Coordinating settlement (im)mobilities: exploring secondary migration patterns and settlement geographies among refugee-humanitarian migrants in regional Australia

Abstract

International migrants play an important role in addressing the social and economic challenges associated with population ageing and fertility decline that are keenly felt in regional Australia. In a policy arena where the attraction and retention of migrants remains a challenge, large numbers of refugee-humanitarian migrants have, without any direct government policy intervention, independently gravitated towards unplanned regional settlement locations. However, these secondary migration patterns, often regarded as ‘organic’ or informal, are not well understood. We present new insights into their mobility in regional Australia using secondary datasets and primary research. Using Institutional Ethnographic methods, we highlight how their movements are not as ‘organic’ as imagined. Simultaneously, through the 'new mobilities' paradigm, we highlight the link between international and internal migration of refugee-humanitarian migrants. We tease out the relational element by drawing attention to how immobility of family members, structured by immigration policies that delay and deny family reunification, is intertwined with secondary migration patterns in Australia. As regional communities embrace the benefits of the secondary migration of refugee-humanitarian migrants, we show that these benefits are perversely supported by punitive family reunification policies that can have implications for the successful integration of refugee-humanitarian migrants.