Their struggles and resilience of Burmese community over the past 70 years, CiCT Online Forum 2021

The 2016 Australian Census recorded over 32,000 Myanmar born people in Australia. Myanmar diaspora in Australia comprise a wide range of ethnic nationalities: Bamar, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Rakhine, Rohingya and Shan. A majority of Myanmar diaspora are former refugees and asylum seekers fleeing from persecution and armed conflicts which have been raging for the last 70 years.

Recently, additional displacements in the form of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) and refugees have occurred in Myanmar in the wake of the military coup on 1 February of this year. Since then, despite severe crackdowns by security forces, the junta’s attempt to rule has been resisted by ongoing protests, boycotts, strikes and coordinated civil disobedience movements. Ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), who have also opposed the coup, are fighting the military in regional areas.

On the positive side, it has to be said that Myanmar refugees have been well served by the Australian Resettlement program, although in recent times only family reunion and vulnerable persons options have been available to them.

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