Learning progressive multicultural projects in Australia

CLAIR Sydney held its annual Multicultural Study Program tour in Australia for Japanese local government and related international association staff.

This year, we visited a total of nine organisations providing services relating to disaster prevention awareness, medical and settlement support, and other fields.

In many of our briefings, we met people who came to Australia a long time ago as migrants and refugees, supporting new immigrants. We had the chance to listen to the stories of clients, recent settlers– an incredibly rare opportunity for the visiting Japanese delegation. Recent migrants spoke of the settler services helping them improve their language skills, which in turn helped them obtain employment and contribute to the Australian economy, making the visitors from Japan extremely interested in this aspect of multicultural Australia’s services for new citizens.

One story touched us in particular from a settler who, upon arrival from the Middle East, spent much time alone when she couldn’t speak English at all; she conveyed to us her relief at receiving assistance from settler support services and becoming socially engaged.

On the last day of the tour, the delegates were grouped into three and presented on their main findings through the tour. Using the theme “How can we make the most of these progressive Australian examples in relation to multiculturalism with consideration of the difference between Australia and Japan?”, delegates shared new ideas which could be applied cost-effectively by their own local and prefectural governments and related agencies.