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Sydney, January 13, 2018
The Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) has said that it would welcome any recommendations of a Federal Parliamentary inquiry into migrant settlement outcomes which supported, encouraged and resourced the greater participation of migrant youth in Australian society.
FECCA Chairperson Mary Patetsos said that the Organisation endorsed recommendations in a report by the Joint Standing Committee on Migration for an improved Adult Migrant English Programme and for the funding of a migrant youth mentoring scheme focused on sport and the arts.
“These are positive initiatives. We also welcome the recommendation that the Jobactive Programme include an employment support service specifically designed for newly arrived and longer-term migrants,” she said.
“And the suggestion that support programmes for newly arrived youth such as Youth Transition Support should be rolled out nationally is a good one,” Ms Patetsos added.
Disappointing factors
However, Ms Patetsos said that FECCA was disappointed by sections of the report which place undue emphasis on crimes committed by young people born overseas.
“The attempt to present certain ethnicities or cultural groups as having increased criminal tendencies is unfortunate and without basis. The widely-acclaimed success of Australia’s multicultural, diverse society is due to long-standing policies which include, embrace and support new migrants, rather than punitive measures,’ she said.
Victorian Police, at their most senior level, have dismissed one so-called ‘migrant gang’ as a ‘non-entity’ she said.
FECCA is the national peak body representing Australians from CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) backgrounds. FECCA’s role is to advocate and promote issues on behalf of its constituency to government, business and the broader community. The above article, which appeared in ‘Australasian Muslim Times,’ a weekly newspaper published from Sydney, has been reproduced here with the permission of Zia Ahmad is Managing Editor.
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