Refugee settlement in regional Australia : through the lens of sustainability

Australia’s population growth and distribution is mostly centred along urban and coastal areas. Within Queensland, 61.6% of residents live in ‘major cities’, 20.5% in ‘inner regional’ areas, 14.8% in ‘outer regional’ areas, 1.8% in ‘remote’ areas, and 1.3% live in ‘very remote’ parts of the State (Queensland Treasury 2019). Under the Australian government’s humanitarian program, a considerable number of refugees settle in Australia each year. Given this current trend of urban settlement, where and how to successfully settle refugees is an important issue for Australia. This position paper offers a conceptual framework for enabling sustainable refugee settlement away from urban areas, and into regional Australia. Currently however, due to various economic, social, political, and policy reasons, migrants (including refugees) predominantly settle in metropolitan cities of Australia which has become a highly contested issue in contemporary Australian media and political discourse. While there is evidence to suggest that there is a higher rate of unemployment among the refugees, there is also a shortage of workers in the Australian regional agribusiness. Presently, a large proportion of this shortage is met by temporary overseas workers, which is a paradox because of its inherent limitations and convenience. Despite serious interest among the various stakeholders, there is a knowledge gap as to how to facilitate successful refugee settlement and integration in regional areas. We posit that such policy has numerous inter-connected benefits: a) it can narrow the existent skill shortage gap, b) it contributes to the economic growth of regional Australia, c) it ensures that work experience of refugees is utilized in relevant sectors, d) as integrating members of a regional community, refugees build and contribute to social capital. The proposed concept is a paradigm shift from charitable view of refugee settlement to regional socio-economic development while ensuring a meaningful life for the refugees