Australia is now more diverse, ethnically, linguistically, culturally than ever, yet concrete data on the extent of domestic, family and sexual violence (DFSV) among these communities is lacking. What is certain is that the impacts of this violence are being felt in multicultural communities. This Settlement Services International (SSI) policy brief analyses the key issues in addressing domestic, family and sexual violence in multicultural communities in Australia and puts forward recommendations.
Migrants, particularly refugees, are at risk of poorer mental health (MH) outcomes than members of host populations. Despite this, migrants and refugees in Australia significantly under-utilise MH services, yet factors preventing or enabling access are poorly understood. This systematic review identified and synthesised barriers to and facilitators of MH service utilisation among migrants and refugees in Australia to inform accessible, culturally-appropriate service development.
Miosku, L., Powell, C., & Saling, L. L. (2026) Australian Psychologist, 61(1), 1–21.
Christian religion may be a powerful resource that can serve as a coping mechanism to resolve challenges and provide comfort to African migrants confronted with mental health challenges. This study aimed to explore the coping strategies among African migrants in Australia.
Adonteng-Kissi, O., Meribe, N. and Gatwiri, K. et al. (2026). Journal of Social Work Practice 40(1), 33–48
This guide has been created to provide information about the inclusion of content warnings or advice when reporting on or portraying issues related to suicide. Content advice does not prevent harm from
occurring. Rather, it can provide people with enough detail to make an informed decision about whether to watch, read or listen to suicide-related content or not.
This report presents findings on the working conditions of almost 10,000 migrants on temporary visas in Australia from the 2024 National Temporary Migrant Work Survey. This includes international students, backpackers, graduate visa holders, employer-sponsored workers and other migrants. The data shows, for the first time, how underpayment, insecure employment structures and non-compliant employer practices cluster together into a single system of exploitation. It reveals how businesses are exploiting gaps in the system that regulators have struggled to address.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2025 General Social Survey asked thousands of Australians how they feel about their lives and about others. The results showed declines in many areas of Australian life, including trust and social inclusion. Australians are less trusting of each other than they were five years ago, according to new data that also reveals shifting attitudes towards cultural diversity.
This research provides a contemporary national snapshot of multicultural mental health. It brings together data, evidence and different perspectives to inform policy and services. The report is delivered by Embrace Multicultural Mental Health, and funded by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Led by Associate Professor Shameran Slewa-Younan, Western Sydney University, the research focused on 2 key questions:
- What is currently known about the state of multicultural mental health in Australia?
- What are the current and emerging good practices for supporting multicultural communities?
This report from the Australian Human Rights Commission details the devastating impact of events related to the war in Gaza on Australia’s Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian, Arab and Israeli communities. The report is part of the Seen and Heard project which was commissioned to better understand the effect of the Middle Eastern hostilities on local communities of the war in Gaza, the associated humanitarian crisis and widening regional hostilities.
Arabic-speaking refugees and migrants experience elevated levels of anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, compared to the host country general population. This study sought to establish consensus on the perceived relevance of different mental health self-care strategies for Arabic-speaking refugees across the four settings of the Australian Mental Health Stepped Care Model: informal community care, primary/generalist care, community-based mental health services, and hospital-based mental health services.
Interest in co-design for suicide prevention is growing, yet few studies have evaluated feasibility, acceptability and impact, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse populations. This study assessed a co-design process used to develop a digital suicide prevention intervention with international students in Australia.
Ng, C., Shaikh, T., Robinson, J., Nicholas, J., Browne, V., Chinnery, G., ... & McKay, S. (2026). A Pre–Post Study of the Feasibility, Acceptability and Benefits of a Co‐Design Approach for the Development of a Digital Suicide Prevention App for International Students. Health Expectations, 29(2), e70669.