Policy and Research 

JRS Australia contributes to the development of safe and humane policy solutions for people seeking asylum, refugees, and migrants in vulnerable situations. Through survey data, case studies, testimony, and staff insights, we develop key insights about the systemic challenges facing the people we serve. These insights are compiled in policy briefs, research papers, and submissions to parliamentary inquiries. 

In the last three years, JRS Australia has made policy submissions to a number of inquiries and national policy development process relating to migration. In 2020, these include the Senate Select Committee on Temporary Migration (2020), the Senate Standing Committee on Social Policy And Legal Affairs Inquiry into Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence (2020), the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs Inquiry into Homelessness (2020), the Joint Standing Committee on Migration Inquiry on Migration to Regional Australia (2020), and the Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Family Law System (202). In all of these inquiries, JRS Australia attempts to address issues from the perspectives, barriers, and systemic challenges that the people we serve face in Australia. 

JRS Australia also contributes to broader civil society policy reform initiatives by  participating in a range of policy and strategic civil society groups at regional, national, state and local levels. These include groups coordinated by the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA), the Australia Violence Against Women Alliance (AVAWA), the Joint Party Working Group (JPWG) of the NSW Government, and various local government forums. JRS Australia also chairs or co-chairs groups such as the Health Housing Welfare Working Group (HHWWG) of the New South Wales Asylum Interagency. 

JRS Australia staff regularly present insights and analysis at academic conferences, policy roundtables, and other public forums. Recent examples include a book chapter co-authored by Carolina Gottardo and Nishadh Rego on the Australian border; a journal article by Tamara Domicelj and Carolina Gottardo on the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) and a whole-of-society approach; and presentations at the Refugee Alternatives Conferences 2020, 2019, and 2018; the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) 2020; the Migration Network of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) 2019; the UNHCR NGO consultations 2019 and the Intergovernmental Conference on the Global Compact for Migration 2018. 

You can find a full list of publicly available research and policy publications here.