Abstract:
Over 11,000 Ukrainians displaced by the war have found shelter in Australia since February 2022. This presentation will draw on a project conducted in the first few months upon the arrival of these refugees, recognised in Australia as displaced persons (DPs). The humanitarian response to sudden crises is often developed ad hoc, while the voices and experiences of the DPs themselves remain anecdotal. A lack of well-established emergency response framework and systematic understanding of the experiences of these DPs undermines the effectiveness of Australia’s policies and support services, including education. In this pilot study, we conducted two focus groups with the recent arrivals from Ukraine – one in NSW and one in WA – about their resettlement experiences, and interviews with representatives of the key settlement service providers about their experiences of supporting these humanitarian entrants. Through the first-hand insights, we explored how these DPs exercised “agency” – a sense of control over their own life. In this context, agency can also be seen as resilience (Renkens et al., 2022), or positive adaptation in the face of adversity. The findings strongly indicate the role of individual agency in navigating resettlement successfully. At the same time, the DP participants highlighted the crucial role of the “social ecology (environment)” (Ungar, 2013) in supporting or hindering their agency. These included informational, linguistic, cultural, and access-related issues within the community, institutional, and government domains. Based on these findings, recommendations for Australia’s humanitarian response to emergency migration include a range of ways to create opportunities and favourable environment for resilient practices.