What’s Working For Young Refugee People In Employment Support?

The Centre For Multi-Cultural Youth Issues CMYI is a community based organisation that advocates for the needs of young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. It combines policy development and direct service delivery with a community development approach that gives it strong connections with young people and their communities.

The Centre is funded to develop a policy discussion paper each year to inform government and services on emerging issues for refugee young people. In 2006 they published Settling In and in 2007 they developed Playing for the Future.

In 2008, CMYI plans to explore the issue of refugee young people and employment, with a particular focus on policies and programs that support young people’s transition into meaningful employment (e.g. Job Network, targeted support programs, traineeships and apprenticeships). They will:

• conduct a literature review
• map existing policies, programs and structures
• consult with a wide range of workers and young people to explore gaps, barriers and best practice in effectively supporting refugee young people’s transition to employment

If you would like to be involved in the consultation process you can:

• contact Louise Olliff, Coordinator – Sector Development Team, on (03) 9340 3742
• email your responses to the following questions to louise@cmyi.net.au by 1 April 2008

• From your experience, what sort of aspirations/expectations do refugee young people have in terms of employment/career goals?
• What are some of the barriers refugee young people face in pursuing their employment/career goals?
• Are there particular barriers for any specific age group/demographic of humanitarian entrants (e.g. low/no literacy, 20-25 y.o.)?
• What is working well (projects, initiatives, policies, environments etc) to support refugee young people’s transition to meaningful employment?
• What needs to happen for refugee young people to make the transition to meaningful employment?
• What literature/research are you aware of relating to employment issues and refugee young people?
• Are there any services/workers/young people who you think CMYI should contact to get their perspectives on these issues?