Refugee Background

Executive Summary

Research shows that refugees and asylum seekers face extensive challenges integrating into Australian society upon arrival and for many years after arrival, including:

• language barriers;
• obtaining stable housing;
• financial hardship;
• acquiring employment;
• difficulties in accessing help and assistance;
• encountering forms of institutional racism and discrimination;
• feelings of loss of home, family and other connections; and
• acculturative stressors.

Many refugees and asylum seekers have been exposed to trauma before and during fleeing their own country. The deleterious impact of such experiences on mental health may also be exacerbated upon arrival in Australia, where asylum seekers may face prolonged detention and face significant uncertainty about their future. Research suggests that traumatic experiences place refugees at a greater risk of a range of adverse psychological impacts, including post-traumatic stress disorder (‘PTSD’).

The Australian Human Rights Commission has found that significant numbers of children experience negative and ongoing emotional impacts after prolonged detention’. The Australian Psychological Society describes a number of common symptoms exhibited by children who have lived in immigration detention, including anxiety, conduct problems, aggressive behaviours, delinquency and trauma. Education disruption may also continue for refugees settled in Australia, including expulsions, suspensions and regular truancy.

The Australian Human Rights Commission identifies a range of barriers that asylum seekers may fact in seeking employment, as well as a reluctance on behalf of employers associated with uncertainty around the visa status of prospective employees. A 2017 Australian study found that:

Financial hardship, initial reliance on government payments and the social challenges of residing in low-income jurisdictions, can produce unstable and discouraging environmental contexts with limited opportunities for upward mobility and the development of legitimate social capital. These issues are perhaps heightened when migration patterns consign disproportionate numbers of young males to such settings, which can be fertile grounds for boredom, frustration, alienation and law-breaking activity.

Women from refugee backgrounds may be particularly vulnerable to financial abuse, reproductive coercion and immigration-related violence’, as well as family violence.

The potential relevance of evidence of a refugee background in sentencing proceedings includes an assessment of moral culpability; moderating the weight to be given to general deterrence; determining the weight to be given to specific deterrence and protection of the community; and the shaping of conditions to enhance prospects of rehabilitation. It may also be relevant to other sentencing issues and principles including a finding of special circumstances.

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