Abur, William bol deng (2012) The Settlement Challenges Facing South Sudanese Refugee Community in the Western of Suburbs of Melbourne. In: 2012 TASA Conference : Emerging and Enduring Inequalities, 26 April 2012-29 April 2012, The University of Queensland.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the settlement challenges facing the South Sudanese refugee community in the western suburbs of Melbourne. The refugee community from South Sudan that resettled in Australia are among the country’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable community groups. The critical settlement situation of the South Sudanese community is due to many issues, including alack of sufficient support services for thecommunity and vulnerable families. This article discusses settlement related challenges facing the South Sudanese refugee community from their perspective with an aim of sharing findings with an audience that may have no real life experience of being a refugee or resettling out of their comfort zone. The settlement period has been extremely challenging for the South Sudanese refugee community in many ways. Since resettling in Australia, the community has faced settlement difficulties like making certain adjustments to the Australian way of life. The South Sudanese refugee community in Australia come from a difficult background of a long civil war which has affected this community in many forms; the community are going through a recovery process from past traumas and sometimes it is difficult forindividuals and families to forget past experiences of conflict and move on with their new lives. Refugees often lose the opportunity of independency due to conflict and overstaying in refugee camps as not enough services are provided to help them gain relevant skills and education. People struggle with daily survival issues rather than investing in long term life skills.The lack of sufficient skills and education related to the western world’s way of life has impacted on families and individuals that resettle in Australia. Settlement issues hamper many families and individualswithin the South Sudanese refugeecommunity. The struggle to understand a new culture and people, a new system and related bureaucracy is extremely problematic to people when they are settling. Due financial hardship and the chronic lack of employment, this community tends to have a higher risk of experiencing problems like homelessness, family breakdown, social isolation, financial hardship, poor health, drug and alcohol abuse, gambling problems, unemployment and young people’s involvement in criminal activities such stealing and robbery. Stereotyping refugee community groups in a new culture, like the South Sudanese community,increases the risk of young people becoming socially disconnected from the mainstream community by dropping out of school.The needs of individuals and families tend to be different based on their level of education and experiences in refugee camps. Depending on their understanding and expectations, different generations have differing experiences of settlement issues

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