Family separation and the impacts on refugee settlement in Australia

In recent years, governments, researchers, non‐government organisations, service providers and international institutions have become increasingly concerned with how to best support the settlement of refugees in UNHCR resettlement nations. Anxieties about the formation of a refugee underclass and the intergenerational impacts of social stratification motivate such inquiries. Settlement is often viewed through either of two lenses; the biomedical frame or the social inclusion frame. These frameworks are complementary rather than exclusive. It is from this combined theoretical perspective that this paper explores the impacts of family separation on the settlement of refugees in Australia. Drawing on focus groups and in‐depth interviews across three refugee background communities in metropolitan Melbourne, the paper finds that family separation has pervasive impacts on the wellbeing of the participants and on their capacity to participate and direct their own futures. Family separation is found to be a barrier to settlement and therefore a crucial consideration for the design and provision of settlement services to people with refugee backgrounds.