As AYAC stated in their editorial last week on ElectionWire, in the lead up to elections young people’s needs and issues are often treated as political footballs, or indeed, are barely acknowledged. For young people from refugee or migrant backgrounds, this is particularly the case. This group of young people are often overlooked as they are a sub-group of both the broader youth and multicultural sectors and underrepresented in the policy and advocacy work of both the government and non-government sectors.
While young people from migrant or refugee backgrounds demonstrate high levels of strength, resilience, and resourcefulness (Francis and Cornfoot, 2007:7), they face particular barriers to accessing services and opportunities. These include language, culture, unfamiliarity with Australian systems and processes, and, even for young people who have lived in Australia for many years, racism and discrimination. These factors often place multicultural young people at social and economic disadvantage within Australian society, which in turn can place them at higher risk of social isolation.
The Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN) believes that a targeted response at both the policy and service delivery levels is necessary to support the sustained participation and engagement of young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds in Australian society.
The MYAN is a nationally recognised policy and advocacy body that represents migrant and newly arrived young people, in order to advance their rights and interests. We are comprised of representatives from each of Australia’s states and territories who work at the state/territory level achieve improved outcomes for young people from migrant or newly arrived backgrounds. Our policy priorities include education and training, racism and discrimination, youth settlement, mental health and housing and homelessness.
In the context of the 2010 federal election, the MYAN is calling for a range of measures to address the particular issues for migrant and newly arrived young people. These include:
- An adequately funded, coordinated national approach to improved ESL support for new arrivals;
- Increased funding and availability of programs in schools and local communities that combat racism and discrimination;
- Sector development in the mental health sector to ensure that mainstream services have the skills and knowledge to support refugee and migrant young people and incorporate a transcultural approach to mental health service delivery and;
- Recognition of the importance of specialist services in supporting refugee and migrant young people.
