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The Guardian
14-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘If I didn't have kids, I am dead': Jasmine's dreams turned into nightmare six weeks after arriving in Australia
Jasmine* arrived in Australia two years ago expecting to marry the partner who brought her here. After six weeks, 'things changed drastically'. 'He started to abuse me, abuse my children,' she says. On a temporary visa with no family in the country or money of her own, she was unable to work so she stayed at home. When her partner kicked her and her two young sons out, in an instant they faced the threat of homelessness. 'I was feeling like, if I didn't have kids, I am dead. Officially dead.' Jasmine's experience is not unusual. One year ago the Adira Centre in New South Wales opened its doors, pitching itself as the state's first multicultural centre for domestic and family violence. It was backed by $4.4m in funding for three years in a Minns Labor government election promise. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email For years Settlement Services International had advocated to address a support gap for migrant and refugee women and children experiencing domestic violence. 'Migrants and refugee women and children have a lot of structural barriers to access,' Gulnara Abbasova, the director of the centre, says. '[And] there are a lot of cultural considerations.' Language, traumatic migration journeys, previous exposure to violence and community dynamics all impact how they seek help, Abbasova explains, 'if they do at all'. Sabrina* did not know that controlling behaviours and emotional abuse are forms of domestic violence. And when she did leave her former partner, language was a barrier to finding help and her family challenged her decision. She is now part of the centre's lived experience advisory group. Her work includes 'explaining how and what we went through', so the centre can improve processes for different women from different backgrounds. In its first year, the centre has directly supported about 450 women and children across 20 different languages. Its information sessions on domestic and family violence have reached about 1,000 people. Abbasova says understanding cultural barriers is really important. And structural barriers can hinder a migrant's ability to access crucial services. Between police, courts, the health system and child protection services, 'navigating our complex systems is a maze for any woman,' Abbasova says. Then factor in being new to Australia, with no supports, no family relations, and limited language to converse. 'It is hard.' About 40% of women the centre has supported are on temporary visas. 'Issues around Medicare, Centrelink, crisis accommodation is huge,' Abbasova says. A lack of avenues for help can make it harder for a woman to leave an abusive partner or for support centres to direct her towards assistance. 'If you are faced with a decision of leaving the perpetrator and becoming homeless, it is a really tough call to make,' Abbasova says. Jasmine felt she had no options. 'I can't do anything. No one is hearing me out,' she recalls. 'I said to many [different local services] that I'm going to be homeless.' She feared no one would help. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'I couldn't get a job. So I started cleaning: any shifts that might be able to cover me and the kids, their needs. It was the biggest struggle of my life.' She reached out to help services online, including SSI who connected her to the Adira Centre. Jasmine was helped with organising food vouchers, training for employment and tuition for her children. An Adira support worker accompanied her to the police station, and connected her with a Legal Aid solicitor to assist with her visa. 'I started to have this chance to work, to do more jobs, to figure out what to do,' Jasmine says. 'They helped me sort out, if not money, how to figure out what to do … and how to deal with and explore life here, because I didn't know.' The centre 'brought me back to life', she says. Abbasova says much of the centre's resources goes into 'really intense advocacy for clients'. 'It's not just one phone call and referral to crisis accommodation,' she says. Sometimes it can take 15 to 20 phone calls to various services, 'and it's a no at every turn because of the limitations around visa status in particular'. The centre handles casework in the western Sydney region. It also collaborates with domestic and family violence services by sending practitioners with related cultural and migration expertise. Not only does that provide positive outcomes for the women, Abbasova says, but it also 'builds the capacity of that service that we work with', improving cultural awareness and helping make the issue everyone's responsibility. The NSW minister for the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault, Jodie Harrison, says the government knows the importance of culturally appropriate responses for multicultural communities. 'Women from migrant and refugee backgrounds are less likely to report violence or seek help due to language barriers, cultural stigma, concerns about visa and residency status, financial insecurity and other cultural reasons.' Abbasova says other states also have specialist response services for migrant women, including the SSI in Queensland and InTouch in Victoria. 'But they don't have that comprehensive approach that we apply,' she says. *Jasmine and Sabrina are pseudonyms In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women's Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via
Sydney Morning Herald
23-04-2025
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘The beauty of immigration': Inside Khawaja's heartfelt mission for change
As he reflects on his upbringing, recalling the moments of isolation and solitude he experienced as a new Australian, Usman Khawaja delivers a telling declaration. 'I've had tough times and a tough journey, and I'm really glad to say that in a lot of ways, Australia has grown and evolved,' the 38-year-old cricketer says. 'It's so much more inclusive now than it's ever been, but we've still got a long way to go.' Speaking as the Usman Khawaja Foundation announced a partnership with SSI (Settlement Services International), the Australian Test batsman opened up about the frustrations he feels in the lead-up to next month's federal election. When he hears the nation's housing crisis being blamed on immigration, he feels a pang of disappointment. When he hears people express their angst over new arrivals, he often asks if they're a cricket fan and a follower of his. When they reply 'yes', he's quick to remind them of his upbringing. Khawaja recalls his five-person family going from a relatively high income in Pakistan to living in a two-bedroom apartment in Australia. His mum would be angry if he drank too much milk due to its expense. Loading 'When I hear immigration getting blamed for the housing crisis, which I fundamentally know is not true – housing prices went through the roof when no immigrants were coming through in COVID – it disappoints me because I think Australia was built on the back of immigration,' he says. 'Unless you're First Nations or a person of Aboriginal descent, we're all immigrants in one way or another. I think Australia's greatest asset is its immigrant community who've come into Australia, contributed to Australia and contributed to make it such a great country. 'Look at Gout Gout right now, everyone is so excited … we have a potential guy who might win a gold medal, and his family are an immigrant family. 'That's the beauty of immigration.' The Khawaja Foundation is his passion away from cricket, providing grants, assistance and educational support to young people and families from refugee, immigrant, Indigenous, rural, remote and low socio-economic backgrounds Khawaja has used his profile and foundation to strive to eradicate the barriers he experienced, in the hope that more multicultural backgrounds will be represented among cricket's upper echelon. 'Unless you've lived through those experiences, it's hard to relate. I've been called names – the classic 'curry muncher' – and [told] 'you stink', and they'd assume I was Indian … it was a lack of understanding, all those racial slurs and things you had to go through. 'Once I played for Australia, you don't feel like you fully belong at the start. I don't want the next Usman Khawaja – male or female – to go through that same journey, they shouldn't have to. 'I think that's one of the things that's held cricket so far back. Look at the faces we have in the community of Australia right now, you walk through the streets and you see it, but we don't see that representation in the Australian cricket team.' Asked about his dispute with Queensland Cricket, Khawaja chose not to comment. However, he did call for more multicultural representation in cricket's coaching ranks, something he feels would address the lack of ethnic players reaching the pinnacle of the sport. He has witnessed the amount of investment that has gone into multicultural pathways, but stresses that with so little change in the elite landscape, the time has come to directly consult the people and families who might help shape how such programs could tap into the next generation. 'The people making the decisions in the past never experienced racism or never experienced being segregated or not being picked in a team because they were different,' Khawaja says. 'Now we have an opportunity to actually engage with people in the community; engage with the Test cricketers who have been through a lot of things in their life, who can openly talk about it … and then shape the way we have our programs to make the game more inclusive. 'It's not just the players; you look through the coaches in Australian cricket – and not just Australian cricket coaches but throughout high performances of Australian cricket – they've been very white-dominated in the past. 'There hasn't been any avenue for ethnic, multicultural coaches to come through the system because we haven't produced multicultural cricketers in the past. Coaches who come back into the system are past players, and so there's a whole cycle that takes a long time to get around. 'I wouldn't say we dropped the ball; I just think maybe it was a misallocation of where our funds should have been going. It's all about learning and trying to do stuff slightly differently to get a different result.'
The Age
23-04-2025
- Health
- The Age
‘The beauty of immigration': Inside Khawaja's heartfelt mission for change
As he reflects on his upbringing, recalling the moments of isolation and solitude he experienced as a new Australian, Usman Khawaja delivers a telling declaration. 'I've had tough times and a tough journey, and I'm really glad to say that in a lot of ways, Australia has grown and evolved,' the 38-year-old cricketer says. 'It's so much more inclusive now than it's ever been, but we've still got a long way to go.' Speaking as the Usman Khawaja Foundation announced a partnership with SSI (Settlement Services International), the Australian Test batsman opened up about the frustrations he feels in the lead-up to next month's federal election. When he hears the nation's housing crisis being blamed on immigration, he feels a pang of disappointment. When he hears people express their angst over new arrivals, he often asks if they're a cricket fan and a follower of his. When they reply 'yes', he's quick to remind them of his upbringing. Khawaja recalls his five-person family going from a relatively high income in Pakistan to living in a two-bedroom apartment in Australia. His mum would be angry if he drank too much milk due to its expense. Loading 'When I hear immigration getting blamed for the housing crisis, which I fundamentally know is not true – housing prices went through the roof when no immigrants were coming through in COVID – it disappoints me because I think Australia was built on the back of immigration,' he says. 'Unless you're First Nations or a person of Aboriginal descent, we're all immigrants in one way or another. I think Australia's greatest asset is its immigrant community who've come into Australia, contributed to Australia and contributed to make it such a great country. 'Look at Gout Gout right now, everyone is so excited … we have a potential guy who might win a gold medal, and his family are an immigrant family. 'That's the beauty of immigration.' The Khawaja Foundation is his passion away from cricket, providing grants, assistance and educational support to young people and families from refugee, immigrant, Indigenous, rural, remote and low socio-economic backgrounds Khawaja has used his profile and foundation to strive to eradicate the barriers he experienced, in the hope that more multicultural backgrounds will be represented among cricket's upper echelon. 'Unless you've lived through those experiences, it's hard to relate. I've been called names – the classic 'curry muncher' – and [told] 'you stink', and they'd assume I was Indian … it was a lack of understanding, all those racial slurs and things you had to go through. 'Once I played for Australia, you don't feel like you fully belong at the start. I don't want the next Usman Khawaja – male or female – to go through that same journey, they shouldn't have to. 'I think that's one of the things that's held cricket so far back. Look at the faces we have in the community of Australia right now, you walk through the streets and you see it, but we don't see that representation in the Australian cricket team.' Asked about his dispute with Queensland Cricket, Khawaja chose not to comment. However, he did call for more multicultural representation in cricket's coaching ranks, something he feels would address the lack of ethnic players reaching the pinnacle of the sport. He has witnessed the amount of investment that has gone into multicultural pathways, but stresses that with so little change in the elite landscape, the time has come to directly consult the people and families who might help shape how such programs could tap into the next generation. 'The people making the decisions in the past never experienced racism or never experienced being segregated or not being picked in a team because they were different,' Khawaja says. 'Now we have an opportunity to actually engage with people in the community; engage with the Test cricketers who have been through a lot of things in their life, who can openly talk about it … and then shape the way we have our programs to make the game more inclusive. 'It's not just the players; you look through the coaches in Australian cricket – and not just Australian cricket coaches but throughout high performances of Australian cricket – they've been very white-dominated in the past. 'There hasn't been any avenue for ethnic, multicultural coaches to come through the system because we haven't produced multicultural cricketers in the past. Coaches who come back into the system are past players, and so there's a whole cycle that takes a long time to get around. 'I wouldn't say we dropped the ball; I just think maybe it was a misallocation of where our funds should have been going. It's all about learning and trying to do stuff slightly differently to get a different result.'
