From Refugee Camps to Australian Workplaces: Stories of Hope and Transformation

The journey from refugee camp to Australian workplace is a story of tenacity and hope and flourishing. It is a story of exile and conflict, exploitation and arrival, but it is also a story of employment and enrichment. For refugees, the journey to employment in Australia usually starts in insecurity, disability and pain. The journey along this road is one that, as refugees put their lives back together through employment and community support, becomes one of tenacity, aspiration and achievement. As a group, refugees who arrive in Australia usually bring skills, knowledge and experience from many years as refugees, and before. If given an opportunity, they frequently make productive contributions to their new community, as well as to their old and to their families.

From Crisis to Career: Overcoming Adversity

Refugee life can be tough. They were forced to leave their home countries for different reasons to escape from the conflicts and violence. Mostly they brought only the clothes that they wear, in many cases returning from camps spent most of their time and nbsp trying to survive few with food availability, education and health assistance. I think these people cannot lose their vr ghwnti nôl and bright future. They have to have a better life than this one.

Their view is that work in Australia is that hope realised – a second chance to forge an identity through independence and family provision. Whereas food, water and shelter restore mere health, work can restore more: the upright posture upon one’s own soil – calling, belonging, dignity – which lays the complete wreckage of shock to rest.

Success Stories: Refugees Thriving in Australian Workplaces

Photo by Justin McManus There are hundreds of stories of (many now very successful) refugees who swam the sea into refugee camps and on to work in Australia. Again, almost against the odds, these people have come not just to survive, but flourish, in their communities, and their tales are replete with positives about the power of grit, the spark of opportunity, and what work can do.

Consider, for example, the case of Ahmad, a Syrian refugee who fled Syria during civil war, lived for several years in a Jordanian refugee camp, and eventually resettled in Australia. He spent the next several months working with the refugee employment programme to have his qualifications recognised at an Australian engineering firm where he now holds employment as an engineer, earns a living to support his family, the service that he provides is needed by his wider society and he’s an integral part of the Australian part of the global infrastructure.

One such is the story of Fatima who, following a flight from Afghanistan, was in a refugee camp in Pakistan for years. When she finally came to Australia, she also found a job at a healthcare facility. Fatima’s work as a nurse gives her an opportunity to cultivate and return value, after years of need. Through the income Fatima made from this work, she housed her family and was able to care for them. This is a story of transformation in her own life – starting in a life of uncertainty in a refugee camp, and leading to a career in providing healthcare.

The Role of Employers in Refugee Success

Without companies willing to employ refugees, nobody would have an Ahmad or Fatima story in the first place. Giving refugees work is therefore about more than issuing paycheques. It is about restoring dignity, independence and hope. Refugees are usually ambitious, adaptable and resilient. They are keen employees who would relish the opportunity to ‘pay it forward’ and give back to the companies that gave them a shot.

Employers who hire refugees thus contribute to social inclusion and community cohesion. They might also be champions of diversity, which in turn is increasingly seen as a commitment to corporate social responsibility – good both for the refugee as well as for the company. This can result in positive knock-on effects on the reputation of the company; and indeed a more open society.

Conclusion

There are also upbeat stories, of the long, sometimes frustrating but ultimately successful journey from the refugee camp to the Australian workplace, how, when the opportunity for work comes along, refugees can build livelihoods for themselves, give back to their new communities, and be independent. Employment helps people regain their sense of dignity and meaning.

Many more businesses in Australia will allow refugees to enter through their gates and come to know refugees whose lives will itself be a narrative of renewal and possibility. The more refugees find employment in Australia, and their dreams focused afresh by the vistas of possibility, the more it is important to allow them entry through those Australian gates and open those doors for them from every side.