Nineteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

All the stories are of achievement against all odds. On their journey there had been discrimination, exploitation, abuse and tragedy. This was on top of the calamity which had caused the flight from their homelands in the first instance. As Hamoudi Aldyni said, when facing another boat crossing after two boats had sunk beneath him, and as Chris Sweedy reinforced when he saw the tiny fishing boat his family was about to board having no concessions to safety, it was either death or death. Death at home or death at sea. Whilst for many the landing and settling in a new country was traumatic, mixed within those times was also kindness and support from fellow travellers and longer settled Australians who reached out to ensure that distance between people, and their suffering, was minimised. In building a coherent, tolerant and ultimately self-sustaining community, well-meaning people from all backgrounds understand that we must be self-healing and that we must come together to knit our social ties for the good for all. That in so many cases refugees have had a resettlement experience which ran outside of the model, and in which they missed out on the care and benefits for early social integration, is a matter for much soul searching, and some shame. (From In Our Own Voices Stories of journey and resettlement in Australia, Andrew Hill 2018)