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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Blacktown - An Australian Frontier: What life on the urban edge tells us about Australia
October 2021
In the face of large-scale immigration and change, author James Button talks with the proud residents of Blacktown, NSW.
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Melbourne’s New East: What change in one Australian Chinese community says about the nation’s future
December 2020
There has been considerable growth over the past 20 years in migration from Asia. Chinese-Australians have been a part of this growth. In many respects, though, the stories of Asian Australians have not been told. However in the streets of Box Hill – a suburb in Melbourne’s east with one of the highest concentrations of Chinese-born residents in Australia – we can sense an emerging pride.
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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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