From the CEO 

Message from the City LLEN CEO 

We are so lucky to be living or working in the City of Melbourne.  Not only is Melbourne often rated one of the most liveable cities in the world, stepping outside our office we are surrounded by the wonderful food brought from migrants across the globe as well as the rich diversity of people going about their business.  Sometimes however, our newest arrivals need a helping hand to navigate our education system. We also know that many people struggle to maintain engaged in school, thereby limiting their chances to reach their potential, addressing this is the core of our LLEN work.

The City of Melbourne is also home to much needed public housing and we welcome the recent announcement that should Labour win the next State election more will be built.  Since the public housing estates were first established in our municipality in the 1960’s they have housed waves of migrants and refugees.  Migration has always been a normal part of human history, people exploring what’s over there? People looking for a better place to live. But this movement is often represented as an exception or a crisis.  Globalisation and technological advances have changed the methods used; some of the reasons for; and patterns of migration.  I am looking forward to exploring these changes when I attend Monash Universities visiting Professor Triandafyllidou’s free public lecture in the city on

“Globalisation, Identify & Migrant Agency in the 21st Century’.

I hope the information shared can inform our work with our migrant communities to better support the pathways of students from culturally diverse backgrounds. I’ll take this opportunity to promote the great work of The Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY) who together with Foundation House deliver some fantastic programs aimed at helping schools and educators better understand the challenges faced my students from diverse backgrounds – refer to this information on the Attend This page of the newsletter. 

We also welcome Monash Universities Migration and Inclusion Centre’s new twitter account, migration@monash helping to combat the negative African gang tropes perpetuated by some misinformed users of social media.  Please follow them here

Louise Smith, CEO