Local government services for refugees focusing on African Muslim refugees

The UTS Centre for Local Government in partnership with the International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding at the University of South Australia have released a new report that investigates the activities and programs seven councils have put in place to provide support for newly-arrived refugees in settling, employment, education and housing. The report is divided into four sections. The first section contextualises the issue. Section 2 outlines the methodology. Section 3, drawing on local government websites, examines in what ways the seven councils have responded, and what programs they have put in place, to assist African refugees and refugees generally in their local government areas (LGAs). Section 4 presents and discusses the findings from interviews conducted with council personnel working with refugees. Initially, this exploratory study was to concentrate solely on programs for African Muslim refugees, however it became apparent that there were hardly any local government initiatives that catered specifically for this grouping so the focus was extended to cover programs for African refugees and refugees in general. We examine local government programs in Bankstown, Canterbury and Auburn in Sydney; Townsville and Toowoomba in Queensland; Hume in Victoria and City of Charles Sturt in South Australia. This exploratory research involved scoping and reviewing council websites and interviewing key council personnel