living in Australia. However, the government of Australia is planning to increase the humanitarians’ entrants and refugees programs of regional settlement by creating new regional cities that have the capacity of successfully settling such entrants. Therefore, the support of local government for these plans is critical because settlement location is identified after extensive consultations with local societies and a clear support indication from local government (The futures of refugees and refugee resettlement, 2007). An individual in Australia proposes entire SHP entrants. However, these entrants settle close to their proposers, who provide them with social support and valuable settlement. Majority of refugee entrants in Australia have already links living in Australia. The humanitarian program department endeavors to identify the links locations before the refugees can travel to Australia so that they can easily settle them near their links (The futures of refugees and refugee resettlement, 2007). Every year, Australia receives over 4,000 refugees who do not have links. For these categories of refugees, the settlement department considers several elements when choosing a suitable settlement location for them. Such elements considered include the specific individual needs, like medical requirement, the receiving locations capacity to handle such needs, and the society’s ability to give a supportive and a welcoming environment to the refugee (The futures of refugees and refugee resettlement, 2007). The approved refugee’s applicants are given visas to travel to Australia and to be permanent residence of the country, except those who hold temporary visa 447 and 451 ((Mares, & Mares, 2012). Refugees who apply to temporary visa on long-term basis are supposed to sign a statement indicating that they will respect the way of life in Australia and that they will follow the rules and regulation of Australia before they are given the visa. When a refugee lives in Australia for more than two years, those with permanent visas are eligible to apply for citizenship in Australia. Furthermore, the government of Australia has introduced a citizenship test that requires that refugee applicant should have knowledge of the tradition, values, history and institutions of Australia (Mares, & Mares, 2012). IHSS offers nationwide, comprehensive, on-arrival help to humanitarian entrants through contracts with several service providers, such as commercial, and community based organizations. Such a contract is drawn because of a competitive process of tender. A contract has to include a detailed service type description and the service delivery standards. A contract has also to include various accountability and performance checks (Mares, & Mares, 2012). Researches indicate that the present tendering services arrangement offered under IHSS have generated a wide service providers range in individual agencies and sometime in consortia. Nevertheless, this can create confusion for the government of Australia and the society agencies providing direct service and for the refugees themselves (Waxman, 2005). The sponsors of SHP are supposed to give financial help for refugee’s airfare, temporary accommodation, orientation help, and on-arrival information. Moreover, under the IHSS program, the Australian humanitarian’s entrants and refugees have access to services such as: Case co-ordination, referral and information- this has to do with a case plan co-ordination because of the first assessment of needs, data regarding and referral to the rest of service provider and agencies of the mainstream, and assist for proposers to meet their role of helping SHP entrants On arrival assistance and reception-, this includes meeting the refugees on the arrival and taking them to their appropriate accommodation, meeting emergency health needs or footwear and clothing Services of accommodation- such services assist the entrants to find affordable and appropriate long-term accommodations and giving them essential household goods to put up their homes in Australia. Short-term services of trauma and torture counseling-such services helps to assess the basic needs of entrants, referral to trauma and torture counseling, a case plan, and raise awareness among medical care providers of issues related to health because of trauma and torture counseling. The refugee’s community support service in Australia allows volunteer groups who register to give social and friendship to refugees and humanitarian entrants and to welcome them in their society. In addition, volunteers of CSR often help contracted service provider of IHSS. Generally, the settlement help provided by IHSS goes only for six months (Waxman, 2005). However, the help may only be extended for refugees who are facing extra challenges. The major objective of IHSS is to assist the refuges to achieve self-sufficiency very fast by giving them a specialized support based on needs. The refugee’s needs are identified via an approach of case management and develop a case plan on how to deliver the support. The major focus of IHSS is on equipping the refugees to have access to services of mainstream (Mares, & Mares, 2012). Conclusion There are many refugees in the world. The presence of refugees has led to creation of refugee camps that are used as homes for these refugees. The Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy offers help to refugees who have SHP and refugee visa. In addition, it also helps refugees who hold visa for permanent protection, and who does not require urgent settlements because they already live within the community of Australia. The category of refugees is provided for with fund by the government of Australia nationally via 20 regions of contract, each region having one contract. Furthermore, service contracts are made with refugee’s centers of resource, refugee’s agencies of service and society settlement service to offer society service (Casimiro, Hancock, & Northcote, 2007). On the other hand, under Special Humanitarian Program, the government of Australia expects proposers to assist with the refugees travelling cost to Australia, helping with new orientation and the first accommodation need. Researches indicate that in 2007, the government of Australia increased its assistance for the refugees with subsidies for utility, rental and the cost of transport. In addition, it provided funds for complicated case help service and appropriate regional settlement (Waxman, 2005). As the refugees get settlement needs support from the proposer, they are normally not considered as requiring the services of IHSS urgently. In fact, the government of Australia has included fund for the program of new proposer support in its budget so that it can strengthen the proposer’s capacity to assist the refugees. Additionally, the budget includes an added provision for refugees who speak English as their second language. The government of Australia has also introduced a program of Settlement Grants. This program offer settlement services to new refugees arriving in Australia, and those who have less English proficiency. The main objective of this program is to offer services that assist eligible refugees to participate equitably and be self-reliant in the communities of Australia faster after arrive (Browne, 2006). References Browne, P. (2006). The longest journey: Resettling refugees from Africa. Sydney, Australia: University of New south Wales Press Ltd. Casimiro, S., Hancock, P., & Northcote, J. (2007). Isolation and insecurity: Resettlement issues among Muslim refugee women in perth, western australia. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 42(1), 55-69, 8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/216246132?accountid=458 Hawkins, F. (2008). Critical years in immigration: Canada and Australia compared. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. Mares, P., & Mares, P. (2012). Borderline: Australia's response to refugees and asylum seekers in the wake of the Tampa. Sydney: UNSW Press. Segal, U. A., & Elliott, D. (2012). Refugees worldwide. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger. The futures of refugees and refugee resettlement. (2007). Migration World Magazine, 28(3), 26-33. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/212068676?accountid=458 Waxman, P. (2005). Homeland wanted: Interdisciplinary perspective on refugee resettlement in the West. New York: Nova Science Publ. Read More