We annually hold a study tour for Japanese local government and related international association staff to understand multiculturalism in Australia.
This year, ten delegates came from Japan and we visited a total of nine organisations providing services relating to disaster prevention awareness, medical and social welfare, settlement support and other fields.
We learned about how they assist and support residents coming from overseas in order for them to comfortably live in Australia. We were also fortunate enough to participate in Migrant Information Day and further understand how informative these kind of events are for migrants.
The delegates learned more about service sensitivity in regards to population diversity. They were also exposed to the idea of tolerance and the strong volunteer spirit found in Australians through in-depth opinion exchanges and Q&A sessions.
On the last day, the delegates were divided into three groups and presented their main findings and observations through the tour and proactively shared new ideas amongst each other.
Regarding multiculturalism, Japan has a slightly different situation than Australia however the delegates found some good examples, like how to develop community engagement, which could be applied by their own local and prefectural governments and related agencies soon.
Special thanks to this year’s study program destinations:
Multicultural NSW
Ethnic Community Services Co-operative
NSW State Emergency Service
Advance Diversity Services
Sydney Local Health District
Transcultural Mental Health Service
Haberfield Primary School
Auburn City Council
Centre for Local Government, University of Technology Sydney