Forging futures: How young people settling in Victoria are faring
A lot has changed in the ten years since CMY’s Settling In report was published. The percentage of Victoria’s population who are 12 – 24 years old has shrunk slightly but grown more diverse – with more Victorians now born overseas than a decade ago. Technology and globalisation have brought substantial economic, security and socio-political changes to Australia, our region and the world. These changes significantly transformed our daily lives – from education and work to travel and migration – and have fundamentally shifted how we think about security, immigration and our borders.
All of this is influencing the make-up of Australia’s Migration Programme and national conversations around settlement, citizenship and multiculturalism. These are changes that are impacting upon the settlement supports, experiences and outcomes of young people settling in Victoria.
In this paper, we take a look back on the settlement experiences of young Victorians who arrived in Australia in the preceding five to ten years. Using the National Youth Settlement Framework as a guide to what successful youth settlement looks like, this paper explores a range of indicators to examine the settlement outcomes of young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds in Victoria.
The paper explores the intersecting domains of settlement and how young people are experiencing the services and supports that are available to them, and provides insight into how services and supports are meeting the needs of young people settling in Victoria. A range of recommendations from young people for improving services and supports in each of these domains are documented.
