Background paper and sector consultation report

• Centre for Multicultural Youth

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25 November 2011The Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria, the Centre for Multicultural Youth and Carers Victoria are committed to informing a debate about issues arising when young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds have caring responsibilities. The following paper was developed throughout 2010 and 2011, as these three organisations came together in order to explore the effects of caring responsibilities upon young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds.

To this end, the organisations have gathered information from two distinct sources. First, they consulted the available research literature on this topic. Second, in order to supplement and enhance the literature based research, they hosted a statewide forum, bringing together representatives from the carers support and multicultural sectors.

The knowledge and feedback that emerged from these separate sources was both diverse and complementary. It is for this reason that the following paper has been arranged into three separate and distinct sections. These are presented as follows:

Part I – Background Paper
This section presents the information garnered from our study of the available research literature on this topic.

Part II – Sector Consultation Report
It is in this section that the authors report on the outcomes of their 2010 statewide sector consultation and the recommendations that have emerged as a result of this process.

Part III – Where to from here?
In this section they conclude on their findings and make suggestions regarding future action and research.

This paper provides some valuable insights into the complex circumstances surrounding young people with caring responsibilities, particularly those from refugee and migrant communities, who have been found to be overrepresented in this sizable, yet ‘hidden’ population of carers.

Also explored are the complexities that arise whenever the authors try to ascertain who a ‘carer’ actually is. This speaks to the emerging claim that policy and practice in the caring sector should place greater emphasis on the activity of caring, rather than the definition of a ‘carer’.