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Celebrating International Youth Day!
August 12th 2018
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Join MYAN in celebrating International Youth Day (IYD) 2018! IYD recognises and celebrates the contributions of young people to education, employment, social justice, sustainability and civics, and promotes the World Programme of Action for Youth. It's an opportunity to encourage and empower young people as active members of society, to highlight their capabilities and particular concerns, and how these can be addressed. This year's theme is #SafeSpaces4Youth.
Australia's population just hit 25 million, of which almost 3 million are young people in Australia. One in four Australians aged 18-24 years was born overseas (ABS 2016). Just under half of young people (aged 12-24) in Australia in 2016 were either first or second-generation migrants (Bright Futures: Spotlight on the wellbeing of young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds), while young people make up 15% of all arrivals under all migration categories and 23% of arrivals into the Humanitarian Programme (MYAN National Youth Settlement Trends Snapshot).
The latest Building a New Life in Australia: Settlement humanitarian outcomes of youth and active citizenship research summary reports on how young people aged 15-25 years old from humanitarian backgrounds are settling in Australia. Young people from humanitarian backgrounds demonstrate increased integration through wider social networks, however they also report increased discrimination over time which impacts their wellbeing negatively.
The recent MY Census was the first nation-wide study of Australia’s multicultural youth. Initial findings from a national survey with young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds reveal that the majority of respondents feel a strong sense of belonging, optimism and involvement in Australia, but also highlight concerning experiences of discrimination, barriers to employment and feeling unsafe. See a snapshot of findings here.
MYAN Australia's vision is that all young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds can access the support and opportunities they need to be active participants in, and contributors to, an inclusive Australian society in which they feel they belong. This is achieved when young people understand and can exercise their rights, where their rights are protected, where they feel included, respected, and empowered with peers, their families, communities and broader Australia - and where they are supported to build their agency and social capital.
We are celebrating IYD 2018 with the voices of young people on how they identify with safe spaces, and some of their ideas on what needs to be done to ensure young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds feel safe and included in a diverse and inclusive multicultural Australia. We're also sharing a clip on Future Community from our short film series, Life in Australia: Celebrating Young People from Refugee and Migrant Backgrounds, which you can find below.
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Life in Australia: Celebrating Young People from Refugee and Migrant Backgrounds
FUTURE COMMUNITY
MYAN's short film series, Life in Australia: Celebrating Young People from Refugee and Migrant Backgrounds captures young people’s stories and experiences of settling in Australia. Across nine clips, young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds discuss leaving their country, arriving in Australia, what helped them settle in Australia, belonging, identity and aspirations for the future. In this clip, they talk about future community, their hopes, and how they envision a diverse and inclusive multicultural Australia. If you'd like to see more, email us on myanprojects@myan.org.au.
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"Safe spaces such as civic spaces enable youth to engage in governance issues; public spaces afford youth the opportunity to participate in sports and other leisure activities in the community; digital spaces help youth interact virtually across borders with everyone; and well planned physical spaces can help accommodate the needs of diverse youth especially those vulnerable to marginalisation or violence." - UNDESA Division For Inclusive Social Development Youth
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