Planning for Welcoming & Inclusive Communities: Guidelines for regional growth
report
posted on 2020-03-10, 03:32 authored by John van Kooy, Rebecca Wickes, Aleem AliThese guidelines are designed to help regional and remote communities—in partnership with service providers,
development authorities and the three tiers of government—to attract, retain and support migrants so that they
may flourish in Australia.1
Regional migration can stimulate economic growth and revitalise communities, while offering new migrants
opportunities to integrate into Australian society. However, not all regional destinations are the same. Like cities,
regional areas have diverse community, social and economic profiles. This is why a place-based, community driven approach to migration and settlement – that considers the unique characteristics of each regional
location – is critical. This will give local communities and migrants every chance to enjoy economic development
and social cohesion.
The Monash Migration and Inclusion Centre (MMIC) and Welcoming Cities have developed this resource to
help communities assess the readiness of local stakeholders to welcome new arrivals to the community and to
inform the design of regional migrant settlement initiatives. This project has been supported by the Queensland
Government through the Department of Local Government, Racing and Multicultural Affairs.
1. We broadly adopt the ABS definitions of ‘regional’ and ‘remote’ for this publication, which is based on ‘the calculated road
distances to the nearest service centres.’ We acknowledge the importance of allowing communities to self-define their
classification as regions.
