Settling In Palmerston North and Feilding - Human Rights Commission

Introduction1.1 What is ‘Settling In’?Over recent years, New Zealand has become home to an increasingly diverse range of people and communities from different cultures. Manyof these new settlers are migrants seeking new opportunities in New Zealand, while others are refugees who, for different reasons, are unableto remain in their homelands. For anyone settling into a new country, there are the immediate concerns to contend with – finding a home, a joband schools for your children. Beyond these initial imperatives, there are the ongoing challenges such as making new friends, understandingthe language, accents and different ways of your new country and finding the confidence and support to maintain and enjoy your own culturein your new setting. For those newcomers who have arrived as refugees, these challenges are likely to be compounded by a number of otherfactors resulting from traumatic past experiences.The Settling In initiative was introduced in 2004 in response to the increasing ethnic diversity in New Zealand and a growing awareness thatintervention was required beyond the early settlement period to maximise outcomes for refugee and migrant groups seeking new lives here.Settling In is a strengths-based community development programme that works directly with refugee and migrant communities to help themfind solutions to meet their own needs. The broader vision of the Settling In initiative is to contribute to a:“New Zealand that welcomes and celebrates diversity, where refugees and migrants settle well and are able to contribute to our nation in allaspects of life – social, economic, civic and cultural.”Family and Community Services (Ministry of Social Development) is responsible for implementing the project. Settling In coordinators acrossthe country work with local communities to select projects and develop appropriate responses to meet identified local needs. The SettlingIn approach is highly collaborative and coordinators work with a range of government agencies and non-government organisations (NGOs),community organisations and refugee and migrant communities to pool resources and expertise to achieve the best results. Settling In is alsocharacterised by its clear focus on community development – it is founded on the basis that the greatest success will come from empowering,supporting and strengthening communities themselves to work with others to identify key issues for their own communities and developstrategies to respond to these.There are four key strands to the implementation of the Settling In initiative, under which a range of activities take place:1. leading and coordinating interagency work – including the development of a local report (such as this one for Palmerston North and Feilding)that identifies the key issues and priorities for the district / area concerned2. delivering activities and programmes (mainly focused on social needs and family issues), in response to the local report3. providing small community grants to kick-start key initiatives4. providing a bridge (eg building community capability, brokering relationships and connecting people, educating mainstream agencies andthe host community, working across portfolios, advocating on behalf of refugees and migrants).1.2 Why is Successful Settlement Important?The benefits of successful settlement are many. There are the clear advantages for the individual newcomers and their families and there arealso considerable benefits for the communities in which they settle and for New Zealand society at large 1 . Regardless of their backgroundsand experiences, all newcomers have the potential to make a significant contribution to the future social well-being and economic prosperityof their new home. In addition to the more obvious contributions of different foods, music and clothing, newcomers also bring fresh ideas,new perspectives and a range of additional skills and talents. In an increasingly global society, they are able to provide important connectionsbetween New Zealand and the rest of the world. This diversity enriches our communities and helps to shape a more open-minded and vibrantsociety.Of course, settlement can be a distressing and incredibly taxing business for newcomers – there are huge challenges to overcome and oftena great sense of loss to contend with at the same time. However, if our communities make newcomers feel welcome and if they can offeraccessible, connected and inter-culturally aware services and a range of tailored resources and support strategies, then successful settlementis more likely and the benefits more wide reaching.SETTLING IN PALMERSTON NORTH AND FEILDINGOn the other hand, a failure to respond can have significant repercussions. There is increasing global competition for skilled labour andalthough New Zealand has a great deal to offer migrants, if they do not feel welcome and their families do not feel settled, then they are lesslikely to stay. We also know that poor settlement outcomes for some ethnic families and their communities are placing increasing demand onsocial, health and employment services. Without specifically tailored intervention and improved service delivery across the board, there is arisk of low take-up of services and entrenched disadvantage for these groups. Inadequate attention to the needs of both newcomers and hostcommunities can also make these communities more vulnerable to ethnic tension and violence (such as that seen recently in Australia), withdisenfranchised youth particularly at risk in this respect. Furthermore, in failing to respond effectively, we would be diminishing the opportunitiesto realise the considerable value that a more ethnically diverse population can contribute to New Zealand society.1It is important to note that, in the case of refugees, New Zealand has made a humanitarian commitmentto help with settlement and has clear obligations in this respect.9