Migrant and Refugee Retention in Regional Australia at the Intersection of Structure and Agency (original) (raw)
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Since the 1990s, programmes designed to attract international skilled migrants to work and live in regional areas have been a major theme of Australian immigration policy. The success of these programmes depends not only on attracting skilled migrants to regional areas, but also on retaining them within the regions into the longer term. This article argues that residential satisfaction, and specifi cally economic opportunity, is important in retaining skilled migrants in regional Australia. The research is based on surveys with skilled migrants to regional Victoria who were subject to the State Specifi c Regional Migration scheme. The satisfaction levels of these immigrants were tested for three satisfaction indices: Community attachment and satisfaction, lifestyle satisfaction and economic and workplace satisfaction. Economic and workplace satisfaction were revealed as being a signifi cant infl uence on the settlement decision-making process of this study sample. In addition, the opportunities for fulfi lling lifestyle and cultural practices and perceptions of secondary and tertiary education facilities emerged as key concerns of the respondents. Finally, this article discusses some policy implications in relation to this programme successfully retaining skilled immigrants.
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Australian and Victorian Government policies encourage settlement in regional areas for international migrants, refugees and internal migrants. Migrants to regional areas are diverse in terms of their area or country of origin, skills and occupation, family status and other demographic characteristics. The regional cities to which they migrate are also varied in terms of their community resources, social and cultural capital. The objective shared by all of these cities is for migrants to engage successfully with their new communities. Just how this occurs is the subject of debate and a lack of clarity. This therefore calls for a sound, theoretically informed understanding of how employers and community groups (formal and informal) can effectively assist migrants to make social connections in regional cities, and practical strategies which respond to these insights. The well-established social determinants of health tell us that the more socially included, connected and stable workforce and their families are, the better will be their physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Boese, M (2010) Challenging Current Policy Rationales of Regionalising Immigration
Recent Australian immigration policies have shown a trend to promoting regional settlement, through strengthening the role of employers and state governments in steering migrants to areas of labour demand and through dispersing refugee settlement to different regional sites. In relation to migrants such policies are aimed primarily at responding to demographic and economic concerns, while political concerns with over-stretched settlement services in some metropolitan locations play a role in the dispersal of refugees. This paper reviews recent regionalization initiatives with a focus on Victoria in the context of other immigration-related policies with the aim to explore the underlying rationales of regional settlement policies and their limitations. Drawing on a preliminary analysis of research on the ARC Linkage Project ‘Visible Refugees and Migrants in Regional and Rural Australia’, I will discuss the interrelated individual, social and structural factors that impact on regional settlement outcomes, and challenge the economic rationale underpinning current government attempts at regionalizing immigration.