Background

Young people from humanitarian backgrounds have enormous potential to actively participate in Australian society. This group of young people come to Australia with an array of strengths, including being multilingual, having well-developed cross-cultural skills and global networks, and having strong aspirations to achieve educationally and contribute to Australian society. However, they can face a range of challenges, including negotiating the developmental tasks of adolescence and the transition to early adulthood, developing new peer networks, understanding the service system and adjusting to often new family dynamics after settling in Australia. Young people who have experienced trauma or loss may also find their capacity to achieve developmental goals diminished by their pre-migration experiences and the challenges of settling into a new country (MYAN, 2016).

Young people experience settlement in ways distinct from children and adults due to their age, developmental stage, and the role they commonly play in supporting their family to settle.

In 2016, MYAN developed a National Youth Settlement Framework (NYSF) to guide settlement policy and service delivery for this population. The goal of the framework is to promote active citizenship in four domains: economic participation, social participation, civil participation and personal wellbeing. These domains and indicators are supported at the service delivery level by a set of eight good practice capabilities (see Box 1 for more information).

This research summary makes reference to the NYSF by exploring how young people in BNLA are doing in three of the domains. Settlement outcomes are examined for economic participation (English language and study and training), social participation (social networks and discrimination) and personal wellbeing (mental health).

BNLA is a useful resource for studying the settlement outcomes of young people, with 134 adolescents aged 15-17 and 546 young adults aged 18-25 interviewed at the first wave of the study, of which 104 and 352, respectively, have completed interviews in each of the first three annual waves of the study, analysed here.² These young people are the focus of this research summary. For more information about BNLA and the sample of young people, see Box 2.

Economic participation

English language skills and education provide opportunities for participation and are critical for young people to build pathways to employment. The NYSF highlights the importance of these areas in the process of settlement.

English language proficiency

Learning English is essential for humanitarian migrants to be able to settle and participate successfully in Australia. Figure 1 shows that with longer time in Australia, young humanitarian migrants significantly improve their English-speaking proficiency; the percentage of young people who speak English well or very well increases with subsequent waves of BNLA.³ Respondents who were adolescents at Wave 1 (aged 15-17) improved their English more than those who were young adults (aged 18-25); even though these age groups were not significantly different in their English proficiency pre-migration (self-assessed at Wave 1), adolescents' proficiency is higher than that of young adults in later waves.

Adolescent males and females had similar levels of English-speaking proficiency pre-migration and over time. Among young adults, however, men showed higher proficiency pre-migration and at all waves compared with women (not shown in Figure 1).

Adolescents' and young adults' participation in education is presented in Figure 2. As the younger cohort includes those still in school, a higher proportion of adolescents were engaged in study or training compared with young adults at each wave. However, the vast majority of both adolescents and young adults had undertaken English classes since arriving in Australia. English study was more common at Wave 1, while both age groups increased their participation in other study or training as they spent more time in Australia. There were no significant differences in overall participation in education by sex.

It is important to note that even though young adults had lower participation in study or training, they were more likely to be in paid employment compared with adolescents (31% vs 6% at Wave 3). However, this applied mainly to men, with 49% of young adult men in paid work at Wave 3 compared with 8% of women. There were no differences in the percentage of women employed between age groups.

Figure 1: Young people's English-speaking proficiency over time, by age group

Source: BNLA, respondents in Waves 1-3, aged 15-25 at the time of the first interview (Wave 1).

Figure 2: Young people's participation in English classes and other study or training over time, by age group

Notes: Other study or training includes work experience (unpaid experience in a workplace), paid traineeship, secondary school (Years 7-12), short course (1-6 weeks), trade or technical qualification (1-3 years) and university degree. It excludes English classes. 
Source: BNLA, respondents in Waves 1-3, aged 15-25 at the time of the first interview (Wave 1). Study or training undertaken at the time of the interview or between waves (since arrival for Wave 1).

Social participation

Most of the young people would have had limited social networks in Australia when they first arrived. The social networks that young people build in Australia are an important part of their integration and access to resources. Previous research has highlighted that young humanitarian migrants' experiences of social inclusion or exclusion are significantly associated with their wellbeing (Correa-Velez, Gifford, & Barnett, 2010).

The social participation domain in the NYFS aims to capture indicators relating to participation in community life, positive peer networks, and freedom from racism and discrimination and/or the ability to manage such experiences. Insights from the BNLA data covering two of these indicators - young people's friendship networks and experiences of discrimination - are described next.

Friendship networks

In Waves 1 and 3, BNLA participants were asked about their friends in Australia and their friends' ethnic and religious communities (Figure 3). There were no apparent differences between the adolescents and young adults at Wave 1, so responses have been combined for the two groups.

Most notably, Figure 3 shows that the percentage of young people who reported having no friends in Australia halved between Waves 1 and 3. The proportion reporting 'a mixture' of friends from their own and other ethnic/religious communities increased significantly, from 34% to 50%. Similarly, the proportion reporting having friends mostly from their own communities decreased significantly between waves. There were no differences in the communities that young people's friends came from, by sex.

Overall, these findings suggest that young people expand and diversify their social networks as they spend more time in Australia. However, a large proportion of young people (39%) were still relying mainly on networks from their own communities two-and-a-half years after arrival.⁴

Discrimination

Although social integration increased over time, a higher proportion of young people reported experiencing discrimination in later waves (Figure 4). At the time of the Wave 3 interview, 9% of adolescents and 15% of young adults reported experiences of discrimination in the past 12 months. This compared with 4% of adolescents and 7% of young adults in Wave 1 who reported experiences of discrimination since arrival in Australia. There were no significant differences between age groups or by sex.

Personal wellbeing

Mental health

An important aspect of personal wellbeing is mental health. Research has shown that humanitarian migrants generally have higher levels of mental health problems than other groups in the host country (e.g. De Maio, Gatina-Bhote, Rioseco, & Edwards, 2017; Fazel, Wheeler, & Danesh, 2005). Mental health problems in this population are related to pre-migration traumatic experiences (e.g. Mollica, McInnes, Poole, & Tor, 1998; Nickerson, Bryant, Steel, Silove, & Brooks, 2010) and stressors associated with the process of settlement, including unemployment, financial stress, difficulties with language and discrimination (e.g. Chen, Hall, Ling, & Renzaho, 2017; Nickerson et al., 2010). However, little research has focused specifically on young people from refugee backgrounds.

The BNLA study shows that adolescents and young adults have high levels of psychological distress, with 31% of men and 37% of women classified as having moderate/high psychological distress (at Wave 1).⁵

National data from the ABS National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (ABS, 2008) shows much lower proportions of moderate/high psychological distress in the Australian population as a whole aged 16-25 years, with 5% of men and 12% of women in this category.

Figure 3: Young people's friendship networks in Australia at Wave 1 and Wave 3

Notes: This survey question was not collected in Wave 2. 
Source: BNLA, respondents in Waves 1 and 3, aged 15-25 at the time of the first interview (Wave 1).

Figure 4: Young people who reported experiences of discrimination in Wave 1 and Wave 3, by age group

Notes: Difference between waves significant for respondents aged 18-25. Wave 2 data is not presented as adolescents aged 15-17 were not asked this question in Wave 2. 
Source: BNLA, respondents in Waves 1 and 3, aged 15-25 at the time of the first interview (Wave1).

Figure 5: Percentage of young males and females classified at moderate or high psychological distress, by wave and age group

Notes: Wave 2 data are not presented as the mode of data collection was different to Waves 1 and 3 (telephone vs face-to-face). 
Source: BNLA, respondents in Waves 1 and 3, aged 15-25 at the time of the first interview (Wave 1).

We also find the following significant differences (Figure 5):

• Among adolescents, a higher proportion of females had moderate/high levels of psychological distress in Wave 1 compared with males.
• A smaller proportion of adolescents were classified as having high/moderate psychological distress compared with the full BNLA sample (39% men and 46% women at Wave 1, see De Maio et al., 2017).
• Young adult females had higher levels of psychological distress than males in Wave 3.

Summary

This research summary presented new findings on settlement outcomes of young people in three domains from the NYFS that contribute to active citizenship: economic participation, social participation and personal wellbeing, using data from the BNLA.

• Young people showed significant improvements over time in two indicators of economic participation in the NYFS - acquiring English language skills and engaging in education and training.
• Women aged 18-25 are lagging behind men and adolescents in their English proficiency, and may need targeted support to improve their language skills.
• Regarding the NYFS' social participation indicators, young people's social networks show increased integration with time in Australia. However, young participants report higher levels of discrimination in later waves. Experiences of discrimination can have negative effects on health and wellbeing. These findings indicate the need to work with communities of all ages to reduce discrimination against young humanitarian migrants.
• In terms of the wellbeing aspect of the NYFS, this analysis found high levels of psychological distress among young people in the BNLA study - much higher than in the general population. These findings highlight the importance of programs and services for young humanitarian migrants that address both settlement stressors and mental health problems, including pre-migration trauma.

The NYSF synthesises information and provides a tool for practitioners to apply in their work - to support good practice and assess this in different areas of youth settlement.

BNLA provides the opportunity to examine settlement outcomes for young people on a number of settlement domains. Using the NYFS as a guideline and survey data such as the BNLA study, programs and policies can be focused on specific aspects of the framework and particular populations at risk; findings from this research summary indicate that the domains of social participation and wellbeing require particular attention, as well as the economic participation of young adult women.

References

• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2017). Characteristics of recent migrants, Australia, November 2016 (6250.0). Canberra: ABS.
• ABS. (2008). National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Summary of results, 2007 (Publication no. 4326.0). Canberra: ABS.
• Chen, W., Hall, B. J., Ling, L., & Renzaho, A. M. (2017). Pre-migration and post-migration factors associated with mental health in humanitarian migrants in Australia and the moderation effect of post-migration stressors: Findings from the first wave data of the BNLA cohort study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(3), 218-229.
• Correa-Velez, I., Gifford, S., & Barnett, A. G. (2010). Longing to belong: Social inclusion and wellbeing among youth with refugee backgrounds in the first three years in Melbourne, Australia. Social Science and Medicine, 71, 1399-1408.
• De Maio, J., Gatina-Bhote, L., Rioseco, P., & Edwards, B. (2017). Risk of psychological distress among recently arrived humanitarian migrants (Building a New Life in Australia Research Summary). Melbourne: AIFS.
• De Maio, J., Silbert, M., Jenkinson, R., & Smart, D. (2014). Building a New Life in Australia: Introducing the Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants. Family Matters, 94, 5-14.
• Fazel, M., Wheeler, J., & Danesh, J. (2005). Prevalence of serious mental disorder in 7,000 refugees resettled in Western countries: A systematic review. Lancet, 365, 1309-1314.
• Hilton, M. F., Whiteford, H. A., Sheridan, J. S., Cleary, C. M., Chant, D. C., Wang, P. S., & Kessler, R. C. (2008). The prevalence of psychological distress in employees and associated occupational risk factors. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 50(7), 746-757.
• Jenkinson, R., Silbert, M., De Maio, J., & Edwards, B. (2016). Settlement experiences of recently arrived humanitarian migrants (Building a New Life in Australia Fact Sheet). Melbourne: AIFS.
• Kessler, R. C., Barker, P. R., Colpe, L. J., Epstein, J. F., Gfroerer, J. C., Hiripi, E. et al. (2003). Screening for serious mental illness in the general population. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60(2), 184-189.
• Mollica, R. F., Mcinnes, K., Poole, C., & Tor, S. (1998). Dose-effect relationships of trauma to symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder among Cambodian survivors of mass violence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 173, 482-488.
• Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network (MYAN) Australia. (2016). Young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds. Retrieved from <www.myan.org.au/file/file/Young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds 31 March 2016.pdf>.
• Nickerson A., Bryant, R. A., Steel, Z., Silove, D., & Brooks, R. (2010). The impact of fear for family on mental health in a resettled Iraqi refugee community. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 44, 229-235.