Understanding Refugee Resettlement in Regional Australia: A Qualitative Synthesis

This thesis explores the regional resettlement of refugees in Australia, drawing on insights from 20 qualitative articles written in the last decade. The articles are selected through a systematic review process, following the indications of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). Information was extracted from these articles and analysed through direct content analysis and thematic analysis techniques. This information was complemented and verified by the insights from three stakeholders working in the Australian migration and resettlement sector . In this thesis resettlement is examined from the lens of integration, particularly the Conceptual Model of Integration of Ager and Strang is used to analyse the experiences of resettlement of refugees in regional Australia, considering the benefits of regional resettlement as well as the challenges encountered. The findings indicate that the main factors influencing the life experiences of regional resettlement of refugees are: securing rights within Australia and having access to settlement services, housing, employment, health, and education. Other key factors are language proficiency, cultural knowledge about Australia, having safety and stability and establishing social connections. Regional resettlement offers some advantages, employment opportunities and housing are more easily found, and the smaller size of these communities facilitates social connections and navigating settlement services. However, whilst regional resettlement grows fostered by the government to address labour shortages and depopulation in these areas, significant challenges persist. Employment, education, health, housing and settlement services are more limited in regional areas. Employment opportunities are scarce and often limited to unskilled seasonal jobs, hampering the professional development of refugees. Housing availability is limited and rental markets discriminate against refugee communities relegating them to inadequate services and areas with poor infrastructure. Educational opportunities fail to address all the needs of refugees, and healthcare services in regional settings are underfunded and count with a limited workforce that lacks cultural training to attend to the complex needs of refugee populations. Social connections are shown to be a fundamental element of integration. Both social bonds- connections within the same ethnic community-and social bridges- connections between different between ethnic communities, are key to overcoming the challenges of regional resettlement, accessing services, and fostering feelings of security and belonging, key to successful integration. Discrimination and lack of cultural diversity in regional areas can compromise the establishment of social networks, and thus of integration. To overcome these challenges, this thesis argues for an inclusive approach to regional resettlement. This involves the inclusion of host regional members as well as refugee community members in decision-making processes. There should be greater collaboration between the federal government, local regional governments, host regional communities and refugee communities. A bottom-up approach to resettlement is recommended, where perspectives from the grassroot levels are continually taken into account to design policies and practices that can benefit these communities. This thesis contributes to the present debate on the suitability of regional areas for refugee resettlement. The insights provided inform the current state of regional resettlement practices based on the available qualitative literature in the past decade.