Meaningful refugee participation

Below is the transcript of the speech delivered by Renee Dixson at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum as a part of the panel titled: Meaningful Refugee Participation: How Partnerships with Forcibly Displaced and Stateless People Improve Policies and Solutions.

[time stamp 47:42]

How does meaningful participation that includes people of different ages, genders, LGBTIQ+ persons, persons with disabilities, minorities and other marginalised groups lead to better outcomes?    

Inclusive policy-making is essential. We need to build systems that work for everyone, not just for a few. Historically until today, our world has been shaped by and for white able-bodied men, leading to biases such as 90% of drug tests being conducted only on males, resulting in less effective treatments for women. I believe that you would like to ensure that your mother, daughter or spouse has the best medical treatment responsive to her needs.

Inclusion isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. It gives everyone a voice, especially those who’ve been silenced for too long. By ensuring representation from diverse women, people with disabilities, and the LGBTIQ+ community, we tap into a wealth of expertise shaped by intersectional life experiences.   

Most importantly we need to ensure that diversity is also represented within diversity. Let me make an example. FDPN, a national LGBTIQ+ refugee-led organisation, created a paid advisory committee. The goal was to design Australia’s first survey on settlement outcomes for LGBTIQ refugees. We made sure to involve diverse individuals in terms of disability, age, visa, gender, and culture. This approach ensured a more comprehensive and nuanced set of questions, enriching the overall depth of our work.

Employing and involving marginalised groups in decision-making not only leads to more accessible policies and programs but also empowers these communities, fostering a sense of agency, representation, and belonging. This is critical for the integration and well-being of refugees, helping to break down stereotypes, reduce stigma, and promote mutual understanding and respect.

To integrate meaningful refugee participation into policymaking, we should transition to a professional model. This involves allocating resources to refugee-led organisations and appointing refugees to senior leadership positions.

All of these can help us create spaces and systems that benefit us all.

[time stamp 01:09:10]

Do you have a recommendation for decision makers in how to include diverse groups based on your experiences?   

We become marginalised groups because of existing discrimination and systems that was created based on one size fits all approach.   

Let me highlight four considerations:

• Fair payments: People are affected by discrimination, and they are already surviving. We must stop asking marginalised communities to help us advance our paid jobs on their free labour.
• Actual accessibility: Disability is still a taboo topic. Accessibility requires comprehensive measures to address the needs for people with various disabilities from physical, to psychosocial and intellectual. Additionally, accessibility is about ensuring suitable meeting locations, time and duration, ability to join remotely, as well as ensuring that the space is safe and trauma informed.
• Accessibility needs to also be viewed in broader terms. This includes identifying and removing barriers to participation or funding. If diverse organisations are not applying, this means that there is something not accessible about your process. We recommend allocating funds for intersectional AGD work and actively removing barriers for these communities to participate.
• Diversity within diversity – For example, LGBTIQ+ people will have different experiences if they are from different cultures, countries, visa stages, with disabilities. You can’t have one Lesbian woman and say that you have representation in the group. Transgender woman will have completely different needs as they are killed in disproportionally hire rates.

[the speech above starts at 47:40 and 01:09:10 on the video]