Abstract
ABSTRACT Regional settlement of refugees is a federal, state and often also local government agenda in Australia. It is increasingly welcomed by regional employers seeking to plug labour shortages and by non-government organisations facilitating their refugee clients’ relocation from cities. This paper investigates the role of secondary movements in refugee settlement and the tensions between a dominant vision of regional settlement as the final destination, which frames retention as settlement success and problematises secondary migration, and an alternative understanding as a stage in a social and spatial trajectory that includes mobility. Drawing on former refugees’ own reflections on their regional settlement in qualitative interviews, we investigate four themes: tensions between local interests in refugee retention and refugee interests in mobility; navigating the freedom of movement and settlement dreams and objectives over time and space; making sense of barriers in regional places and in the wider Australian society (including racism and discrimination); and considering place and mobility in the context of family and community. We conclude that the success of regional refugee settlement policies in Australia will depend on taking seriously former refugees’ right to be mobile, their search for happiness and their resourcefulness, as well as racism and discrimination.
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