Shabnam's Story
Scenario 1 of 7
The challenge of making friends at a new high school
It’s time to start at your new school in Cranbourne, a suburb south-east of Melbourne’s CBD. You have been placed in a class with other classmates who speak English as a second language. You are excited to make friends, but you are a little insecure about your English. Your accent is different from your classmates, and you’re worried about being teased or excluded. What do you do?
Let’s hear from Shabnam about her experience...
Did you know that almost all of the states or territories make education compulsory for all school-aged children, regardless of refugee or asylum seeker status?
The main issue for refugees and people seeking asylum to access primary and secondary education is that there is a lack of clarity about what their financial entitlements are in terms of enrolling in public education.
Fees can constitute a practical barrier to children accessing education, and many states / territories remain silent on eligibility for fee-waivers or funding in the legislation and subsidiary legislation. Eligibility for enrolment and fee exemptions or waivers ought to be codified in an accessible way. In many states and territories of Australia currently, this is not the case. This can be very frustrating for newly arrived refugees and people seeking asylum.
For more information, see the Liberty Victoria Rights Advocacy Project report “States of Refuge: Access to Health, Housing and Education for People Seeking Asylum and Refugees in Australia”.
Let’s hear from Shabnam about adapting to a new ‘normal’
Being the new student in a school can be hard. Click on the obstacles you would face when trying to make new friends:
- You have a different accent to the other kids. You’re worried that they won’t understand you.
- Body language cues are very different here to what you’re used to back home. You think you might be misunderstood.
- You don’t know the local slang. You’re concerned that you won’t know the right thing to say.
Let’s hear from Shabnam about making friends at school
Scenario 3 of 7
New home, new language, new responsibilities
A girl in your class has asked if you want to come over to her house after school. You want to go. You think you might have a lot in common. But tonight, your mum and dad have asked you to stay home. They don’t speak much English, and need your help to book a medical appointment over the phone, and to speak to the phone company about an unpaid bill.
Let’s hear from Shabnam about being the family interpreter
You have arrived in Australia and your English is limited. Click on the areas of life that you think would be most impacted by this:
- Finding a part time job
- Making friends
- Assimilating into Australian culture
- Booking and getting to appointments
Let’s hear from Shabnam about the struggle with the language for parents
Did you know that the information that refugees and people seeking asylum need in order to know their rights is often difficult to find or understand?
Sometimes the information itself is not easy to find because it is contained in a government policy that is not publicly available. Other times, the information available online is not up to date. These obstacles make it difficult for people seeking asylum and refugees to have a clear picture about what rights they have and how to access the services they need.
Not only are people’s rights and entitlements subject to change, but they can also depend on where a person lives. For example, whether a person seeking asylum pays to go the hospital or can access social housing can depend on which state or territory they live in.
For more information, see the Liberty Victoria Rights Advocacy Project report “States of Refuge: Access to Health, Housing and Education for People Seeking Asylum and Refugees in Australia”.
Scenario 5 of 7
Creating a ‘home’
You have found a place to live. But how will you set up your house? What do you think a ‘home’ should look like?
Explore the floorplan below of Shabnam's home in Hazara Town
Shabnam's family having a meal Close x
Shabnam Close x
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Let's hear from Shabnam about daily life in her home in Hazara Town, Pakistan
Did you know the concept of ‘home’ is not the same all over the world?
When refugees arrive in Australia, their home life in Australia will often be very different from what they are used to. Moving to a new country is difficult in many ways, but learning the cultural rules and meanings of your new home life is especially challenging.
We can’t underestimate the impact of this on life satisfaction for refugees and people seeking asylum. Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants is a long-term project researching how humanitarian migrants settle into life in Australia. A report released in 2017 noted that the data on life satisfaction between, and even within, their study samples varied in results between humanitarian migrants from different cultures. This suggested that there may be cultural effects which need to be accounted for.
For more information, see the report “Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants”
Let's hear from Shabnam about adjusting to the new life in Australia
Scenario 7 of 7
Making the step into adulthood
You have finished school and you need to start making decisions about your future. Will you enrol in a course at university? Do you try to find a job? Your parents have certain careers in mind for you, but you’re not sure whether it is what you want.
Let's hear from Shabnam about her journey since high school
Shabnam studies neurosciences at university, she started her own not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping newly arrived refugees, has volunteered at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and works at the Centre for Multicultural Youth. What an incredible person!
Let's hear from Shabnam about the experience...
Click on the areas of life that you think would be most different between a newly arrived refugees’ life in Australia and the life they had in their home country.
- How people interact with their neighbours, family and friends
- Where people buy their food and other basic goods
- What people do for entertainment and leisure
- How people structure their house
- Access to running water at home
You have only just arrived, so it will be very difficult to afford the rent. Even if you could afford it, it is very hard to prove to anyone that you would be a trustworthy tenant. You don’t know anyone in Australia, so you don’t have anyone who can give you a positive reference.