AUSTRALIAN STORY

While refugees may often be afforded better opportunites in Australia, our country is all the richer for their immense contribution. Women from three refugee families share their experiences with Dilvin Yasa

- Dilvin Yasa

Those lucky enough to be born here know there are many advantages to being able to call Australia home, but ask the UNHCR’s Naomi Steer about how our nation benefits from refugees and she immediately begins a lengthy roll call of recognisable names.

“There’s Anh Do, Judy Cassab, Les Murray, Tan Le, Dr Karl ... If we have a conversation about why diversity in Australia is vital when it comes to connecting us to a global community, we could look at the importance of having different cultural perspectives, new employment skills and life experiences,” explains Steer, the national director of Australia for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). “There are plenty of studies that show migration and refugee intake stimulate the economy significantly; the act of welcoming refugees and asylum-seekers enriching us in all manner of ways, many of them unexpected.”

There’s also the chance our newest citizens will one day become our nation’s ultimate success stories, the memory of their formative years pushing them to give back to the country they escaped to. Five such women share their stories.

AMINATA CONTEH-BIGER, 41

Aminata Conteh-Biger fled Sierra Leone after being kidnapped by soldiers and held hostage. The mum of two is the founder and CEO of the Aminata Maternal Foundation.