Minister's Roundtable on Refugee Education Migration Pathways
On Monday 5 June 2023, Associate Professor Amy Maguire represented the University of Newcastle, at the Minister's Roundtable on Transforming Lives through a Refugee Education Migration Pathway, in Melbourne.
The roundtable was convened by Andrew Giles, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, and the Humanitarian Reform team from the Department of Home Affairs. Minister Giles opened the roundtable with an announcement of the government’s intention to expand the overall humanitarian intake, to build new complementary protection pathways, and to generate international collaboration around complementary protection. The meeting focused on the proposal to establish a new complementary protection pathway for refugees wishing to access higher education in Australia. This proposal is inspired by a long-standing similar pathway that operates in Canada through collaboration between the government and the university sector.
Sally Baker, who convenes the Refugee Education Special Interest Group, described the new proposed resettlement pathway as offering universities the opportunity to do something restorative, sitting comfortably with equity and social justice missions. One of the hoped-for features of the pathway is a youth engagement model, through which university students are engaged as mentors and friends of newly arrived refugee students. Peter Shergold, NSW Coordinator General for Refugee Resettlement also spoke at the roundtable. Peter, co-authored a report proposing that universities engage with government in establishing a new refugee education pathway, and proposed that around 280 students (and their dependants) be accommodated across the country annually.
Associate Professor Amy Maguire, had the opportunity to brief the meeting on current initiatives at the University of Newcastle, including the supports offered by CEEHE, the Scholarship for Asylum Seekers program, and the early entry scheme to Law for students from refugee backgrounds. The minister said that the government is hoping to take an expansive approach, which would mean that people entering Australia through this pathway would be given permanent residency on arrival, and in turn that this would open the prospect of family reunion visas for their family members. The minister is interested in developing this pathway to build social capital and counter negative perceptions of refugee communities.
Contact
- Associate Professor Amy Maguire
- Email: amy.maguire@newcastle.edu.au
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