About the narratives
The Institute’s Applied Research Centre produces bi-annual narratives that consolidate and interpret relevant research in a way that is digestible and practically usable by people and organisations working to build social cohesion in communities.
Each narrative focuses on an emerging issue or challenge, highlighting key lessons from available evidence on the subject, and outlining considerations for practical application.
Narratives
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Lives in the sky: A look inside Melbourne’s high-rise public housing
July 2020
The COVID-19 lockdowns of Melbourne’s high-rise towers have painted a picture of a community in crisis. But what is life really like in “the Flats”? A generation of young African-Australians grew up in public housing. Their confident voices shed new light on a rapidly changing nation.
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Australia’s Chinese lesson: The nation’s urgent need to engage with international students from China
January 2020
While the economic risks of declining international student enrolments have been recently reported, this narrative explores how the divide between Australia and its Chinese students, exacerbated by broader political tensions arising from the “China debate,” also pose a threat to social cohesion – both on campus and beyond.
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Australia’s English Problem: How to renew our once celebrated Adult Migrant English Program
July 2019
This narrative explores the current landscape of English language learning among migrants and refugees in Australia and, in particular, examines the state of Australia's Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP).
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Off the scale but out of sight: The rise and rise of temporary migration
June 2019
Australia's temporary migrants are not officially part of the nation, but they are changing it.
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A Changing Australia: how migration is shaping the nation
October 2018
This paper for the Scanlon Institute for Applied Social Cohesion Research draws on recent research and writing from Australian and international universities, think tanks and media to shed light on the great transformation that mass migration is producing in nearly all western societies, along with great anxiety in some.
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