Contact details:

Postal address:

PO Box 1168 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012Australia

Email address: philwomen@gmail.com

Valuing migrants and refugees

Before the above forum the Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association, Migrante Australia (National alliance of Filipino organisations) and PAWA (Philippines-Australia Women’s Association) held focus groups with migrants and refugees on issues of access, equity and social inclusion. In all of the focus groups participants questioned how employers and the whole Australian society value the contribution of migrants and refugees in the country’s economic growth. This paper is one of the efforts in articulating the aspirations of the participants in the focus groups and the national forum.
All the discussions from all these gatherings provided me with updated insight to the needs, issues and recommendations of immigrant and refugees in Australia. In my workplace, at the Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association we periodically collected data from our casework, community development and advocacy.