Throughout 2024, ACYP conducted consultations with 276 young people from refugee or migrant backgrounds, who were aged 12-24 years and came from 29 countries, to better understand their experiences and insights about what could help them during their settlement journey.
This work was undertaken as part of the focus on two commitments under ACYP’s NSW Strategic Plan for Children and Young People NSW 2022-2024;
Consultations focused on young people’s identity and connection to culture, sense of belonging and community, and their hopes for the future in terms of education and employment aspirations.
Overwhelmingly, the young people ACYP spoke with are extremely proud of their culture and identify their culture as being central to their identity.
Report findings highlight that across all cohorts, young people’s culture and religion underpin their values and beliefs, guides their interactions with others, and gives them a sense of belonging as they navigate their life as a young person from a refugee or migrant background in NSW.
However, young refugees and migrants can face barriers while they learn English, gain confidence in their language skills and navigate a new environment. A proportion also face additional barriers as a result of their visa type or settlement location.
Many of the young people we spoke to shared their ideas about what would help them achieve their goals and support their sense of identity, belonging and connection throughout their settlement journey.
In particular young people called for improved accessibility of support services for refugee and migrant children and young people, more community led cultural education programs, and more free or low-cost spaces and activities for all children and young people to connect with each other.
While many policies, programs and services exist to support this cohort, it is clear more could be done to promote this good work and ensure young people and those who support them know about available supports and how to access them. Young people’s meaningful participation in the design, development and review of such policies could also be strengthened.
To complement the report, ACYP have also developed a worksheet so that organisations which support children and young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds can consider how they can improve the way they work:
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We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future.
Informed by lessons of the past, ACYP is improving how we work with Aboriginal people and communities. We listen and learn from the knowledge, strength and resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal communities.
