From 18th to 22nd July, a delegation from the Aichi Prefecture Multiculturalism Promotion office visited some NSW local government offices and related organizations in order to study and discuss the states approach to managing and supporting a multicultural society.
The demand for foreign labour has been increasing in Aichi prefecture, resulting in an increase in foreign residents. This increase in foreign residents and the corresponding need to provide appropriate age care and language education services is proving difficult for the prefectural government.
In order to tackle this issue, the delegation has come to learn more about strategies and policies implemented by their Australian counterparts, namely local governments and NPOs providing services for refugees and immigrants.
CLAIR Sydney provided assistance to the delegation in briefing them on the Australian political, economic and multicultural landscape whilst also looking into each relevant organization to book appointments and accompany them during their study visits. As CLAIR Sydney is also currently running an internship program, current interns were given the opportunity to take part in these visits in order to provide them with experience in local government activity support.
Although there are differences between the support for foreign residents in Japan and the support for migrants and refugees in Australia in terms of national policy, organizational roles and budget allocations, the delegation recognized some similarities shared and learned quite a few things during their visit.
CLAIR Sydney is excited to see how the results of this visit will reflect in the services they provide to their foreign resident community and will strive to keep up-to-date on their progress.
