A small town in Victoria has gained an economic benefit of $41.5m from resettling refugees, a report has found, pointing to the possible gains available to other local communities.
The town of Nhill is nestled halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide, and has a population of just under 2,300. Since 2010, 170 Karen refugees from Burma have been resettled in the largely agricultural town.
A report commissioned by the resettlement agency Ames and undertaken by Deloitte Access Economics has found the resettlement of the refugees has created 70 full-time jobs, mainly in local poultry producer Luv-a-Duck.
“Fifty-four Karen are directly employed in Luv-a-Duck, and seven employed in businesses that supply Luv-a-Duck. Beyond this, the increased population has enabled the creation and filling of additional jobs across a number of broader community businesses and services,” the report said.
The creation of the jobs and the flow-on effects of having a larger population have resulted in a $41.5m boost to the economy, according to the report, which will be released on Friday.
“The resettlement of the Karen in Nhill has had a specific and sizeable economic impact on this agricultural town,” the director of Deloitte Access Economics, David Wright, said.
“It has eased a capacity constraint on local production and at the same time boosted demand for local service provision. This has resulted in a 4%-plus lift in regional production in 2013-14.”
The chief executive of Ames, Cath Scarth, said she hoped the report would pave the way for policy change.
“We at Ames hope that this research report ... will inform in some way policy and practice in the settlement of refugees and, for that matter migrants; and, that the lessons we’ve learned from this experience will be shared widely to improve outcomes both in the fields of refugee settlement and regional development.”
The head of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council of Australia, Joe Caputo, said the report could help stop the spread of misinformation about refugees and asylum seekers.
“Refugees historically have added so much to this country,” Caputo said. “There are a lot of myths around the place and often they’re not based on facts.
“Reports like this will dispel a lot of those myths.”
Caputo said refugees tended to be courageous risk-takers who made good employees. “I see people really making an effort and doing well,” he said.
The Karen people are from the mountainous region of Burma. Many fled the country during the country’s civil war, saying they were persecuted by the ruling military junta.
Up to 150,000 Karen live in refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border.
The last census showed there were 21,760 people in Australia who were born in Burma.
