Chapter 2
The Community Case Studies
Table of Contents
LIST OF TABLES
INTRODUCTION
CASE STUDIES
SHEPPARTON
General Description
Community Diversity and History of Immigration
Developing the Interview Sample
Values, Culture and History
Inclusion and Exclusion
a)Economic
b)Social
Community Harmony and Social Capital
Economics
Conclusions
GRIFFITH
General Description
Community Diversity and History of Immigration
Developing the Interview Sample
Values, Culture and History
Inclusion and Exclusion
a)Economic
b)Social
Community Harmony and Social Capital
Economics
Conclusion
KALGOORLIE
General Description
Community Diversity and History of Immigration
Developing the Interview Sample
Values, Culture and History
Inclusion and Exclusion
a)Economic
b)Social
Community Harmony and Social Capital
Economics
Conclusion
ROBINVALE
General Description
Community Diversity and History of Immigration
Developing the Interview Sample
Values, Culture and History
Inclusion and Exclusion
a)Economic
b)Social
Community Harmony and Social Capital
Economics
Conclusion
QUANTITATIVE DATA
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Selected characteristics of sample regions
Table 2: Selected characteristic aggregates
Table 3: Education levels and occupation of sample region
Table 4: Education levels and occupation aggregates
Table 5: The top five industries according to percentage employed
Table 6: The top five industry aggregates
Table 7: Socio-economic indicators
INTRODUCTION
This chapter reports on the case studies in:
- Shepparton, Victoria;
- Griffith, New South Wales;
- Kalgoorlie, Western Australia; and
- Robinvale, Victoria.
Each case study report considers:
- Community Diversity and History of Immigration;
- Developing the Interview Sample;
- Values, Culture and History;
- Inclusion and Exclusion;
- Community Harmony and Social Capital; and
- Economics.
The case study data were primarily based on interviews conducted with participants in the sites.
The chapter also provides comparative quantitative data on the case study sites, which are also measured against state and national averages.
CASE STUDIES
SHEPPARTON
General Description
Shepparton is a large regional township in Victoria, located in the Goulburn river valley, 180 km to the North-East of Melbourne. It has a population of approximately 35,000 while Greater Shepparton has a population of around 57,000 people (ABS, 2001).
Shepparton is not a major international tourist destination and has few buildings of historical significance, but it has an attractive lake and lakeside accommodation, green open spaces and quiet, tree-lined streets.Its cultural diversity – evidenced in the variety of cafes and restaurants available in the shopping centre – also make it an attractive place to visit and stop. The main shopping centre is focused on the long pedestrian mall in Maude Street.
Greater SheppartonCity has a robust economy based on transport, dairy, fruit growing and processing, and light engineering.The city is one of the fastest growing regional centres in Victoria and in Australia.
Community Diversity and History of Immigration
Shepparton has experienced several successive waves of immigration since the 1930s, beginning with the influx of largely European settlers – Albanians, Italians, Greeks, Macedonians, Dutch and Germans, followed later by Turks, and others from the former Yugoslavia.In the mid 1990s, significant numbers of Punjabi Indians began to arrive, followed in the late 1990s by a growing Arabic-speaking community, mostly from Iraq and Kuwait. In more recent years, the town has received a substantial number of Pacific Islanders, and small numbers of many other groups, such as African and Pakistani professionals.
Census data for the Greater Shepparton region indicate that after English (47,989 speakers), 65 different languages were spoken in the area.The major LOTEs spoken, in descending order were: Italian (2213), Turkish (655), Arabic (453), Albanian (378), Greek (298), Macedonian (264), Punjabi (106), Dutch (83), Tagalog (79), Cantonese (59) and Samoan (50).All other languages had less than 50 speaking those LOTE at home (ABS, 2001).
One participant noted that …’Greater Shepparton City Council is the home of a large number of people of Aboriginal descent who take an important role in the Greater Shepparton community’.
Developing the Interview Sample
The Shepparton sub-branch of the Ethnic Communities Council (ECC) was the starting point for sample generation. It is well connected to a range of agencies and service providers in the region through its provision of settlement and community development services.Further, interviewees were then identified through a process of ‘snowballing’ from the initial interviewees suggested by the ECC.Regional contacts held by the Department were followed up and included in the interview sample.
Fourteen face-to-face interviews were completed between May and June 2005.Six of these were with relevant service providers covering the areas of health, employment, welfare and ethnic relations; these were equally spread across federal and state agencies. The remaining eight interviews were conducted with community leaders from the areas of law enforcement, federal government, the ethnic communities, small business, youth and the Indigenous community.Occupations of the interviewees ranged from public sector professionals and welfare workers through to seasonal labourer, small business operator and retired worker.
In six cases, interviewees held leadership positions within the ethnic communities. Two others were community leaders from women’s and Indigenous organisations. The interviewees spanned a range of ethnicities and birthplaces: Italian-Australian, Pakistani, Tongan, Irish-Australian, German, Iraqi, Albanian, and Anglo-Celtic. Seven interviewees were female, seven male. Their ages ranged approximately from 30s to late 60s.
Values, Culture and History
Most interviewees described Shepparton as a welcoming, inclusive and thriving multicultural community.Some spoke very positively about this as a distinctive feature of Shepparton life, comparing it to a perceived lack of diversity and tolerance in neighbouring towns.Others emphasised that Shepparton had a long tradition since the 1930s of accepting diverse people from various cultures and religions.However, several identified a small proportion of the population (estimated as high as 30 per cent) who were less accepting of diversity and sometimes showed this in overt acts against others who were perceived as different, for example, through spitting or verbal abuse.
The lifestyle benefits of living in Shepparton were raised in almost all interviews – good climate, clean environment, quiet neighbourhoods, proximity to Melbourne and other regional centres. ‘Making money’ or entrepreneurship was another major theme in some interviews.A further theme was that of civic pride and loyalty to Shepparton.
Inclusion and Exclusion
Two schools of thought emerged among interviewees regarding issues of inclusion and exclusion of different groups in the community.About equal numbers of interviewees adhered to these views. The first group felt that over time most groups in the community had no problems with being included in the social and economic life of the community. The second group perceived systemic patterns of disadvantage and discrimination affecting two groups in particular: Indigenous Australians and more recent arrivals particularly Iraqi refugees. The latter also perceived various levels of partial exclusion of other groups, such as Punjabi Indians, elderly Italians, Turks, and Albanians. Comments were also made about the exclusionary nature of ‘mainstream’ culture, such as intolerance towards homosexual, transgendered and transsexual people.
The first group is typified by the following comments made in interviewees:
‘Even if your first language is not English, you have no trouble getting work, if you really want to work, you can’.
‘The mayor and her councillors are very open.We have an opportunity to speak to them…they make ethnic communities feel they’re important to them’.
Comments from the second group included:
‘There’s a large percentage of the Iraqi community who are unemployed, I’d say the majority in mainstream employment, there’s very few…seasonally they have no problems, for example, picking fruit, but ongoing employment is different’.
‘Like every other group that’s come they (Iraqis) suffer from community ignorance, prejudice, bias from the broader community, and there is a perception that Iraqis don’t want to work.’
a)Economic
The more well-established immigrant communities – Italians, Greeks, Macedonians, Turks and Albanians – were thought to be prospering.After years of hard work and some early difficulties, most interviewees felt these groups had done exceptionally well economically.The combination of entrepreneurial spirit, strong family organisation and willingness to work long hours had paid off for these groups.Greek, Italian and Turkish families were said to own a large proportion of farming properties, providing significant employment in the area. Similarly, the Punjabi Indians, who had arrived more recently in the community, were thought to be faring well. A number of Punjabi families had bought farms, had established their own temple, and some had invested in business properties and shops in the town.
Iraqi and other Middle Eastern refugees, the most recent arrivals, were thought to be generally restricted to paid seasonal labour in the fruit industry, undertaking work which Anglo-Celtic Australians and the more settled immigrants did not want to do. Some Iraqis were employed by government or community agencies for their bilingual skills.Only one Iraqi business, a Halal butchery, was named in interviews. Generally, interviewees described the Iraqi community as struggling economically and relying on welfare payments, despite a number of them having professional qualifications.
Young Turkish men were described as being at risk from unemployment, but this was being addressed through youth programs and the growth of Turkish retail and hospitality businesses. Pacific Islanders were said to be concentrated in seasonal employment in agriculture.The Chinese were generally described as doing well, with many sending their children to university to train as doctors and nurses. A smattering of small minority groups – such as Africans and Pakistanis – were said to be employed mainly in skilled or professional employment such as medicine, academia and information technology.
The Anglo-Celtic majority in Shepparton were felt to dominate jobs in the private and public sectors and particularly the local council. Indigenous Australian residents, said to number as high as 6,000, were described as being largely excluded from participation in employment.[1] Those who were employed were generally confined to Indigenous or government employment. This is supported by ABS data that show Indigenous people in Shepparton had three times the unemployment rate of non-Indigenous residents (20.3 per cent compared to 7.0 per cent). Indigenous Australian males had an even higher unemployment rate at 25.4 per cent.
b)Social
Some interviewees perceived no differences in the level of social and cultural participation between immigrant and locally born groups. Others felt there were significant differences.A small number of interviewees indicated that for cultural, religious or family reasons, immigrants did not always seek to participate in all facets of community life.Iraqis, particularly women, were said to be socially isolated due to the English language barrier, cultural and religious issues, lack of transport and childcare. However, several interviewees detailed a range of successful programs that had helped draw these women into education and cultural activities such as: cross-cultural awareness sessions for government employees; health screening workshops; English classes at TAFE[2]; group driving lessons; fashion parades (Muslim women parading their home attire to women-only audiences); and single-sex swimming sessions at the local swimming pool.For the Iraqi youth, interviewees mentioned successful camps organised by the police, an advanced driving course at TAFE, and inclusion in soccer teams. Iraqi girls were harder to organise due to prohibitions against mixing with the opposite sex.
The more established immigrant groups Italians, Macdeonians, Albanians, Turks and some of the more recently arrived, such as Tongans, were said to be contributing to a rich tapestry of multicultural arts, religious and community events as well as ethnic cuisine through restaurants and cafes.Examples of these have been given in chapter 1.These events were said to attract wide patronage among all community groups in Shepparton and did much to promote social inclusiveness and intercultural understanding.
However, in terms of access to government services, many interviewees mentioned that immigrants, both established and more newly arrived, had trouble accessing at least some of the services on offer.This was particularly the case for elderly immigrants and young people. Services they did not access included aged care (for example, meals on wheels, health information), alcohol and drug counselling and mental health services which were said to be universally lacking. Generally, the reasons for this ranged from language and cultural barriers to lack of familiarity with services offered, the difficulties of negotiating bureaucratic structures, service jargon and fears about maintaining confidentiality in a small town.
Community Harmony and Social Capital
The overriding impression gained was that Shepparton is rich in social networks and civic goodwill. Almost every interviewee mentioned one or more committees or task forces that had been set up for various purposes – new settler committee, post September 11 committee, women’s groups, multicultural events committee, ethnic communities council sub-groups, multicultural youth committee, economic promotion committee, skilled migration committee, and so on.It seemed there were committees for all purposes, both short and longer term, and these committees attracted involvement by both professionals, such as government and welfare workers, and community volunteers.
As such, a number of interviewees expressed satisfaction with their opportunities to input to decision-making in the town and felt they were valued in society. Broadly speaking, there was a perception among interviewees that multiculturalism made life in the area better; people liked the community they lived in and spoke highly of it. Volunteering also seemed strong. Despite issues of social and economic exclusion identified in some interviews, there appeared to be a consensus that Shepparton was a harmonious community.Some tensions had occurred, for example, after September 11, but were described as ‘…isolated and passing’. Community leaders had successfully addressed these tensions through concerted community action.
Thus, it would appear that the interview data is consistent with the figures reported in the Department for Victorian Communities (DVC) Indicators of Community Strengths report.[3] It is interesting to note that while the figures in the DVC report for Greater Shepparton are lower than the state average, on a couple of indices they are higher (for example, multiculturalism makes life in the area better, and attendance at community events). This certainly reflects the qualitative data. However, a number of interviewees rejected the widely-held perception which is consistent with the figures in the DVC report that it was not safe to walk through the Maude Street mall at night.
Economics
Shepparton was described in all the interviews as a thriving township and region based on a diverse economy and a number of key strengths, including irrigation, good climate, critical mass, proximity to Melbourne and other major regional centres. Described as the ‘food bowl’ of Australia, it had grown from a strong agricultural base in fruit, vegetables and dairy since the introduction of irrigation in the area. The influx of immigrant labour from the 1930s onwards was said to have fuelled agricultural and civic expansion.
Agriculture is still a major employer in the area (1,228 employees), however, almost double the number of employees (3,057) worked in manufacturing in the area, mainly in food processing,[4] such as canning, juice-making, dairy products, wine, and farming products such as concrete troughs. It was reported that a significant proportion of the region’s primary and secondary products are exported overseas and transported to markets around Australia.Strong population growth was said to have fuelled employment in the local construction industry, and this is reflected in ABS data showing similar numbers employed in construction as agriculture (1,098).
Retail and accommodation, cafes and restaurants are important industries (3,455 and 656 employees respectively), as is transport and storage (750 employees).Property and business services were reported to be strong, with a local range of services such as legal, accounting and finance being represented (1,259 employees), as were health and community services (2,043 employees) and education (1,260). Significant numbers also worked in personal services (575), finance and insurance (458) and government administration and defence (387).
The key drivers of the economy were described as being a strong entrepreneurial and investor ethos, particularly among the more established ethnic communities, continuing population growth and associated labour supply, an active local council, good community relations other than the ongoing problems of the Indigenous community and attractive environment for people to work and live. Factors which were thought to be constraining Shepparton’s economic development included: the lack of a comprehensive university and culture of ongoing education; shortages of skilled and unskilled labour; a perceived growth in the gap between rich and poor; bureaucratic inertia in relation to attracting new businesses; welfare dependency; and the lack of local tourism opportunities.
Conclusions
The interviews provided a picture of Shepparton as a diverse, multicultural community that has experienced sustained and significant economic growth over several decades. Immigrants were perceived to have made a major contribution to such growth in a variety of ways. Just as importantly, the social infrastructure of the region, particularly the strong level of networking among service providers, volunteers and community leaders in the area of immigrant settlement, appears to have ensured that any cross-cultural tensions and community problems are addressed in a constructive and timely fashion.