Today I highlight a theme of systemic barriers faced by women from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Background (CALD) and ways forward as a contribution to LinkedIn’s #BreakTheBias this #IWD2022 conversations. I suggest through signposts some areas of bias that are overlooked. This is not to discount gains made in building a multicultural Australia, but a contribution in imagining and re-imagining the future.
Over years of my exposure to migrant women’s issues in Australia, it is common to hear women to
identify some of their issue in very holistic terms. They talk and frame some of
their needs as family support issues, children issues, youth issues, health,
etc.
Here, I do not dive
into theoretical connections, but some readers will be aware of certain existing
body of theoretical work that repeatedly support that CALD women’s concerns include
emphasis on importance of family, and broad wellbeing of their children and youth.
At a personal and
professional level I am also aware about these areas of concern. I summarise
the issues and propose ways forward in dot-point form. Also it is relevant mentioning
that these points are informed by my previous experience working in NGOs, Peaks,
Government and voluntary basis supporting women at a practical and also policy
arena. They are also informed by my own lived experience.
- Family Support programs – Governments should prioritise co-designing and outreach initiatives of family support programs in order to be more responsive to psychosocial and cultural contexts involving families from Non-European background.
Australia has wide ranging family support and family relationship programs deployed on the ground such as counselling services, children and parenting programs, youth services, etc. To optimize outcomes for CALD families we need Government and policy-makers to recognise benefits of co-designing and also outreach as this helps in addressing existing barriers and attaining better life outcomes.
- Lack of a specific migrant health Peak body means women and their families in emerging migrant communities are not adequately represented at highest levels of decision-making on healthcare issues. A range of health peak bodies represent specialized issues/areas such as the National Health Rural Alliance, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, etc. There is no similar specialized funded Peak representing CALD needs, let alone migrant women.
There is enough anecdotal info to indicate that migrant women and families fare comparatively less well in the healthcare system. During the peak of Covid-19 crisis we managed to see a glimpse of such gaps and barriers, but the pandemic is just one case in point. From my experience supporting Peaks and exposure to Government roles, I believe a dedicated migrant health Peak could be a productive way forward for building of inclusive society.
- Australia should pro-actively prevent increased numbers of migrant CALD youth ending up in juvenile detention centres or prisons. Ironically, a lot can be done and cheaply in this sphere if Governments were to seriously support community development youth initiatives run by various migrant and youth agencies. But this too requires co-designing programs that are funded. Migrant women value and wish to see improvements in supports and pathways that steer their youth into productive activities.
- Re-build more capabilities in migrant resource centres - Government should ensure settlement programs funded by the likes of Department of Immigration are adequately rewarded and supported with recruitment of professionals with background in human services, behavioural sciences and policy. Both the Coalition and Labor Federal Governments played part in partially de-skilling the migrant services sector through extensive use of contracting & tendering over the last 25 years as they paid limited regard to workforce requirement issues.
- Incomes of women (and men) working in Government-funded migrant services in NGOs appear to have almost halved compared to their counterparts in the public sector. How did the Government achieve that? This presumably unintentional outcome came about when Governments shifted their funding system from being program grant-based to contracting & tendering individualized tasks without enough regard for staff requirements, remuneration, and skill and task complexity involved in supporting settlement of new migrants and emerging communities. Something about ravages of excessive neoliberalism and its impact on women's incomes!
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