The Importance of Youth and Community Associations in an ever growing multicultural western Society

Australia is a nation built on convicts, migrants and peoples from across the world on top of the indigenous population that existed here prior to Australia's federation in 1901. The diversity of peoples and cultures is what gives Australia strength and therefore provides it the ability and agility to interact with any and all the nations which are its neighbors physically and ideologically as a democratic nation. 

However this would not be the case if it was not for the likes of social clubs, youth and community associations as they act as the airlock and or decontamination chamber in between the general population and those who have just migrated especially from nations where civil and intercommunal conflict is rife. 

These associations allow for migrants to ease themselves into the wider Australian community, giving them an opportunity to learn how the society works and where they could potentially fit into so that they understand the mechanisms that make up the society prior to making changes and or customising it to fit them. With the reason this being done is that the changes they make do not negatively affect the wider society as they integrate into it. However it is important to note that these associations should not be used for the purpose of dating and or marriage, as that takes away their credibility as organisations and turns them into nothing more than circus spectacles. 

As the nations and peoples that make up Australian society are diverse, it is important to note that not everything you come with from your birth place should be brought with you to Australia. Chief example being the intercommunal violence and party politics that exist not just in the nations which we have all migrated from but exist even here in Australia. 

The Australian government has done what it can to help in these areas providing many services under the umbrella of Services Australia. However this is a top down method and the youth and community associations as well as social clubs provide a bottom up version. 

In an ideal Australia, these Associations would work in tandem with the government and services Australia to equip migrants and newcomers with everything they need to succeed in Australia, regardless of which state they choose to live in or their skin color or where they come from.

This was one of the reasons I participated in the Tigrayan Youth Association in Victoria, as the rise of Abiy Ahmed in Ethiopia not only robbed Tigrayans of their voices in their home nation but also across the world as legally and practically Tigray is no longer a part of Ethiopia. Leaving Tigrayns to be like Tom Hanks in the movie Terminal. 

Disadvantage them from the privilege and most important competitive advantage of being a citizen of a western nation which is the ability to speak the truth to power; whether through democratic protest or political advocacy. 

By Abel Tesfalem Habib
I am not a journalist nor legal expert.