Welfare workers for immigrant settlers in rural areas
Bernadette Kelly
Centre for Rural Social Research, Charles Sturt University, NSW
PP: 015 - 015
Keywords
immigration, service delivery, rural welfare
Article Text
The previous two issues of Rural Society have contained discussion of both the general deficiencies of social welfare services during the current rural downturn (M Collingridge, vol 1(2)) and the lack of welfare services specifically geared to needs of migrants settling in rural areas. There has recently been a positive development with the latter concern in the Riverina region. A voluntary association - the Ethnic Communities Council of Wagga Wagga, (ECC) which previously operated on a very small grant from the NSW Government, has recently been allocated a grant from the Dept of Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs which will allow the employment of a part-time welfare worker for the next three years. Previously this organisation operated on a small grant from the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission which allowed the provision of some welfare services for part of the year and which had to be applied for on a yearly basis. The new source of funding will build some permanency into the availability of services for the ever increasing numbers of immigrants of non-English speaking background settling in the area. Included amongst these people are recently arrived families and a steady stream of refugee families from war-torn countries of South America.
The grant to the Wagga organisation was the only new grant offered in the southern region of New South Wales and Canberra. It has been indicated by officers of the department funding the grant that the report Immigrant Settlement in Country Areas by Gray et al, which was prepared by the Centre for Rural Social Research was influential in swaying the decision makers to look favourably on the Wagga organisation's submission.
The welfare worker's tasks will include: providing support and help to the new arrivals to access health, educational and social services; community development to ensure that local agencies offer appropriate services to migrants; informing local agencies about availability of telephone and interpreting services which can be accessed from the major cities. There is a serious lack of qualified interpreters in the languages specifically required in this region. Migrants are also helped with access to information about services which are not present in the region.
This service will greatly enhance the chances for the successful settlement of migrants in the Riverina region, and will boost the efforts of the ECC and other local community organisations to ensure that necessary services are available. Community level organisations such as Mission Employment and the Riverina Community College have developed courses geared to the language learning and educational needs of migrants. These organisations have responded when approached by the ECC and another very successful self help group - the Immigrant Women's Association of Wagga Wagga.
While Wagga and its immediately surrounding area will now have this service, there are many outlying and remote towns which completely lack access to services. Wagga voluntary associations frequently have calls for assistance in crises and domestic violence cases from as far away as Ganmain and Tumut. Efforts are made to offer assistance usually on a voluntary basis, because present funding levels do not allow for services to reach the more remote areas.
Whilst the new initiative in welfare service to migrants is welcomed for the Wagga region, there are many migrant settlers in the vast Riverina region whose needs are yet to be addressed.
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