Active Citizenship: The Benefits of the Good Neighbour Pledge

If you are new to our campaign you may be wondering how being a 'good neighbour' can have any affect on a families overall living situation and outcomes.

Extensive empirical research has been undertaken worldwide to ascertain the barriers for any migrants to a new country, and many researchers have focused specifically on refugees in their studies. The studies indicate that a key method of societal integration is through employment, providing self-value and a feeling of 'giving something back to the community'. These studies identified that there are several barriers to refugees engaging within the workforce.

The key barrier that was identified as having the greatest impact on successful employment outcomes? Being able to speak the local language.

This issue is extremely relevant in a country as isolated as Australia, where knowledge of a secondary language is relatively uncommon external from major ethnic communities in major cities. Indeed, employment in Australia is almost exclusively conducted in English.

Findings of one of the studies identified that more than a third of humanitarian migrants reported that they either could not speak English at all or not speak it well. This creates a very significant barrier to their entry to the labour market … in 2006 almost three quarters (74 per cent) of humanitarian migrants who did not speak English well or not at all were ‘not in the labour force’ and only 16 per cent were employed. Of those who spoke English very well, 40 per cent were employed.

Essentially, being able to speak English more than DOUBLES a refugees chance of getting a job in Australia.

This is why taking the Good Neighbour Pledge is important and one of the best ways to help your newly arrived Fellow Aussies in seizing the opportunities our country has to offer.