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 Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................1
Identification of the welfare system and services........................................................................1
Identification of the resources and supports...............................................................................2
Seeking Asylum..........................................................................................................................3
Permanent Visa..........................................................................................................................3
Housing facilities........................................................................................................................3
Education....................................................................................................................................3
Employment................................................................................................................................4
Health and psychological support............................................................................................4
Identification of funding and its impact on quality-of-service delivery....................................5
Evaluation of quality and effectiveness of the services...............................................................6
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................8
References.......................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Refugees are defined as the people who've crossed the borders and living in other countries,

forced to migrate due to the ill effects of wars, conflicts, or persecution. Australia is one of the

host countries providing asylum and protection to refugees for decades. Providing them with

protection is not the only concern, the welfare of these traumatized people and helping them get

adjusted to the community is also necessary. There are various welfare systems and

organizations in Australia for refugees, both governmental and non-governmental. This essay is

focused on the identification of welfare systems, services, and resources for refugees with more

focus laid on the evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of these systems and their services.

Identification of the welfare system and services

The welfare of a person or community is not associated with its income only, rather welfare is a

multifactorial phenomenon affected by income, housing, education, and family function. The

welfare of the refugees is a big challenge and many welfare programs have been launched by the

government and private sectors.

Settlement Services International (SSI) is a non-governmental organization working for refugees

and provides them with initial care for up to 18 months. This organization works for providing

the refugees with initial care, temporary housing, language learning, and educational services

making them able to live independently.

The refugees and Humanitarian Program by the Honorable government for helping the refugees

have two sub-programs i.e., the offshore program for resettlement and the onshore protection

program (Phillips, 2015). This program aims at providing the opportunity to refugees for starting

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their new life in Australia, providing them with skills and knowledge to become active members

of society.

The humanitarian Settlement Services (HSS) program along with Australian National Settlement

Framework provides refugees not only with visas but also works for their welfare by providing

services like healthcare, social welfare, employment facilities, and education (Williams et al.,

2021).

HSS provides services generally for the first 12 months while Settlement Grants Program (SGP)

aims at supporting the already occurring settlements, working for the long-term development of

these people. Refugees Settlement Services (RSS) is working under SGP in rural and urban areas

for overall welfare in various fields (Kandasamy & Soldatic, 2017).

Additionally, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), New South Wales Health Service along

with volunteers are working for refugee's support. These organizations also communicate with

other related organizations for welfare as a whole and to bring positive changes on a mass scale.

All the mentioned programs and many other organizations, having the same objective of welfare

of refugees in terms of the settlement, housing, employment, education, and training are working

to make Australia, a safe place for refugees where they can live and adjust to the community

easily.

Identification of the resources and supports

Welfare organizations and programs provide resources and support to refugees in different areas

of development. The aim is to provide initial support and make the refugees, able to start their

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lives in this country. These organizations have outlined some basic and more important supports

for refugees which areas:

Seeking Asylum
It is the obligation of the government that all refugees should have easy access to asylum (Fozdar

& Banki, 2017). The humanitarian program by the Honorable government assists refugees with

seeking asylum under its onshore sub-program.

Permanent Visa
Australian government under its Humanitarian Settlement Service (HSS) provides permanent

visas to refugees. HSS provides visas on two sub-programs which depend on the type of

refugees. One is the offshore program for resettlement while the other one is the onshore

program for those seeking asylum and protection.

Housing facilities
One of the most important factors of refugee settlement is the accessibility of own houses

because housing has great impacts giving a person, sense of safety and well-being (Weidinger &

Kordel, 2020). Thus, all welfare systems such as SSI, HSS, and SGP work for providing the

refugees with asylum first and then making them able to find suitable houses and flats so that

they can start living conveniently.

Education
The education of refugees is an important factor for development as educated people can benefit

themselves with better employment as well as can benefit the state by promoting economic

growth. Studies have shown that difficulty with the English Language is the most important

factor troubling the refugees in their well-being and active participation in the community.

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Schools and other institutions concentrate not only on the English language being the primary

factor of settlement but also concentrate on educational, cultural, and psychological outcomes,

providing the refugees with better opportunities to get adjusted(Wrench et al., 2017).

Employment
Employment is considered an essential factor of settlement and well-being of refugees.

Community initiatives and public sectors help refugees with the attainment of better employment

facilities and help them with creating jobs for themselves by starting their businesses(Collins,

2017).

Employment is an essential factor for welfare, other than providing financial assistance, it makes

a person able to consider himself/herself an active participant of a community. Support

organizations i.e., governmental, government-assisted, and private organizations, help refugees

with finding jobs, language learning, and training to learn new skills.

Health and Psychological Support

Refugees tend to have more health issues than other people due to multiple factors such as

inaccessibility and inadequacy of health services, language barrier, cultural differences, and

psychological stress.

Multiple Refugees health services are working in Australia, for example, New South Wales

(NSW) Refugee Health Service, aims not only at providing health and psychological support to

refugees but also educates and trains health professionals for this cause(Harris, 2018).

NSW health services and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as the Asylum Seekers

Centre provide healthcare and mental health facilities for traumatized and asylum-seeking

refugees.
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Psychological support is very necessary for refugees who've left their homes and suffered much

psychological trauma. The disturbed mental health of parents because of faced trauma, alters

their parenting style and it has detrimental effects on the children's mental health. Studies suggest

that giving psychological support to parents can improve the mental health of both refugees and

their children.

Primary healthcare teams, comprising of general practitioners, nurses, and volunteers are

working for improvement in statistics of the health of refugees(Robertshaw et al., 2017).

Identification of Funding and Its Impact on Quality-of-Service Delivery

Refugee organizations are funded mainly by the federal government. Additional funding is done

by members of organizations, volunteers for funds, and government agencies. The federal

government defines the budget for refugees' welfare each year which is spent on their visas,

accommodation, asylum, financial support, healthcare services, and education. Government of

the New South Wales offers approximately $4 million for the welfare of this specific

group(Siyambalapitiya, 2017). Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) work on volunteer

funding and aids from other organizations. It has been observed in studies that funding resources

of refugee’s welfare organizations have influences on taking decisions, management, and

working of these organizations(Makhoul et al., 2020). In this context, it can be said that

decreasing the budget and funds to be spent on the welfare of refugees will adversely affect the

quality of services provided to refugees.

Although the Honorable government is spending quite a ratio of its total budget on refugees for

the providence of adequate services, these organizations still need more monetary assistance.

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Evaluation of Quality and Effectiveness of The Services
The government and the organizations in Australia politely put their efforts into the benefit of

refugees but it is necessary to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of services provided to

refugees so that this evidential knowledge may help in better policymaking and better service

delivery in the future. A longitudinal study of four years on a sample of newly arrived refugees

shows the steady increase in the settlement statistics i.e., housing, education, employment, and

social integration(Lichtenstein & Puma, 2019).

Considering the above-mentioned facts, it can be stated that policies and services for the welfare

of refugees are satisfactory, but some areas of development need more monetary assistance and

policy reforms. Unawareness of the workers about refugees' backgrounds causes poor service

delivery as many of them stated that they could not recognize those people as refugees because

of limited knowledge. Therefore, training programs for workers in the organizations aimed at

refugees' welfare are deficient and need to be improved for better service delivery. Although

these statistics vary in different regions, overall training reforms of workers will ensure better

outcomes.

The proportion of youth refugees getting higher education in universities is increasing with the

years and it reflects the better outcomes of educational programs, although this is lower than the

general population(Molla, 2019). Australian-born individuals, proportion-wise, have a better

education than refugees but the increasing proportion of the educated population of refugees over

years shows the effectiveness and quality of the educational system for this specific group.

The employment of refugees is an important concern; welfare organizations help them find jobs

and create jobs for themselves via business support programs. Statistics show better employment

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facilities than the employment ratio of refugees a few years ago. There is a gap in education and

occupation indicating unemployment among educated people in immigrants of Australia causing

wastage of skills and knowledge of this specific group(de Alwis et al., 2020). So, employment is

still a matter of consideration because educated people in this group are still unemployed because

of the disparity of employment resources.

Concerning the social adjustment of refugees, a meta-analysis shows a slight degree of

improvement in the social adjustment of refugees by psychological interventions such as

therapeutic techniques to lower the effects of trauma(Ahmadi Forooshani et al., 2021). This

evidence indicates that psychological interventions are helping but still less effective than the

aimed improvement. The quality and effectiveness of psychological approaches to improve the

mental health of refugees, need to be improved for their better settlement and quality of life.

Organizations such as the NSW health service, are working efficiently to improve the health of

refugees but there is still room for improvement because refugees have poor health indices two

to four times greater than the general population. Comparing the ratio of antenatal visits of

pregnant women of refugee's background and Australian-born women show a significant gap

indicating less access to healthcare by refugee's pregnant women(Yelland et al., 2020). Barriers

to access to health services, in this regard, are causing more stillbirths, higher neonatal and

maternal mortality rates in refugees, indicating poor quality of health services.

Even though some areas of welfare need much improvement in quality and effectiveness, studies

conducted on refugees show satisfactory results, indicating that refugees are overall comfortable

living in Australia. Subjective well-being (SWB) variable analysis among the refugee sample

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population has evaluated that most of the refugees are satisfied with the quality-of-service

delivery, interactions, education, and social harmony (Williams et al., 2021).

Conclusion
Analysis of programs and organizations for refugee's welfare i.e., Humanitarian program, HSS,

SSI, NGOs, NSW health service, etc. have concluded that these services are quite effective for

this specific group. Studies show deficiencies in some areas that can be improved by appropriate

policy-making and adequate planning. Indices of development of refugees show gradual

improvement over the years although refugees lag Australian-born people in various dimensions

of welfare. This highlights the need for improvement in the quality and effectiveness of these

welfare systems along with introducing more programs and services for improvement in service

delivery at a mass scale.

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 References
Ahmadi Forooshani, S., Izadikhah, Z., Renzaho, A. M. N., & O’Connor, P. J. (2021). Effectiveness of
Psychological Interventions on Young Refugees’ Social Adjustment: A Meta-analysis. Journal of Refugee
Studies, 34(1), 976–992. https://doi.org/10.1093/JRS/FEZ035

Collins, J. (2017). Private and community sector initiatives in refugee employment and entrepreneurship. Lowy
Institute for International Policy.

de Alwis, S., Parr, N., & Guo, F. (2020). The Education–Occupation (Mis)Match of Asia-Born Immigrants in
Australia. Population Research and Policy Review, 39(3), 519–548. https://doi.org/10.1007/S11113-019-
09548-9/TABLES/4

Fozdar, F., & Banki, S. (2017). Settling refugees in Australia: achievements and challenges. International
Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 3(1), 43. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMBS.2017.081197

Harris, M. F. (2018). Integration of refugees into routine primary care in NSW, Australia. Public Health
Research & Practice, 28(1). https://doi.org/10.17061/PHRP2811802

Kandasamy, N., & Soldatic, K. (2017). Implications for Practice: Exploring the Impacts of Government
Contracts on Refugee Settlement Services in Rural and Urban Australia.
Https://Doi.Org/10.1080/0312407X.2017.1357079, 71(1), 111–119.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2017.1357079

Lichtenstein, G., & Puma, J. E. (2019). The Refugee Integration Survey and Evaluation (RISE): Results from a
Four-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Refugee Studies, 32(3), 397–416.
https://doi.org/10.1093/JRS/FEY034

Makhoul, J., Nasser, F., El-Amine, Z., & Nakkash, R. (2020). Experiences of humanitarian assistance programs
with corporate funding. European Journal of Public Health, 30(Supplement_5).
https://doi.org/10.1093/EURPUB/CKAA165.804

Molla, T. (2019). Educational aspirations and experiences of refugee-background African youth in Australia: a
case study. Https://Doi.Org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1588924, 25(8), 877–895.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2019.1588924

Phillips, J. (2015). Australia’s Humanitarian Program: a quick guide to the statistics since 1947.

Robertshaw, L., Dhesi, S., & Jones, L. L. (2017). Challenges and facilitators for health professionals providing
primary healthcare for refugees and asylum seekers in high-income countries: a systematic review and
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2017-015981

Siyambalapitiya, S. (2017). Community-based interventions for building social inclusion of refugees and
asylum seekers in Australia: A systematic review Optimising acute transitional care for culturally and
linguistically diverse stroke survivors View project Exploring speech pathologist perspectives about
working with interpreters in managing acquired communication disorders View project. Article in
Journal of Social Inclusion. https://doi.org/10.36251/josi.125

Weidinger, T., & Kordel, S. (2020). Access to and exclusion from housing over time: Refugees’ experiences in
rural areas. International Migration, 00, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/IMIG.12807

Williams, K. E., McMahon, T., Grech, K., & Samsa, P. (2021). Resettlement Factors Associated with Subjective
Well-Being among Refugees in Australia: Findings from a Service Evaluation.
Https://Doi.Org/10.1080/15562948.2021.1996671, 1–16.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2021.1996671

Wrench, A., Soong, H., Paige, K., & Garrett, R. (2017). Building spaces of hope with refugee and migrant-
background students. Https://Doi.Org/10.1080/13603116.2017.1420251, 22(11), 1197–1212.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2017.1420251

Yelland, J., Mensah, F., Riggs, E., McDonald, E., Szwarc, J., Dawson, W., Vanpraag, D., Casey, S., East, C., Biro,
M. A., Teale, G., Willey, S., & Brown, S. J. (2020). Evaluation of systems reform in public hospitals,
Victoria, Australia, to improve access to antenatal care for women of refugee background: An
interrupted time series design. PLOS Medicine, 17(7), e1003089.
https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PMED.1003089

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