Welfare Benefits and Ethnic Minorities: Transfers from Australia to the United-Kingdom

Abstract

With a quarter of its population born overseas, Australia has had to face the challenges commonly associated with the integration of minority groups in a singularly acute manner. The way the country has tackled those issues might be of interest to countries which face those questions, albeit in a less stringent manner. Measures such as the creation of an interpreting service and the translation of official documents (e.g. brochures) into languages other than English had drawn the attention of the British government at the time of their implementation. Granting access to welfare payments only after two years on Australian soil was another aspect of the debate that was also picked up by British MPs. This article will thus analyse how Australia could be a source of inspiration for the United Kingdom in social policy and more particularly when ethnic minorities are concerned.

Keywords

• social policy
• welfare reform
• ethnic minorities
• policy transfer
• policy learning