text: Turkish Youth Moving from school to work and further study Andrew Chodkiewicz CENTRE FOR POPULAR EDUCATION September 1999 Turkish Youth: Moving from school to work and further study CONTENTS Pages Acknowledgements 2 1. Introduction 3 2. Literature Review 6 3. Economic and political factors 10 4. Demographics 12 5. The Turkish community 17 6. Turkish teachers and students 20 7. Turkish young people 25 8. Community workers 35 9. Findings 39 10. Recommendations 42 References 44 Appendices – Youth stories 46 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project has been funded by a Community Development grant from the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission and carried out through the Centre for Popular Education at the University of Technology, Sydney. A number of people have assisted with their time and effort throughout the project, including members of the project steering committee - Rick Flowers from the Centre for Popular Education at UTS, Anne Bicer from Granville TAFE Outreach, Bernice Melville from the Research Centre for Vocational Education and Training at UTS, Vicktor Jakupec from the Faculty of Education UTS, Debbie Wong and Myriam Bahari from Youth Action Policy Association. Sezin Adem assisted with the first stage of the project, establishing links with a range of Turkish and community organisations and making contact with a number of young people. Special thanks to Alev Guven from the Australian Turkish Cultural Trust and Australian Turkish Welfare Workers Interagency, Dursen Guzel from the Australian Alevi Association, Sherban Gunesh from Turkish Teachers Association, Ezel Jupiter from Centrelink, Yildiz Ozan from,Turkish Welfare Association, Kudret Yilmaz and Irfan Yigit from Granville Boys High School, Askin Baran editor of Yorum, Ilker Saglamer, a teacher at the Turkish Saturday school at Dulwich Hill and the Turkish teachers at the Liverpool Saturday School. Also Rosemary Chick and Angela Lancuba from Job Futures at Burwood, Patrick Callaghan and Jeff Egan from Mission Employment Granville, Stan Hurley from Mission Employment Auburn, Joanne McMillan from the Prairiewood Youth Centre, the NESB Youth Issues Network, Raefat Soryal at the Granville Multicultural Centre and Victor Boulos from TAFE NSW. Audrey Brown from the Centre for Popular Education for the layout and desktop publishing of this report. A very special thanks to the Turkish young people who gave up their time and contributed their experiences as part of this project. 2 1. INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND Rationale The research project grew out of a concern that there was a significant proportion of Turkish speaking young people in Sydney, who were finding it difficult to make an effective transition from school into work or further study. Figures from the 1996 Census showed that Turkish speaking young people aged 15-24 in Sydney were experiencing higher rates of unemployment than their Australian born peers. Among 15-19 year old Turkish youth the unemployment rate was 36.1% and 20-24 year olds 21.7% (ABS 1999 unpublished data). Turkish speaking youth, along with Arabic and Vietnamese speaking youth were among the groups of young people from non-English speaking backgrounds in Sydney's west and south-west, who were suffering significant disadvantages in their attempts to move into work or further study With most of the Turkish young people in Sydney living in areas where overall rates of unemployment for their age group are relatively high, there was also a concern that Turkish community associations, as well as other government and community agencies were not addressing the needs of unemployed Turkish youth. Aims The aims of the research project were to: • record and analyse the experiences of some unemployed Turkish speaking youth in Sydney as they move from school into work and further study • research the views of Turkish teachers, community workers and other relevant agencies in order to highlight what they see as the main issues affecting unemployed Turkish youth • assist Turkish community organisations to more effectively address the needs of Turkish youth • assist youth workers, educational bodies and employment agencies in their work with Turkish youth • suggest strategies that could assist Turkish youth to make a more effective transition into work or further study. PROJECT METHODOLOGY The project methodology involved: • a literature review • collecting demographic and other relevant statistical data • conducting interviews with unemployed Turkish young people, Turkish community workers and workers in various government and community agencies. This mix of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to provide a number of different perspectives on the way Turkish young people were making the transition from school to work and further study. The approach provided a way of highlighting some of the key issues the young people were facing. 3 Literature review A review of literature in the field drew on a number of areas including: • youth and the labour market • transition from school to work • studies of Turkish youth. Demographic data The demographic data gathered for the project relied on both published and previously unpublished data. The main sources used were the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Employment Workplace Relations and Small Business, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Centrelink, the Department of Corrective Services, the Department of Education and Training, TAFE NSW and the NSW Board of Studies. In a number of cases it was necessary to purchase the data, as it was not available in any other form. Turkish young people One important aspect of the research approach was to give voice to the experiences of the Turkish young people. This meant documenting a number of stories of Turkish speaking youth by carrying out individual interviews. A total of 10 young people, five males and five females, were selected for these interviews, on the basis that they were: • aged 15-24 years old • Turkish speaking youth (including those born here of Turkish parents or born in Turkey) • living in the Sydney region • currently unemployed, working part-time or had been unemployed for a period since leaving school. Contact was made with the young people with the assistance of a number of workers in Turkish community organisations, mainly Turkish speaking welfare workers employed in the Auburn area. Contact was also made with a number of youth services in Sydney's western and south-western suburbs, including the NESB Youth Issues Network (NYIN). With the assistance of these workers a meeting was organised with each young person that was interviewed. Most participants agreed to have their conversation audio taped, while others requested that only notes were taken of what they said. The edited transcripts of each interview were sent back to the participant for their approval and comment. The interviews were carried out as guided conversations with the young people. This meant there was a focussed discussion covering a number of topics that included: • their experiences of school, work and further education • how they went about finding work or moving into further study • their experience of unemployment • the role of their family in their work and education choices • how they saw being Turkish in Australia • their plans for the future In addition there were five focus groups organised with Turkish speaking high school students. They included Year 11 and 12 classes at two Saturday schools in Dulwich Hill and Liverpool, as well as a group of Turkish Year 9 students attending an after-school tutoring class (HELP program) at the Granville Multicultural Centre. 4 Turkish community workers Interviews were carried out with a number of welfare workers employed in Turkish community organisations, and with a number of Turkish high school teachers. There were also a number of Turkish family counsellors, a general practitioner, and a community health worker who were interviewed. Government and community agencies A number of workers in Auburn Centrelink, job network agencies in Auburn, Granville and Burwood, and a community development officer from Auburn Council were interviewed. There were also community youth workers, and staff in a number of educational support programs who were interviewed to provide a further perspective. Stages of research The project was carried out over two stages. The first stage during September-November 1998 involved an initial literature review and work by a Turkish speaking research assistant Sezin Adem, who was employed to establish contact with Turkish community organisations, other local agencies and arrange interviews with a number of unemployed Turkish youth. During this stage Sezin was based at the Turkish Welfare Association office in Auburn for a period of two weeks. The second stage was carried out by Andrew Chodkiewicz during May-August 1999, when most of the interviews with young people, community workers and other agencies were arranged and the demographic data and additional literature gathered for the report. Location The main geographic focus of the report was in the Auburn area, because of the sizeable Turkish speaking population living there or in nearby suburbs. It remains the main centre of Turkish community life, with many Turkish community organisations, small businesses and shops located there. However during the second stage of the project considerable effort was made to contact Turkish youth in other parts of Sydney where Turkish people are also living. This included visits to Marrickville, Dulwich Hill, Menai, Granville, Toongabbie, Mt Druitt, Prairiewood, Liverpool, and Green Valley. This reflects the increasing dispersed settlement pattern of Turkish speaking families throughout Sydney. 5 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The literature review drew on work carried out in the areas of youth and the labour market, the transition from school to work and studies of Turkish youth. The literature highlighted a number of useful concepts and perspectives that helped inform the research. Youth and the labour market Some of the key features of the current landscape facing young Australians as they leave school and seek to move into the workforce include high levels of youth unemployment, the prevalence of part-time work, the lack of full- time jobs and the removal or limitation of government funded income support. (Bessant 1999, Sweet 1995). Structural change Young people are facing the impact of structural changes that have been affecting the youth labour market for more than two decades. Two major studies by the Dusseldorp Skills Forum have helped collect relevant statistical data and focus attention on the entrenched difficulties now facing both 15-19 year old (DSF 1998) and 20-24 year old young people across Australia (DSF 1999). The Productivity Commission (1998:43) also recently acknowledged the impact of structural change in the labour market and its effect on young people. They found that there had been a major decline in youth employment and that the number of full-time jobs available for young people had fallen while the number of part-time jobs had increased. The effect of these structural changes in the youth labour market, according to Lauritsen (1995:34) is for young people to face a labour market that offers work in mainly insecure, low paid, personally demanding and highly competitive work. In response to these structural changes, the actions by government, both state and federal, have been limited and fragmented. Overall Australia does not do well in preparing many of its young people for leaving school and moving into work. As a result Sweet (1995:i) argues that a proportion of youth are being increasingly marginalised from the mainstream of employment, education and training. The marginalised are not just among those young people leave school early and are unemployed. There are increasing numbers of young people who are being disconnected from any further education and training after they leave school. Sweet suggests 'it is important to see all marginal young people – not only the unemployed, but also those who are outside the labour force but not studying, and those in precarious part- time work' (1998:4). Activities In addition a useful distinction has been developed that draws attention to the types of activities young people undertake and the kind of economic sphere where the activity takes place (McDonnell, Harris & White 1998:38). The suggestion is that we need to look at both legal and illegal activities and the formal and informal sectors of the economy. This leads onto further consideration of the economic and political disadvantage among youth, as they seek to move among various activities in different parts of the economy. Waged work exploitation One of the aspects that does impact on young people in low income areas, is that they can face widespread exploitation when they do move into the workforce. White (1997) found in a study among under 18 year 6 olds and 18 –25 year olds from low income areas in Melbourne that young people were generally subject to two kinds of exploitation. There was systematic exploitation, which was a universal feature of class based production and situational exploitation, due to the age of the young people and the nature of the youth labour market in their area. This meant that for many of these young people, the only work they were able to access, especially among the small business sector, was informal work, which was paid cash in hand and treated off the books by the employer. This provided the young people with little protection if they had an accident or were involved in a dispute with their employer. (YSA 1998:59) Transition from school to work There is a growing body of research that is looking at the way young people make the transition from school to work. The importance of this research is that it helps provide insights into the way youth are confronting the collapse of the youth labour market. Some of the main themes in the literature involve a focus on the notion of pathways, collecting data on early school leavers, and identifying the key factors associated with youth unemployment. Pathways The notion of pathways was developed to help focus on the choices young people make when they leave school and establish themselves in the work force. Initially the concept was mechanistic and involved simple linear and lock step models where the main options identified were getting a job, taking on an apprenticeship, or doing further study. Young people were expected to move in a linear way through these stages. Recently the concept has been refined with the recognition that young people have been making a range of choices and have opted to go in many different ways, following a variety of pathways. In the early 1990's this notion was expanded by Holden (1992) who highlighted that possible pathways included employment, education, financial dependence on the family, income support and illegal activities. By the mid 1990's the idea of a lock step or steady movement along a pathway by young people was overturned by Dwyer (1997: 20) whose research with young people who did not complete high school showed clearly that they were moving in a zig-zag pattern after they left school. The important point was that young people were making a variety of choices, in response to the economic, social and educational conditions they faced. Over time they were often forced to move back and forth among a number of different options – employment, education, training courses, unemployment, reliance on the family, income support and illegal activities. Early school leavers A number of studies have highlighted the impact of leaving high school early. In particular the recently released RCVET report (1999) on early school leavers analyses the experiences of young people on the Central Coast of NSW and documents a number of cases studies. The report highlighted the different patterns of transition that early school leavers were following and found there were broadly two groups of early school leavers- positive and discouraged leavers. It was among the discouraged early school leavers that the risk of falling into longer term unemployment was the highest (McIntyre et al 1999:56). Deficit approach Many studies have taken a deficit approach to youth unemployment, focussing on what was lacking from young people who experienced long periods of unemployment. A recent study by Lamb (1997) suggested that if young people left school early without completing year 12, had low levels of literacy and numeracy 7 and came from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, they were likely to face significant periods of unemployment. This focus on attributes has also been used in a study of employer attitudes towards employing young people. This study involved a survey of personnel responsible for hiring employees in 500 companies in NSW. They found the most important attributes for selecting young people under 21 for entry level positions was enthusiasm and willingness to work, basic literacy and numeracy skills and communication and interpersonal skills (DTEC 1996:4). Studies of Turkish youth There have been two major recent studies that have focussed on the educational experiences of Turkish young people. The largest and most comprehensive study of the educational and work experiences of Turkish youth was carried out by Inglis, Elley & Manderson (1992). They interviewed Turkish young people aged 15 to 24 from Turkish families in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, as well as surveying Turkish high school students in Sydney. Another study by Baylis and Brown (1998) included Turkish young people as part of their report on the participation of NESB young people in traineeships and apprenticeships. Commitment to education Both studies have highlighted the commitment of Turkish youth and their parents to higher education. Inglis et al (1992) looked at young people's educational experiences and educational attainment in high school, their participation in TAFE, other post secondary education and the world of work. Their findings were that 'despite the complex web of commitments to education shared by young people, their parents and the community ..(their) educational attainment is likely to be limited' (Inglis et al1992:ix). However they were not able to identify the factors that led to this conclusion. But they did find that there was evidence of 'an increasingly high level of tertiary participation among Turkish Australians both men and women…. with the TAFE sector playing a less important role for the young second-generation' (Inglis et al 1992 :ix). They also found that at a time of high unemployment in the recession of 1991/92, Turkish youth had difficulty entering the job market and this was especially acute for those with limited post-secondary qualifications. Another study by Baylis & Brown (1998) surveyed Turkish students, parents and community workers in Sydney as part of a study of attitudes and knowledge about apprenticeships and traineeships. They found that Turkish parents continued to place a high value on university education for their children, while acknowledging that their goals were probably unrealistic (Baylis & Brown 1998:2). While Turkish parents still preferred university as a way of avoiding unemployment, obtaining respect in their community and getting a 'good job' (high pay and high status), the main objective they had for their children was to ensure they did not end up labouring like they had. Turkish students said their parents wanted them to go to university. At the same time their parents accepted their children should go as far as they could with their studies and do what they were happy doing. Study options A further finding was that Turkish students were now more aware of other options than just university (Baylis & Brown 1998: 4). But most parents felt ill prepared to advise their children regarding work and study options after they left school. Although both parents and young people did know about apprenticeships, they knew very little about traineeships (Baylis & Brown 1998:3). 8 Turkish community workers also confirmed that Turkish people generally value education highly, wanted their children to go to university, rather than to study in the vocational education sector. Although some workers reported expectations were changing as parents recognised that there were other ways to be successful in life other than going through university (Baylis &Brown 1998:11). Gendered worlds Elaborating further on their 1992 findings, Inglis & Elley (1995) suggest that Turkish young people aged 15 to 24 live in two different gendered worlds of experience in their social and family life. This social experience impacted on both their educational and work choices, although the commitment to further education was as strong for girls as it was for boys. They saw that the social life of girls was invariably based in the home and in home based activities, where girls are expected to help with domestic work. While boys were more likely to live a much freer life, often outside the home, with friends, socialising and taking part in organised sporting activities (Inglis & Elley 1995:197). Significantly both girls and boys attended weekend Turkish language classes and were actively involved in family visits, going to wedding parties, cultural, religious and other community celebrations Despite these two very different worlds of social experiences of Turkish young people as they grow up, parents placed great emphasis on both male and female children to continue their education as much as possible. Both males and females were expected to complete high school and go onto tertiary education. This is despite many of the parents having not gone beyond primary school in Turkey and working in manual jobs in Australia (Inglis & Elley 1995: 195). The greater freedom provided to males highlighted by this study points to the difficulties some Turkish parents face trying to have their teenage boys stay on complete high school, to go onto further study and move into the work force. It suggests boys may become harder to influence and more likely to rebel against their parent's attitudes while they are still at school, than are girls. 9 3. ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL FACTORS An important dimension of the study is placing Turkish young people within an overall economic and political context. The literature review has already highlighted a number of aspects of the current youth labour market that impact on young people. This section helps to identify other factors that are affecting young people as they move from school to work, and try to make their way in the world. Economic As mentioned above major structural changes have significantly affected the amount and nature of work available for young people aged 15-24 years. These changes continue to have a major effect on all youth in this age group, despite the recent fall in the overall level of unemployment. Other major economic factors include rapid technological change, the reduction in tariff barriers, the opening up of local markets to foreign competition, greater concentration of ownership, and the increase in overseas ownership by major global corporations. Together these changes are bringing increased rates of economic growth, along with greater economic inequality across Australia. This means there are growing disparities in the opportunities for work and further study, especially for young people in parts of Sydney, as well as in other regions across NSW. Income and unemployment figures provide some indication of how the impact is being shared unevenly across Sydney. Recent ABS labour force data from February 1999 indicates the overall unemployment rate was down to 2.7% in the Northern beaches, 3% in Inner Sydney, 3.7% in St. George-Sutherland and 4.0% in the Eastern Suburbs. Whereas it was 7.7% in Central Western Sydney, 8.0% in Canterbury-Bankstown, 10.7% in Outer South- West and 13.3% in Fairfield-Liverpool (ABS 1999:31-34). Income figures from the 1996 Census show the median personal weekly income in Sydney was $343, but ranged up to $469 in Manly, $457 in Leichhardt, and $420 in Drummoyne. This compared with a weekly income of $266 in Bankstown, $234 in Auburn, and $224 in Fairfield. (Dhungel 1997:5-7) An additional feature of this new economic landscape for many Turkish families is the high unemployment rates now being experienced by Turkish parents as a result of industry restructuring. O'Loughlin & Watson's (1997) study shows how the burden of restructuring in the 1990's has fallen on older aged NESB migrants, who previously found work in unskilled or low skilled manufacturing jobs that have now disappeared. Turkish migrants are among those who took up manufacturing jobs in large numbers in the 1970's and now find themselves pushed into unemployment in middle age, with little prospect of ever re-entering the workforce. As these parents become alienated from the workforce, it becomes difficult for them to help link their children into work, especially at an entry level. Also they are unable to access those crucial informal, work networks for their children, nor assist them effectively in making their career choices. As a result of these factors some Turkish youth, living in parts of Sydney, face major economic and social disadvantage that is structural in nature and impacts severely on their ability to move into work and further study. Political The political environment over recent years has also become much harsher for young people, as the policies adopted by both federal and state governments, take a more punitive approach. These policies especially effect young people living in disadvantaged areas, who rely on assistance from government programs to move into work or further study. 10 The changes include the 1998 federal government's abolition of labour market programs, the restructure and tendering out of employment services, the cutbacks in a range of income support programs, and cuts in funding for higher education especially access programs. At a state level the policies include cutbacks in funding for services in government schools, especially career advice and counselling, cuts to staffing and course offerings available at TAFE colleges, and cuts to services by local community and ethnic specific welfare services. Some young people now face: • reduced time and access to career advice and counselling in government schools • greater difficulties in accessing university courses and the loss of scholarship programs for disadvantaged students • cutbacks in the numbers of available places in entry level and Outreach courses at local TAFE colleges • the removal of any government income support for 16-18 year olds, who are not studying or in some form of paid work • increasing numbers of Newstart recipients having their benefits removed for committing breaches of regulations • major changes to Centrelink services, with fragmentation of job support services among Job Network providers and a reluctance by some to take on 'difficult' young clients looking for work • greater competition for placements in Work for the Dole schemes • compulsory attendance at language and literacy courses as part of the Mutual Obligation programs introduced in 1998 for 18-24 year olds. The impact of these policies is to make it much more difficult for disadvantaged young people, especially those from non- English speaking backgrounds, to obtain access to a sound basic education, to move into further education or to access the labour market. Together this combines to make it much harder for some Turkish young people to make an effective transition from school to work or further study. 11 4. DEMOGRAPHICS A range of demographic information has been collected as part of this report. The data below shows the number of Turkish born and Turkish speaking people in Australia and NSW, a breakdown of the numbers by age, enrolments in high school, TAFE and the five universities in Sydney; unemployment data from 1996 and 1999, income support and youth crime figures. The data available is often partial and does not always include specific information on Turkish speaking young people in Sydney. It cannot always be disaggregated to the local government or Sydney level, and it has not been possible to do any effective comparisons over time. But the various data sets included below do help to provide a number of useful indicators about Turkish young people in Sydney. Turkish community in Australia The Turkish community in Australia is estimated by community workers to number between 45,000 to 50,000 people. This figure includes both Turkish born migrants and their children who were born here. While Census data suggests the number of Turkish born people in Australia in June 1996 was 31,904 people (ABS 1998:88). Most Turkish migrants arrived here between 1968 and 1974, following a formal agreement between the Australian and Turkish governments (Basarin & Basarin 1993:6). For many people they came for a temporary stay only, as they were expecting to work here for a period and then return to Turkey. Instead most have settled in Australia and built a new life, while still maintaining their Turkish language and culture. The Turkish community is now well established in both Sydney and Melbourne, where a majority of Turkish born and Turkish speaking Australians live. As a community they have matured and over the last decade the number of new arrivals from Turkey has been falling steadily each year from 1,227 people in 1988-89 to 635 in 1997-98 (DIMA 1998:6). Being Turkish The question of who qualifies as a Turkish person for statistical purposes remains an issue. State and federal government agencies use different definitions when they collect their data on migrants or ethnic communities. In some cases they consider country of birth only, while others collect data for both country of birth and language spoken at home. For this study the data collected on language spoken at home has been used where possible. This means the data includes not only those young people born overseas, but those whose parents are Turkish and who speak Turkish at home. This helps provide a richer and more diverse picture of the Australian Turkish community. In this report every effort has been made to clearly distinguish the data available on country of birth and language spoken at home. However a number of key current ABS data series, especially those relating to employment and unemployment, do not provide current data on either the country of birth or language spoken at home. Whereas the ABS Census data does provide figures on both the country of birth and the language spoken at home. This means that the only meaningful data on key demographic characteristic is available from the 1996 Census. 12 Turkish born and Turkish speaking NSW – Turkish born According to the 1996 Census figures the number of Turkish born people in NSW was 11,763 (ABS 1998:36) making Turkish the 19th biggest non-English background group in the state. A breakdown of this number by age shows most of the Turkish born in NSW, 9,660 people or 82% of the total, were aged over 25. While the number of Turkish born in NSW aged 15-24 was 1,207 or 10.2% of the total Turkish born (ABS 1998:36). NSW – Turkish speaking When considering the number of Turkish speaking people in NSW, the 1996 Census shows there was a significantly higher number than Turkish born. They totalled 17,541 people, with 9,046 males and 8,495 females. This reflects the number of children born in Australia to Turkish born migrants, who live in a house where Turkish is the main language spoken at home (ABS 1999a:1). A breakdown by age shows there were 1,398 Turkish speaking young people aged 0-4 years, 2,257 aged 5- 12 years, and 1,244 aged 12-15 years. Among the 12-15 year olds there were 660 males and 584 females (ABS 1999a:1). If you adjust the 1996 figures and adjust the data set forward three years, there is an estimated 3,000 Turkish speaking young people aged 5-15 in 1999. This is the main school age cohort. NSW - Turkish speaking youth Looking specifically at young people, the number of Turkish speaking youth living in NSW in 1996 aged 16-24 years was 2,715 or 15.5% of the total of 17,541 Turkish speakers (ABS 1999a :1). This figure is now three years out of date and represents the figure for all of NSW. If you take the 1996 figures and adjust them forward three years, there is an estimated 2,500 Turkish speaking young people aged 15-24 in 1999. NSW – 15-24 years old By way of comparison the number of 15-24 year olds in NSW in 1996 was 848, 425 or 14.1% of the total population of 5,995,645 (ABS 1998:25). In the Sydney, there were 548, 816 or 14.8% 15-24 year olds out of a population of 3,705,533 (ABS 1998: 24). This means there was a slightly higher proportion of Turkish speaking youth aged 15-24 within their community than 15-24 year olds in the total population in NSW or Sydney. And Turkish speaking young people represent approximately 0.45% of Sydney's 15-24 year olds. High school students Studying Turkish An indication of the number of students studying Turkish at high school can be found from enrolment data compiled by the NSW Board of Studies. They collect the numbers enrolled in all subjects across Government, Independent and Catholic school systems in NSW for Years 10, 11 and 12. The total number of students studying the Turkish language in 1998 in Years 10 to 12 was 329 students, with 184 females and 145 males (NSW Board of Studies 1999). Saturday school numbers Another indicator is the number of students studying the Turkish language at Saturday community language classes. These classes are open to students attending high school in Years 7 to 12. Figures made available from the Saturday School of Community Languages in the Department of Education and Training show there is a significant proportion of Turkish speaking high school aged students who attend Turkish classes at Saturday language schools. 13 Four centres in Sydney offer Turkish – Arthur Phillip, Dulwich, Grantham and Liverpool High Schools, with a total of 414 students taking classes from Years 7 to 12 in 1998. The other centre at Smiths Hill in Wollongong had a total of 32 students. This meant there was a total of 446 students attending Turkish classes at the five centres across NSW in 1998 (Campbell 1999). TAFE students Overall there were 832 Turkish speaking students aged 15-24 enrolled in TAFE colleges in NSW in 1998. The enrolments increased by 7% between 1995 and 1998 from 775 to 832 students. This represented approximately 0.4% of all TAFE NSW enrolments in 1998 and is close to the proportion of Turkish speaking young people in the population. Most of these students, 486, were aged 15-19 years, with 346 students aged 20-24 years. Between 1995 and 1998, while the number of enrolled Turkish speaking students aged 15-19 years increased from 402 to 486, the number aged 20-24 years fell slightly from 373 to 346 students. (TAFE NSW 1999) The types of courses the 832 students were enrolling in 1998 included 240 (28.8%) taking Business & public administration, 211 (25.4%) in Access courses, 123 (14.8%) in Construction & transport, 120 (14.4%) in Community services, tourism & hospitality, 69 (8.3%) in Information Technology, arts & media, and 58 (7%) in Manufacturing & engineering. The types of awards most Turkish speaking students were enrolled in 1998 were AQF Certificate 3, TAFE Statement, AQF Certificate 2, AQF Diploma, and Certificate courses. (TAFE NSW 1999) University students The enrolment data on Turkish speaking students attending university in the Sydney region indicates there were 285 students aged 17-24 years. This is out of a total of 416 Turkish speaking students enrolled in the five universities in the Sydney region. Among the 17-24 year olds there were slightly more females, 150 (52.6%) than males, 135 (47.3%) enrolled in university. The breakdown by area of study showed that most students were enrolled in Business, Administration and Economics courses followed by Arts; Science; and Engineering. A smaller number were enrolled in Education; Health; Architecture/ Building; and Law. While the largest proportion, almost half, were attending the University of Western Sydney, there was a fairly even spread among the remaining four universities in Sydney. There were 128 (45%) students enrolled at the University of Western Sydney, followed by 58 (20%) at the University of Sydney, 36 (13%) at UNSW, 32 (11%) at Macquarie and 31 (11%) at UTS. (DETYA 1999 ). Traineeships and Apprenticeships While the project carried out by Baylis and Brown (1998) set about increasing the number of Turkish, Arabic and Vietnamese speaking youth taking up traineeships and apprenticeships, no figures of existing numbers for each ethnic group were provided. Their report quoted the findings of a 1997 ANTA report that used ABS data (the year wasn't specified) to conclude that people of NESB were underrepresented among both trainees and apprentices, when compared to the NESB percentage in the work force. The figures indicated people of NESB were 15.8% of the working age population, but overall made up only 2.3% of both trainees and apprentices in Group Training Schemes (Baylis & Brown 1998:12). 14 Unemployment Unemployment NSW 1996 The labour force data for 1996 shows the unemployment rate for all young people in NSW aged 15-19 years was 24.6% (19,054) for males and 22.3% (15,848) for females. While for 20-24 years it was 16.9 % (26,054) for males and 12.6% (17,786) for females (ABS 1998: 69). The rate for Turkish speaking young people in Sydney aged 15-24 was much higher across all age groups. For 15-19 year old males it was 34.2% (71) and 38.6% (59) for females. While for 20-24 year olds it was 22.3% (107) for males and 21.1% (93) for females (ABS 1999a: Table E17). This meant that in 1996 there was a total of 330 Turkish speaking young people aged 15-24 who were unemployed, made up of 178 males and 152 females. Unemployment NSW 1999 While the overall unemployment rate has fallen in the last few years, young people have continued to face ongoing high overall rates of unemployment. In February 1999 the unemployment rate in NSW for 15-19 years olds was 17.8%, while it was 11.8% for 20 –24 year olds, as compared to the overall unemployment rate in NSW of 7.6% (ABS 1999:24). While there is no updated labour force data available on Turkish speaking young people aged 15-24 in the Sydney region, the indications are that their unemployment rate remains high. While the rate will have fallen since 1996, it will have remained higher than the rate for most other young people in the same age group in the regions of Sydney where they live. DEWRSB figures are indicative because they show unemployment rates by local government area. Their March quarter 1999 report (DEWRSB 1999:10) shows that in areas where significant numbers of Turkish speaking people are living, overall rates of unemployment were generally well above the Sydney average. While the rate for Sydney was 6.1% in Fairfield it was 14.4%, Auburn 11.4%, Liverpool 9.8%, Canterbury 9.6%, Bankstown 9.4% and Blacktown 7.2%. This suggests that if the figures were available to show the breakdown among ethnic communities, the unemployment rate for Turkish speaking young people would be even higher than the overall rate in the area. This indicates that there are still significant numbers of Turkish young people, who are unemployed. Income support There is also concern about the likely increase in the number of Turkish young people, who are no longer counted as part of the official statistics. There is likely to be a growing number of who are outside the system, neither studying, working nor receiving any government benefits. An indication of this trend is evident in the figures available on income support recipients through Centrelink. Despite having higher rates of unemployment than Australian born youth in Sydney, only a small number of Turkish born youth are receiving any kind of income support payment, with a very small number, only 90 in the Sydney area receiving a Newstart Allowance. While Centrelink statistics are only available on the basis of country of birth (not by language spoken at home), in the first quarter of 1999, there were 385 Turkish born residents aged 15-24 in the three area offices in the Sydney, receiving any form of income support payments. The largest number, 143 were receiving a rent allowance, 94 a Youth Allowance, 90 a Newstart Allowance, 42 a Partner allowance and 16 a Special benefit. Significantly none were receiving the independent homeless allowance or the sole parent pension (Centrelink 1999). 15 Youth Crime statistics There were few reported cases of Turkish young people appearing in Sydney courts to face criminal charges over recent years. Crime statistics in NSW are reported on by country of birth. According to the last two year's records at one of the main juvenile detention centres near Auburn, only 2 Turkish young people had been detained on any serious criminal charges and both were there in 1997 (Trevathan 1999). The Department of Corrective Services reported in 1998 that among the 7,810 prisoners in NSW prisons, there were 24 Turkish born prisoners. All were male prisoners aged over 24 and they represented 0.3% of the prison population (DCS 1998: 12). Of these, 17 were in full time custody (DCS 1998: 29) and 7 were in periodic detention (DCS 1998: 43). The most likely types of offences they had committed would include break enter and steal, and drug offences. A recent study by Mukherjee (1999) reported that in Victoria in 1996-97 based on the number of alleged offences reported to police, there were 674 Turkish born offenders taken into custody during the year. Unfortunately the report provided no age breakdown of the offenders. However the types of offences committed by the Turkish born were broken down into 55% property, 16.6% violent and 11.3% drug offences (Mukherjee 1999:4). Based on this data he concluded that Turkish born were one of the groups, along with people from NZ, Lebanon, Vietnam and Cambodia, to have a higher per capita involvement in crime than those born in Australia or other countries. The data suggests that for a proportion of Turkish speaking youth, being apprehended for criminal activities may become a bigger issue, once they are older and move into their late 20's and 30's. Summary A summary of the key demographic data indicates: Numbers • 31,904 Turkish born in Australia in 1996 • 11,763 Turkish born in NSW in 1996, the 19th largest NESB group in the state • 17,541 Turkish speaking in NSW in 1996 • Estimated 3,000 Turkish speaking young people aged 5-15 in 1999 • Estimated 2,500 Turkish speaking young people aged 15-24 in 1999 School/TAFE/University • 329 students studying Turkish in Years 10,11 and 12 at NSW high schools in 1998 • 446 students studying Turkish at five Saturday schools in NSW in 1998 • 832 Turkish speaking students aged 15-24 attending TAFE in NSW in 1998 • 285 Turkish speaking students aged 17-24 attending Universities in Sydney in 1998 Unemployment • 330 Turkish speaking young people aged 15-24 were unemployed in Sydney in 1996 • the unemployment rate among 15-19 year old males was 34.2%, among females 38.6% • the unemployment rate among 20-24 year old males was 16.9%, among females 12.6% Income support • 90 Turkish born residents aged 15-24 were receiving Newstart benefits in Sydney in the first quarter of 1999. 16 5. THE TURKISH COMMUNITY The Turkish community in Sydney is now well established and has a range of community organisations, youth associations, media and professional umbrella organisations. While they do combine to raise concerns on various social, welfare and educational issues, and do provide some assistance to young unemployed, none of the organisations is currently funded to work specifically on youth issues within the community. Settlement Most of the Turkish community in NSW have been in Australia for a period of up to 30 years. While they have settled in various parts of Sydney, most are living in Sydney's west and south-western suburbs. Suburbs like Auburn, Granville, Green Valley, Blacktown, Mt Druitt, Marrickville are where a majority of Turkish born have settled. Generally they are lower income areas, with higher than average rates of unemployment across most age groups. Auburn remains a major focus for the community with a significant concentration of Turkish small businesses located in the main shopping centre. In just a few blocks in the centre of Auburn there are more than 30 different Turkish small businesses ranging from kebab shops, butchers, small markets, a sweet shop, travel agents and video stores. There is also a large Turkish mosque built through the efforts of the local Turkish community, an entertainment centre, as well as the offices of a newspaper, and numerous welfare, cultural, religious and sporting associations. Community organisations An important feature of the local Turkish Australian community in Sydney is the diverse nature of its community organisations. For such a relatively small community there are a large number of community based Turkish organisations. Like with any immigrant community these organisations reflect some of the main political and religious divisions found in Turkey. While the political divisions within the community have moderated over recent years, an ongoing split between left wing and right wing organisations is still evident. There is also the deeply divisive issue of Turkish speaking Kurdish people, who are still struggling for recognition of their language and culture within Turkey and surrounding countries. There is also a small but significant proportion of the community who were born in Cyprus or have Turkish Cypriot parents. Many of the Turkish Cypriot parents arrived in Australia in the late 1940's and 1950's as British subjects and continued a pattern of chain migration, bringing out family members during the 1960's and 1970's. They often distinguish themselves from 'mainland Turks' and have a number of their own associations. There are also important religious differences in the community. The majority of Turkish born residents are followers of the Sunni branch of Islam, and through the efforts of the community a major mosque has been built in Auburn, with others in Erskineville and Mt Druitt. Another significant group is the Alievi community, who operate a community centre and welfare office at Toongabbie in western Sydney. They are followers of Ali, and their forms of worship are different from other branches of Islam. The community is currently involved in raising money to build a major community centre at Quaker's Hill. The range of community welfare organisations reflect the diversity within the local community. In the welfare field one of the longest running is the Turkish Welfare Association, with an office in both Auburn and Marrickville. The Australian Turkish Cultural Trust, Australian Turkish Kurdish Association, 17 Australian Alievi Cultural Centre and the People's House are other cultural/welfare organisations that reflect different social and political positions within the community. There are a large number of other cultural, women's, child care, social and sporting organisations including the Australian Turkish Women's Helping Hand, the Australian Turkish & Kurdish Community Services Co-operative, the Turkish Musical Association, and the Auburn Star Soccer Club (Yigit 1995). One of the consequences of having so many community organisations for such a relatively small community is the difficulty in addressing the range of needs in the community. Most of the Turkish community based welfare organisations, like others in the community sector, have faced major cutbacks in funding, cuts in staff numbers, and restrictions on their services over the last few years. They also face a greater dispersal of Turkish people settling across Sydney. The community is now more geographically dispersed throughout the west, south-west and inner western suburbs. Community workers report that many of their most disadvantaged clients have increased difficulties in being able to travel to access their services. Also more importantly for young people, none of the Turkish community organisations is now funded to assist youth with employment issues, career advice or further study related information. Turkish Youth Association There are a number of Turkish youth associations, but like other youth organisations, they undergo regular personnel changes and their activities ebb and flow accordingly. Most Turkish youth associations have focussed on fulfilling a social role and have been based in a particular section of the community. One of the youth bodies is the Turkish Youth Association based at the Turkish Welfare Association in Auburn which was active throughout 1998 and did see part of its role as helping to promote Turkish culture and heritage among Turkish youth (Ergun 1998). The association was headed by the son of the chairman of the Turkish Welfare Association and its committee organised a number of successful dance nights and picnics. The most recent committee disbanded in early 1999, after a number of the main office holders found they became too busy with other things to continue with the association. However like other Turkish youth associations, they were not able to take up any issues concerned with youth unemployment. Turkish media The community is well served by a number of locally produced Turkish newspapers including Dunya, Cagri, Yeni Vatan, and Yorum. There is also a daily Turkish language radio program on SBS radio, including the only youth oriented program broadcast once a week on Sunday afternoons. There are a number of other Turkish language programs on other community radio stations in Sydney and a Turkish television program on the community television Channel 31. Recently the Turkish government's international satellite television service was launched in Australia, with over 600 people attending the function at the Auburn RSL club. The Turkish President officially welcomed the viewers to this new satellite based service, live via satellite from Turkey. Professional associations While there is an umbrella organisation for Turkish associations, the NSW Council of Turkish Associations, there are two of the important professional associations that bring Turkish speaking workers together on welfare and educational issues. They are the Turkish Australian Social Workers Interagency and the Turkish Teachers Association which have worked over a number of years to regularly bring 18 together Turkish speaking workers from across Sydney to help focus attention on specific social, welfare and educational issues affecting the community. Education campaign Prior to the Turkish earthquake in September 1999, one recent educational issue did manage to mobilise the community, bringing together over 40 Turkish community organisations and gaining wide support from the community. The action was taken against a decision by the NSW Board of Studies to reduce the number and level of Turkish language subjects students are able to study for the Higher School Certificate (HSC) in NSW. The Board has decided to remove the higher level 3 unit Turkish language subject from the new HSC syllabus, with the change scheduled to be implemented in the year 2002. A campaign against the decision has been organised by a specially created Turkish Teachers Committee. So far the Committee has arranged meetings with state and federal politicians, the chairman of the Ethnic Affairs Commission, staff from the Board of Studies, the NSW Ethnic Communities Council, the Federation of Ethnic Communities Council and the NSW Teacher's Association (Arslan 1999). 19 6. TURKISH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS The views of Turkish teachers and students help frame some of the findings gained from interviews with Turkish young people who have left school. Teachers at two government high schools and one Turkish language Saturday school were interviewed about the issues they felt were affecting Turkish high school students as they moved out of school. To gain the perspective of students still at school, focus groups were organised with Turkish speaking high school students attending Saturday language classes and an after-school program to discuss a number of issues related to work and further study. School teachers The Turkish teachers interviewed included the co-ordinator of the Turkish Teachers Association, Sherban Gunesh, who teaches at Auburn Girls High School, Irfan Yigit, a counsellor at Granville Boys High School, and Dursen Guzel, a teacher at the Liverpool Saturday School and community welfare worker. The teachers expressed their concern about the difficulties Turkish speaking young people were facing at high school. They mentioned English literacy, discipline, suspensions and expulsions as the main issues. They underlined the gender differences they saw, pointing out that girls overall seemed to be doing better than boys. Girls were completing high school, while a growing number of boys were dropping out early. They felt that boys were finding it harder to do well at school. Among teachers there was a major concern about the increasing number of Turkish speaking students finding it difficult to cope with high school. There was a feeling that in Sydney's west and south western suburbs – especially around Auburn, Granville, Greystanes, Mt Druitt – that an increasing number of Turkish speaking students were doing worse at high school. The co-ordinator of the Turkish Teachers Association, Sherban Gunesh, said that of those students who were completing their HSC, a significant proportion were receiving very low UAI marks, which was limiting their choices for further study and work. In some cases they did not receive a mark at all, some were as low as in the 20's, with quite a few in the 30's and 40's. However there was a proportion who did well enough to go onto further study at university and a larger number who were now going on to study at a TAFE college (Gunesh 1999). English literacy Teachers commented that while some students were doing well in their study of Turkish for the HSC, their performance in English was dragging them down. Literacy in English appears to remain a key factor even for Turkish speaking young people who were born here or who have spent most of their school years in Australia. Basarin & Basarin (1993:129) make an important point that the Turkish language is not related to any major European language. A crucial factor is that the sentence structure is the opposite to that used in the English language. Turkish uses object + verb + subject and makes no distinction in gender and has no definite article. This may help explain some of the special difficulties Turkish speaking young people face in gaining a good command of English, during their years at school. This points to the need for educators to focus on strategies that assist Turkish speaking master the English language while they are at school. 20 Gender differences The teachers also felt there was a marked difference in performance between boys and girls. Generally girls were staying on and completing high school, and were more motivated to get good results in the HSC. A few were leaving early to get married, to move on to TAFE or just to get out of school. Last year at Auburn Girls High School, out of 22 Turkish speaking girls, 20 went on to enroll at University. The main aim of the girls was to study at university, and only if they missed out on university would they consider TAFE or a private training college. They were not encouraged to consider traineeships or apprenticeships, except as a last option (Gunesh 1999). Whereas the boys were more likely to leave high school before completing their HSC, and many more were encountering problems with discipline at school. A counsellor at Granville Boys High, Irfan Yigit, said he was seeing a larger number of Turkish speaking youth experiencing major difficulties at high school. He said there was only a small group of boys who were 'achievers'. He felt this was largely determined by the home environment. It came down to whether the family supported their children in their schooling, especially in doing their homework, giving them encouragement to study and supporting their reading. He felt that even if the parents were illiterate or grew up in a village, if they supported their children in doing homework and reading, the children would succeed. However where parents were not interested, didn't care about school, reading and study, the children would not do well at school (Yigit 1999). The HELP co-ordinator at Granville Multicultural Centre, Raefat Soryal, organises after-school tutoring classes in English and maths. The classes include a large group of Turkish speaking students from high schools in the area. He says his work is becoming more difficult with all the students he sees, and this includes the Turkish students. He is seeing more students with greater literacy problems, poor study skills and a 'poor attitude' towards school and study (Soryal 1999). Turkish teachers were concerned that increasing numbers of Turkish boys were leaving school before completing Year 12, and more were being expelled or suspended at high school. This was echoed by the NSW NESB Issues Network who saw this as a major issue for NESB youth generally. The Network felt this issue required further research and monitoring in NSW (AYPAC 1998: 21). Career advice The counsellor at Granville Boys High School also said that boys did not demonstrate the skills or interest to find and explore the opportunities available to them after they left school. He found there was a strong dependency on school advisers, with students requiring a lot of help with filling out forms and gathering career or job information (Yigit 1999). Youth at school A focus group discussion was arranged with a total of five groups of Turkish speaking high school students. The groups involved students attending the Turkish Saturday Community Language classes from one Year 11 and one Year 12 class, at both Dulwich High School and Liverpool High School. There was also one group of Year 9 students attending an after-school tutoring class in Granville. The discussion was focussed on their experiences of part-time work, finding a job, plans for future study, career plans, and what it meant being Turkish. The groups were mixed, including similar numbers of males and females. Among these groups, students expressed a strong commitment to their family and their community and showed little evidence of contesting or struggling hard against their parent's authority. They generally appeared confident about themselves and their future and had plans for further study and a career. 21 Work Among the Year 11 and Year 12 boys at Liverpool and Dulwich Hill a significant number were working or had worked part-time. While only a small proportion of girls were working or had worked during their time at school. Only a few of the Year 9 students were doing any part-time work. The type of jobs they had obtained was mainly limited to food outlets – either in Turkish kebab stores or large food chain stores. Only a few mentioned working in other types of retail stores. Those who were working gave a number of different reasons for taking on a job while they were still as school. The reasons included earning money, gaining some experience and training, getting out of the house, being able to fit in with their school work, and in some cases it was a fun thing to do. A few said they needed to work to help their mother or their family. Generally the jobs they had seemed to suit their needs, while they were at school. Most of the students who were working felt confident they would continue to find work, especially part- time work. A few also felt they would be able to find a job if they needed to work and study at the same time. Finding a job There was a heavy reliance on finding work through people they knew – especially through their family, close relatives and friends. Most of the students who were working mentioned they found their job through their immediate family or friends of their family. In some cases the family or friend owned a kebab shop, so they were able to get the job quite easily. A few mentioned they saw a sign in a shop, and just went in and asked for the job. While a few said they approached the types of shops they wanted to work in and asked if there was a vacancy. Among the Year 11 girls at Liverpool, most of those who were working showed an awareness of other strategies they could use to find work. These included looking in the local newspaper, asking in local shops, going to a job centre or approaching an employment agency. Future study The Turkish young people attending Saturday schools generally expressed a strong commitment to continuing their education. Most had a positive view about their future and saw that it was linked to further study. However their focus seemed quite narrow. Generally they saw their main further study option as getting into university, and most of those who expressed an opinion said their preferred choice after leaving school was going onto study at university. Inglis, Elley & Manderson (1992) found in their study there was little interest in going to TAFE. While among these Turkish speaking high school students, there was a high degree of awareness of TAFE, but little interest in going there unless they had to. When asked about TAFE, most of the students said they would only go to TAFE or a private college, if they did not get into university. They saw TAFE as a realistic fallback option. Although for some TAFE was seen as a stepping stone, a way of moving into further study and then going onto university to do the course they wanted. The current university enrolment figures for Turkish speaking young people in Sydney suggest that while a proportion of the students currently in Years 11 and 12 will enroll in a University course, a much higher proportion are unlikely to obtain a high enough UAI mark to attend university. Of those who move onto further study, a much larger number will enroll in a TAFE course. The 1998 TAFE NSW enrolment figures mentioned earlier, suggest that for a large proportion of Turkish young people, going to TAFE was now the major option for further study. 22 Field of study or career Both the Year 11 and 12 students talked about the type of field they wanted to study in or the career they had in mind. The field of study mentioned most included business studies, tourism and hospitality and computing/ computer science. Among the careers mentioned they included joining the defence force, teaching, information technology, psychology, childcare, fashion design, photography and becoming a lawyer. Very few mentioned taking up a trade or an apprenticeship. There was a proportion of the boys in all the groups who said they had no idea what they would do when they left school. Generally the girls seemed more clear about their options and showed a greater range of career choices than the boys of the same age. Being Turkish Given that most of the students were attending Turkish language classes, when asked about what it meant to them to be of Turkish background, most were very certain. They felt it meant close links with their family and their culture. They expressed a genuine pride in being Turkish, and a desire to retain their Turkish language and the parts of their culture they saw as relevant to their life today. A few students mentioned that their religion was an important part of their culture, but this dimension was not elaborated on further as part of the discussions. There was general agreement that Turkish families and parents were different to most other Australian parents. They were seen as being stricter, but also more supportive and more concerned about what happened to their children. They mentioned that being part of a Turkish family in Australia meant 'showing respect for your parents', 'having a strict upbringing', 'getting support from your family', and 'your parents care more about you'. Most students said they were proud of these aspects and they did not see them as negatives or something they needed to rebel against or change. They stressed the importance of the wider family unit. For them the family included relatives, uncles, cousins and friends. Also they felt really connected to the wider Turkish speaking community. This meant that other Turkish people in the community 'look after each other', 'help each other', 'find work for you', and 'its such a small community everyone knows what you are doing'. Because family and friends were generally closely knit, young people said that it was 'important to keep out of trouble' and 'you cannot doing anything to bring shame on your family'. Gender differences Most of the students in the Year 11 and 12 classes accepted that different standards applied to the behaviour of boys and girls. Boys said they had a great deal more freedom to live and control their life outside the home. They said they were allowed to come and go, without major restrictions. While girls faced a lot more controls and their social life was much more restricted. They were not allowed as much freedom as their brothers or cousins to come and go as they pleased. They were expected to let their parents know where they were when they went out, and their parents had to approve who they went out with. They were also expected to do a lot more around the house to help their parents. For most of the Year 11 and 12 students this did not seem unreasonable, although a number of girls commented on how they were resisting their parent's control and living their lives with more freedom than their older sisters had been able to. While some girls felt under pressure from their parents, they still felt it was important to behave properly and keep up a good family name. Some girls mentioned having a very strict father, while others said they had a lot of support from their father and it was their mother who was more strict on them. 23 While parents varied in how strict they were towards their daughters, there was general agreement that a girl needed to be good. As one girl said, 'If you are bad, other people in the community will find out and this would be bad for you and your family.' Only one Year 12 male student said he felt the Turkish culture that parents were following was 'old fashioned and out of date' and he thought you had to 'fight against it, because it's important to live your own life.' 24 7. TURKISH YOUNG PEOPLE One way of analysing the experiences of Turkish speaking young people in Sydney was to carry out extended face to face interviews with a number of Turkish young people drawn from across Sydney. This enabled the study to give voice to different experiences and highlight some common themes. The interviews included 10 young people, 5 males and 5 females, aged 15-24. Of these 6 were aged 15-19 years and 4 were aged 20-24 years. The discussions were focussed on their experiences of school, work, finding work, unemployment, further study, their family, being Turkish and their view of the future. Young Turkish Males Among the males two, Sabri and Beshir were aged 17, and two, Vural and Ahmet were aged 18. Three of these four had left school before completing their HSC and were or had been unemployed. One older male Kemal, was aged 24 and while he had finished high school, he had not gone onto further study and had been unemployed for almost a year. School The experiences of the males while they were at school, highlights how some Turkish speaking males are contesting what and how they are being taught in high school. In some cases they were having to learn to deal with gangs and violence as they started their first years in high school. One young male Beshir who left school in Year 10 said he disliked his teachers at both the high schools he went to and felt that he was being picked on because of his ethnic background. 'I hated school because of the teachers. I didn't want to go. Basically when I first went to Lucas Heights, the ethnics at the school were a minority and the teachers gave us a hard time. You could call it racism, but they wouldn't call it that'. He also learned early that it was useful to group together with other Turkish speaking youth, as a way of surviving the assaults and gang violence he encountered at his first school in the inner city. 'There were lots of gangs there and the majority were ethnics. The first day I went there, I got bashed by three guys for wearing a school uniform. And then I didn't go to school for about a week. When I turned up the Turks took me in an introduced me to everyone.' Ahmet and Sabri, who were also early school leavers, leaving in Year 11, said they left because they were not learning anything at school. They felt there was no point in staying at school if they were not learning, and that it was better to move out into the world and try something else. Sabri tried to stay on but found it too difficult once he started missing classes. 'It wasn't too hard, but I was just screwing up so I had to leave school. I was missing too much school, so when I got back to school, I didn't know what they were going on about' (Sabri). For Ahmet, who was expelled from a local high school because he was a 'troublemaker' and a slow learner even enrolled at a special school. He found both schools difficult to endure. 'I didn't like school at all, that's why I left. I didn't like maths and spelling . I didn't like it.' Whereas for Vural and Kenan while they completed high school and gained a mark in the HSC, they found that they did not obtain the results they needed to move onto further study at university. Kenan even repeated the HSC to improve his marks and still wasn't able to do the university course that he wanted. 25 Work Among the younger males finding on-going employment was difficult. Beshir and Ahmet have moved in and out of work, taking on jobs for short periods only, while still looking for a better long term job. Of the two Beshir had tried more jobs including labouring work, stock running at a supermarket and working for his step-dad doing some carpentry work. While Ahmet had worked only for a few short periods, as a car detailer and a house painter before giving them up and becoming unemployed. He found it difficult to concentrate both at school and work because of a disability. Sabri was doing a number of short courses, while he kept looking for work and Vural had taken on a TAFE course and picked up some part–time work. While Kenan has taken up a number of different jobs since leaving school, before being unemployed for almost a year. He had worked in the family catering business, as a courier, and as a builder's labourer. His best job so far was being a courier for Weight Watchers. 'I went to work for a courier company working for Weight Watchers. I worked there for 2 and a half years doing house deliveries all over Sydney. I was paid $25 an hour and I owned the van.' Finding jobs A feature of the way that the males found their jobs was their reliance on friends and family to get them a job. There was little mention of other methods or strategies. Ahmet and Vural found their work through Turkish friends, while Beshir approached his father's friend and looked to his uncle for help. Kenan found his jobs through his family contacts, initially through his brother, his parents and then his in-laws. Sabri was also looking to his family for advice and help in getting a job. 'For help and advice I have got my aunty's older daughter. She was working at the customer service in the Commonwealth bank.' The limitations of working with the family were seen clearly by Beshir, who experienced a lot of pressure while working with his step-father and realised this wasn't always a good thing to do. 'I don't want to work with the family no more cause you have so much pressure, you've got to prove yourself, its hard. When I worked with my (step) dad, I used to work like a dog, he used to push me, so people couldn't say he's having it easy.' A few did mention visiting job agencies and going for lots of interviews. Significantly most did not mention being helped by Centrelink or a Job Network agency to find a job. None had been assessed by Cebtrelink as needing intensive assistance, or assisted to develop their job seeking skills. Only Sabri had approached a Turkish welfare agency in Auburn. Taken there by his mother, this led him to make contact with a job agency, Job Futures in Burwood, and move back into taking a number of short courses through the JPET program. Beshir did find a sales job based on commissions only, as a result of ringing a few companies he found in the newspaper. But he learnt quickly that this type of job would cost him money before he earnt anything, and that he basically did not know enough about the product to be able to do the job. 'My (step) dad advised me not to do it, he said you'll end up spending money out of your own pocket, you're not going to be able to sell the items.' Unemployment Younger males seemed to accept that unemployment was going to be a part of this stage of their lives. They saw it happening to them and many of their friends around them, especially to their Turkish friends. Their 26 experience so far suggested they would have to keep on moving in and out of the work force, trying to find work. Apart from talking with their family, they seemed reluctant to talk about their experiences of unemployment with others. Generally they were not interested in talking about why they were unemployed. 'With my friends we don't talk about work, we just talk and hang out and we want to get away from work and all that' (Beshir). Most felt that dealing with unemployment was up to the individual. They said they needed to keep a positive attitude and try to motivate themselves to find work. But they said it was hard because among their friends there were quite a few Turkish speaking youth who were no longer interested in either work or further study. Even though they were unemployed or had experienced unemployment themselves, they generally expressed negative views about their friends who were not working. 'I've got four friends, they have all been working. One is working at a supermarket, Clancy's at Auburn, another at a Regent's Park printing place, but he left. The rest that I know are just bludgers, just bludging around. They are on benefits' (Sabri). 'My cousin used to be a mechanic, he's 19 and he would help me find a job. But he doesn't work anymore as well. He was lazy, wouldn't do it and now he's looking for a job' (Ahmet). Few were expecting the Turkish community or government organisations to help them find work, although one of the younger males did feel it was important for people within the community to get involved and help young people. 'We need more people like yourself to get involved, to show that they care about the Turkish kids around here. We need some more positive role models in terms of Turkish people who have made it, who are professionals' (Vural). Further study The younger males felt it was important to do some kind of further study, whether or not they actually managed to do it. Despite leaving school early and having had negative experiences of school, a number of the younger males recognised that they needed to gain more skills to get a better job. Significantly the only option they saw for the future involved going to TAFE. Ahmet realised he needed to finish his HSC to get the job that he wanted, but thought it would be difficult to do. Sabri accepted that he needed to complete his HSC, even if this meant studying at night by going to TAFE. He said that he planned to go onto further study. 'If you haven't got education and training, you won't be able to get a job. After I get a job I want to do my Year 11 and 12 in the evenings in one year.' Beshir was prepared to go onto study at TAFE, once he had found a job and a place to live. 'I want to have a steady job and move out and rent a place with my uncle and get into a relationship.' Family Family remained a major part of their lives. All of the younger males were living at home, receiving both financial and emotional support from their parents. The family provided ongoing support, advice, and assistance with finding work. The males found they were accepted, even if parents did not always agree with their choices. 27 Even the older male, Kenan, although married and living in his own home was still receiving financial support from his in-laws. His mother-in-law still brought food around for them to eat. For Sabri even though he left school early, both his mother and father helped him a great deal. 'They give me support you know. They just give their opinions. Like they won't say Ii want you to go get an office job. They'll just say why don't you go for an office job, are you interested in an office job.' Even though Beshir hadn't seen his father for 15 years, he had a close relationship with his mother and an older uncle, and listened to some of the things his step-dad said. He saw a real difference in the level of support they provided as compared with his non-Turkish friends in the local community. 'A lot of my non-Turkish mates are basically on their own. If something happens or goes wrong I can come to my parents and they will give me a hand and point me in the right direction.' Being Turkish Among the males there was a real pride in being Turkish. Their Turkish identity was interwoven with their close links to family, relatives and friends. Most of them had regular contact with the wider Turkish community through regular visits, attending weddings, and taking part in various religious and national celebrations throughout the year. 'I like Turkish weddings I go with my parents. I've got a few uncles, cousins here. I go to the one that lives at Mt Druitt, to my uncle's house' (Ahmet). For Vural both his religion and culture are important. 'What motivates me is our religion and apart from that how we get together sometimes.' Even for Beshir, who said he generally didn't mix with Turkish people, he was close to his uncle and his grand parents when they were in Australia. Two of the males, Vural and Beshir had travelled to Turkey in recent years and returned somewhat chastened by the experience. They found Turkey was a much tougher and more competitive society than Australia. They found that it provided little support to those who weren't working. Strictness and discipline were two values they found were important in Turkey. Relatives and family over there were much stricter in the way they treated their children when they were growing up. They felt there was a greater discipline in the schools, the standard of teaching at school was better over there, and it was much harder to get into higher education in Turkey. For Vural life was much easier in Australia. 'You wake up to yourself, you look at the opportunities you have around you here and you realise its more than over there'. Generally there were few comments made about any limitations of the local Turkish community. There was some awareness about the limited work opportunities and the lack of information about career and work opportunities available within the community. Vural in particular showed some insight into the plight of the community. He talked about the limitations and felt the community needed to provide young people with more guidance. 'What does our community have to give us? I can walk down the street and get a job in a kebab shop or I can work in a video store, as a taxi driver or a courier driver……… These are the jobs our community know about.' 28 Future The young males found that after they left school they had to change their plans significantly. Their school results and experience so far led them to feel their choices were limited. It was not always clear what they could do now or how they could find a way into the world of work or further study. Although they did have specific goals for the future, there was a great deal of uncertainty about how their lives would work out. Ahmet was hoping to work at State Rail, although he mentioned that he also liked working on cars. Vural had already moved from wanting to become a forensic scientist to working in computers, and already had a part-time job. While Sabri wanted to work in electrical engineering and was now looking at getting into office work, with plans to move into computing in the future. Kenan was looking to return to driving, rather than doing courier work. This time he was planning to work as a delivery driver with a larger truck, his brother would help him get started. And Beshir wasn't sure about he would be doing but was hoping to move into something in retail. He was hoping to be taken on for a traineeship or apprenticeship ' I'm good with people and communication in general. I want to become something. I don't want to be a labourer all my life.' 29 Young Turkish females Of the five young Turkish speaking females interviewed, two, Hatice and Peker were aged 19, two, Ayshe and Semma were aged 20, and one, Neriman, was aged 21. Only Neriman had finished high school in Turkey and was married. All had been unemployed for a period since leaving high school. School All of the Turkish speaking females had finished high school, completing their studies through to the end of Year 12, either here or in Turkey. Their results did not always enable them to take on the further studies they had hoped for. In some cases their HSC results came as a shock to them and left them bewildered about the future. 'I went to Auburn Girls High and I didn't do that bad, but I didn't get a TER because I didn't apply for one. I wanted to do different subjects and you don't get a TER for them subjects….. ..I wanted to do Turkish interpreting to get a job in translation and that but I couldn't' (Ayshe). Reflecting on their experience, a few realised too late that they needed to choose different subjects, and not rely as much on their performance in the Turkish language. They understood that they needed to obtain better information about the real state of the job market before they left school. 'When I was at uni, I looked back and saw I made the wrong choices in school and science was wrong for me' (Semma). Some females expressed concerns about the importance of receiving good career advice, and were critical of the advice they did receive while they were at school. 'The careers teacher didn't talk to us about what would happen after we left school. She never said once you're out there, if you need help come back. Or if you need help these are the places you can go' (Peker). 'I didn't get any career advice at school, maybe if I did maybe then I would be working now or even studying doing a course' (Ayshe) Further study The females showed a strong interest in taking on further study and a determination to find ways of continuing their studies and obtaining the skills required in a particular field. This was despite facing English language difficulties, relatively low marks in their HSC and not having relevant work experience. Hatice studied intensive English courses before enrolling in TAFE and doing a business management course. For Peker who was unemployed after leaving school, she found work experience through a friend in a travel agency and then went onto to do a TAFE course. 'I was unemployed for about 6 months. The CES was trying to look for a job for me. I found some work experience through a friend at a travel agency for about three months. Then in July I started TAFE, it was good, but before that I was just lost.' While Ayshe had completed a receptionist course, Neriman who had been in Australia for only two years had already completed an AMES English language course and a computer course at her local TAFE college. The only female to go onto university straight from school Semma, dropped out during her second semester at the University of Western Sydney. This left her with a significant HECS debt, was followed by a period of unemployment, before she moved onto further study at TAFE in a new field. 30 'I left uni and I was unemployed, so I did a receptionists skills course at Granville TAFE. I needed to catch up on my computer skills. Then I heard about it (business studies) from a friend who was doing business studies and I applied at Granville and Petersham TAFE.' (Semma) Work The range of work the females have been able to find has been limited, with only a few being able to hold onto part-time jobs after they left school. In some cases because they cannot show any relevant work experience, they find they were missing out on the available jobs. 'Since I left school I've tried to find a job but I couldn't. I need experience of at least a year, some places ask for six months and I have to be able to use a computer' (Ayshe). 'Wherever I called they asked for work experience, which I did not have' (Hatice). The type of work available to them was usually part-time, lowly paid and involved serving in a kebab shop, fast food outlet, working for Turkish catering companies or in a retail store. For some females working as well as studying was a necessity. 'I have been on the Youth Allowance since I was 16. I got it all along because both my parents are pensioners and I need the money. We are not well off. I have been working part-time since I was 16. I did Auburn McDonalds and 2 years with a Turkish catering company' (Semma). 'I am now working as a casual at Kmart and studying part-time. I found the job myself. I enjoy it. I like helping people' (Peker). Finding a job The females also showed a strong determination to find work and used a number of different strategies in their search. However none mentioned receiving any support from Centrelink or a job network agency. 'I've tried very hard. I've been to lots of employment agencies. I went to Manpower in Parramatta this week. I'm trying… I found out through friends where to go and I would go and fill out the forms' (Ayshe). 'I couldn't wait for the CES to do something for me. Every time I went there for assistance they kept directing me to the computer to look up myself. I got sick of that and I know that I had to look after myself' (Peker). Approaching friends and family, going to the CES, visiting their local job network, trying other recruitment agencies, and even approaching their local state member of parliament were some of the ways females were finding work. 'I even went to see our local member, because people told me he could help me find a job. He said to me my own son is unemployed, if I can't help him find a job, how can I help you?' (Hatice) A number of the females also mentioned the help they received in gaining work experience and eventually finding work through the help of a Turkish community organisation in Auburn, the Australian Turkish Cultural Trust. A number of the females had been placed at the Trust to gain work experience in office work, either as a placement as part of a TAFE course or through referral from a Work for the Dole scheme. 31 Unemployment Given that the females all completed high school, unemployment was something they still encountered as they tried to move into work or further study. It was generally something they had learned to struggle with, in order to find a way through. A number of females also saw that they were not the only ones facing unemployment. They saw there were many of their friends around them who were unemployed. They lived in families where their older siblings, relatives and many of their parents were unemployed as well. 'I know of other young (Turkish) women who are unemployed and most of them are living with their parents' (Neriman). 'There are a lot of my friends who are unemployed. Some are studying, but a lot more are unemployed' (Peker). The lack of work experience in the particular job they were going for, was seen as a major cause of unemployment. 'Most companies like to employ someone who has worked before and has the skills. I think young people should be trained for the work force, they should be able to gain work experience' (Ayshe). The problem of drugs also emerged as a major issue in and around Auburn. The females saw that some young people were choosing to be unemployed and taking up drugs. 'The biggest problem for Turkish young people in Auburn is drugs. So many of our youth are being lost to drugs' (Hatice). 'The young people choose to be unemployed and not studying, their parents need to be educated. There is a problem with drugs around Auburn. I am so keen on doing something, because it is ridiculous, it has got out of control' (Peker). For the females, unemployment and drug addiction were the major social problems that parents, employers and the wider community needed to address. Family The females said they received a lot of support from their families. They did not see their parents as too strict or limiting their choices to work or study. In fact most felt encouraged by their parents. 'I have a great relationship with my parents. My parents really want me to study and graduate. They want us to study and become something because they didn't do it' (Peker). 'My parents are very supportive of me and my three sisters.. my family live in Auburn and my parents are on the pension, my father was very active in the Turkish community' (Hatice). In some cases the female was the first one in their family to make it through into higher education and there were difficulties when they failed to live up to their parent's expectations. 'They (parents) really supported me and wanted me to get a good education. It was a big thing for them, I was the first in the family to go onto uni… my parents were devastated when I left uni. It was very hard at that time' (Semma). 32 While one female said she felt pressured by her parents to find work, overall in her social life she was able to do what she wanted because she was the only girl in the family. 'I don't feel any pressure from my parents because I'm the only girl in the family. My parents aren't all that strict on me. I go out and see my friends, but not everyone's like that. A few of my friends can't go out as much' (Ayshe). Being Turkish The young females were positive about their Turkish background. They also felt the role of the family was a very valuable part of their culture, even if their own family was small or they moved in with their husband's family. 'I've got no one here except my own family, the rest are in Turkey. I've only got friends that I go to, we're not that related, but we treat each other like cousins, we're that close. I don't feel alone here, because there's so many Turkish people…' (Ayshe). 'I love the culture, the festivals, the feasts (Bayram) and the family values. We stick together and everyone looks after everyone' (Semma). 'I live with my husband's family. There is one uncle and one daughter and she is married. I go to the mosque and pray. I don't see many young people going to the mosque, its mainly older people who go' (Neriman). While religion was a factor in their lives, most did not go regularly to the mosque and would not be considered devout Muslims. One female did mention that some of her young friends faced discrimination when applying for jobs, because they were more devout and showed their commitment to Islam by wearing a head scarf. 'Some of my girlfriends wear head scarves and are finding this is a barrier to getting a job. People don't want to employ you when they see you are wearing the head scarf ' (Hatice). The females were aware that young women faced more restrictions than young males because of their cultural background. But they also felt the community was changing as parents and children adapted to the much freer social life in Australia. 'I think as a woman its more difficult. Its different standards. Buts its changing slowly. Girls are going out more, but boys have the right and privilege to go out. I know some girls who aren't allowed to go out' (Semma). Also it was often easier for a female when she had other older siblings. It was usually the eldest children who received the strictest upbringing. 'For me it was different to my older sisters… it was difficult for my dad. But he slowly adapted.' (Semma) There was some concern about girls marrying early, especially while they were still at school. This was a common custom in villages in Turkey, but was less common now in Australia. 'Some girls get married really young. I'm against young marriage. I know girls who got married in Year 11 at school.' (Semma) 33 Future The young females were all keen to work and study further. They had plans for the future that took into account their experiences of the workforce since leaving school. Often over a short time they had learned to adjust their plans, and modify the type of work and study they would do in the future. Ayshe really wanted to work in the hospitality industry, but she felt that at 20 it was too late for her to study and complete the required course. She was now doing an office job at a Turkish community agency under the Work for Dole scheme and hoping to find work in an office. 'Hopefully I can find something to do in an office, because that's all I can do now .' Neriman wants to work in an office and accepts she still has to improve her English language skills and do more training. 'I want to work in an office and I need to do an office skills course. My husband works in an office… my mother-in-law works in the same factory. They can help me find a job.' Semma plans to work in administration and work her way up, she hopes to be able to do marketing, management or human resources. Peker was planning to go to Turkey and use her skills to get a job in an airline or a job in tourism. She felt she may go on to do further studies in Turkey. Hatice wants to go onto university after she finishes her TAFE course and study business management. Her dream is to go and study for an MBA at Harvard. 34 8. COMMUNITY WORKERS Interviews were carried out with Turkish community workers, welfare workers, a number of family counsellors and a local general practitioner. Views were also sought from workers in the wider community including a youth worker at a local youth centre, staff working with youth at Centrelink, and staff at a number of Job Network agencies. The view of community workers echoed some of the concerns raised by teachers in the previous section and because of their direct contact with families and some of the Turkish young people in crisis, they had a broader range of concerns. Turkish community workers There were a range of views among Turkish community workers about the extent of the unemployment problem and the main issues affecting unemployed youth in the Turkish community. Although there were no Turkish community workers specifically funded to deal with the needs of unemployed youth, most workers had regular contact with the community and felt that Turkish youth unemployment was an important issue that needed to be addressed. Some workers blamed the young people, saying that it was all their fault and said they had developed the wrong attitude towards work. One worker felt that the community did not have a big problem, she only saw a few Turkish youth who were unemployed and those that were unemployed were 'no hopers' and 'they did not want to work' (Ozan 1998). Others focussed on the problems young people were facing in finding work. These included inadequate schooling, poor language skills, mixing with the wrong peer group, parental pressure, the use of illegal drugs, and their overall economic and social disadvantage. Turkish welfare workers Yildiz Ozan, a social worker at the Turkish Welfare Association (TWA) saw only a few unemployed young people in almost a year at the centre in Auburn, because most of her clients were older Turkish born migrants (Ozan 1999). During her two days at the Auburn office, Yildiz spent most of her time helping individual clients with social security, housing and immigration problems. She also provided a range of information and referrals, as well as helping people write letters and fill out forms. She felt these services were similar to those provided by other Turkish community social workers located in other Turkish community associations. The Association also worked with Granville TAFE to offer English language class for Turkish women and provided support for the Turkish Youth Association. One initiative to help young people started in the middle of 1998. The TWA linked up with a community based Job Network agency, Job Futures in Burwood. This meant that an employment consultant from the agency visited the centre regularly to meet with or make appointments with anyone who was unemployed, including young people. The agency also ran a number of job seeking skills sessions at the TWA office for anyone who came along. One of the associations, the Australian Turkish Social & Cultural Trust, focussed its attention on helping Turkish women in the community. Although most of their work was with women aged over 24 years, the social worker there Alev Guven said that among her cases she was regularly seeing a number of young women (usually with children) suffering domestic violence. In some cases this resulted in the women having to leave their homes, ending up in a refuge, unemployed and without any family support. (Guven 1998). Guven also felt there were two distinct groups of unemployed Turkish young people in and around Auburn. One was a group of young unemployed males who were out and about on the streets, while the other was 35 young unemployed women in their late teens, who had left school were living at home and were unable to find work. The association was helping some of these young women, by offering short periods of work experience in their office. In 1999 it was able to place a number of young women as part of a local Multicultural Work for the Dole program run by Mission Employment in Auburn, and to link up with students taking Outreach courses at Granville TAFE. In the area around Toongabbie, Mr Druitt and St Mary's unemployment was also seen as a big problem among Turkish and Kurdish youth according to Dursen Guzel a social worker with the Australian Alievi Cultural Centre. He said the problem was largely hidden. Most of the young people there were living at home, many were doing part time, lowly paid, cash in hand jobs and were still being supported by their family. The drug problem was emerging, with some young males getting involved with heroin and ending up out of work. He also felt Turkish speaking youth from refugee families from Bosnia were finding it very hard to adjust and find their way into work or study (Guzel 1999). Many of the Turkish youth in the area were not doing well at school and if they did complete high school, they received a low mark on completion. He felt they left school poorly prepared to find a way into the labour market. Guzel tried to help the young people who approached the association to move into work. In some cases he was able to find work experience placements or access a course at a TAFE college. A major part of his work involved making contact with employers, finding job opportunities and helping young people put together resumes and references. He had built up good links with many local businesses and other companies across Sydney, where he had managed to find places for some Turkish unemployed youth from his area. Alievi video night series During 1996 the Alevi Association in Toongabbie ran a series of social evenings for their local Turkish speaking youth. They started by showing videos on a Tuesday evening and after a few weeks found they had more than 50 young people attending. Guzel asked his daughter, who was finishing off a university course in social work, to help focus the evenings on issues relating to unemployment. As a result she was able to work with the young people over a number of weeks and help them with information, referrals, providing assistance with resumes and job applications. Once she graduated and left for Melbourne this initiative ended (Guzel 1999). Family counsellors and doctor Another perspective was provided by Turkish family counsellors and a general practitioner. These professionals were seeing many Turkish families going through crisis, family breakdown, and generational conflict between young people and their parents. The family support worker at the Australian Turkish and Kurdish Community Services Co-operative, Sermin Oncu, said there were a lot of Turkish young people in the Auburn area who were unemployed. She felt it was a result of not receiving a good education. She saw that many unemployed youth were living at home and this was giving rise to ongoing conflict about behaviour. She found the unemployed youth she saw lacked confidence in themselves and really needed assistance with more information, more skills and training to enable them to get into the workforce. (Oncu 1999) Generally Turkish families would not come forward themselves for counselling, but ended up being referred from other agencies usually a local high school. An adolescent family counsellor and psychologist at a Green Valley community centre, David Alpak was seeing a number of young Turkish males in his practice, who were in danger of dropping out of school because of behavioural problems. He felt the problems were the result of family pressure on the young males to succeed. 36 Alpak pointed to the 'emotional manipulation by parents'. They were putting pressure on their children to succeed at school, because they, the parents, were sacrificing everything for their children, giving them all the opportunities they never had when they were young. Yet the young males were living in a culture that was much more laid back and permissive and were finding it hard to live up to parental expectations. Some young people were responding by rebelling, acting out their aggression and turning to drugs. Although most were using marijuana, some were starting to use heroin and joining the youth gangs that had moved into the Green Valley and Miller areas (Alpak 1999). The drug issue was also emerging in Auburn where the most difficult group to reach in the community were the young males who were unemployed, had left home and had got involved with drugs. Oncu was seeing families who were trying to deal with their son's drug addiction, by bringing them back home. She felt this strategy was not working and found the families were not coping. She was starting to hear of young Turkish people becoming homeless and living in the streets. At this stage, she said no one in the community had any effective strategies to deal with the drug issue (Oncu 1999). One of the few professionals to raise the issue of drug addiction among young Turkish people is a general practitioner working at a clinic in Auburn. Dr Oner says that he has tried to raise the issue through Turkish radio and the newspapers, but he felt nobody wants to know about it. He was finding increasing numbers of young Turkish people were having problems with heroin and marijuana, because it had become a fashionable thing to be involved in (Oner 1999). View from the wider community Youth worker The local youth worker at the Auburn Youth Centre, Rocky Furlong, one of only three youth workers in the local municipality, said that he was also seeing some young unemployed people in the area dropping out of the system and falling into petty crime, car stealing and drugs. He saw that they were no longer on the dole, were not counted in the unemployment statistics and generally were surviving through the support of their families and petty crime. He wasn't sure how many of these young people were Turkish, but Turkish youth made up a part of the young people in the Auburn area. The centre was seeing quite a few school aged Turkish young people aged between 12 and 18, who attended the drop-in and vacation programs offered. But he said they saw very few older unemployed Turkish youth attending the centre (Furlong 1999). Centrelink Among the government agencies in the Auburn and Granville area, Turkish young people were not seen as a group that were different from the rest in the local community. According to one of the youth officers at Centrelink Auburn, there was no obvious differences among the youth from non-English speaking backgrounds. All of them faced the same major problems. These included English language difficulties, a lack of work experience, no idea of how to get into the workforce and what work to do, and a lack of self esteem and motivation. The problems were more severe for those who had left school early, before completing their HSC. If these young people were to find work, they needed to rely on their informal networks (Norman 1999). Whereas the Youth Contact officer at Centrelink in Auburn, Kim Bastian, emphasised that one of the main problems he saw was that many young people in the area, particularly NESB youth, were leaving school without any idea about the labour market. He felt they needed a realistic idea of the world of work, with good information about their options for work and study. 37 He was concerned about early school leavers in particular and wanted to reach them with information before they left school. One of the strategies he was planning to introduce this year, involved arranging school visits to better inform students about the labour market in the area. He acknowledged that one of the difficulties of the new Job Network system is that some youth get lost between Centrelink and the four Job Network agencies located in Auburn, because some agencies had a huge case load to manage (Bastian 1999). Job Network Agencies The view from one of the main Job Network agencies in Auburn was slightly different and focussed more on the attitudes of youth towards work. Stan Hurley, Manager of the Mission Employment in Auburn agreed that Turkish youth shared the difficulties that all other non-English speaking background youth in the area faced. While he said that language difficulties, hidden cultural prejudice and negative attitudes towards young people were factors affecting the young unemployed, he found that it was the apathy and lack of motivation shown by young people that was a key factor. Hurley said that there were jobs available for young people in the area, but that youth lacked the required skills or had the wrong attitude towards work. He felt that young people had grown up in a culture of high unemployment and were just not interested in working. Mission Employment had been operating in Auburn for just over a year and had seen over 3,000 job seekers, registered over 500 employers, and filled 525 jobs out of more than 1,000 vacancies they had registered (Hurley 1999). He found that that some young people were alienated, while others were interested in girls, going to discos, cars, drugs and gambling. For them work was not a high priority. The agency employed two Turkish speaking staff and a number of Muslims but saw few 'religious youth', because they managed to find their own jobs within the community. The agency was operating five Work for the Dole schemes and was struggling to fill the places available. One of these was a Multicultural Work experience program that was able to provide placements of up to 6 months in a number of Turkish community organisations. A case manager at another of the main job agencies in Auburn, Nolan Emeli said they were not seeing any Turkish young people, instead they saw many older Turkish unemployed people (Emeli 1999). An employment consultant at Job Futures, Rosemary Chick, who regularly visited the Turkish Welfare Association in Auburn said she had only come across a few Turkish young people in her visits. Those she saw needed help in acquiring basic skills (including computer skills), job seeking skills, and study habits if they were to go onto TAFE, college courses or find a job (Chick 1999). The agency offered places in its Job Placement Employment Training (JPET) program which was funded by DETYA to reach disadvantaged youth, especially youth at risk of homelessness, refugees, ex-offenders or those facing multiple barriers to gaining employment, education or training. Job Futures had worked with a few Turkish youth from Lidcombe and Homebush who had taken part in the program after leaving school early. By offering JPET courses the agency had been able to help the young people find a way back into further study and work (Lancuba 1998). 38 9. FINDINGS The findings of this study are based on an analysis of the data collected from a number of different perspectives. They include information gathered from a literature review, demographic data, interviews or focus group discussions with Turkish speaking high school students, Turkish young people aged 15-24, Turkish teachers and community workers, as well as workers in both government and community organisations. This enables a number of findings to be drawn about issues affecting Turkish young people as they move from school into work and further study. They include issues related to high school, information and career advice, pathways, further education, finding work, unemployment, family support, the importance of Turkish culture and religion, and Turkish community organisations. High school With a significant number of younger Turkish speaking people, an estimated 3,000 school students aged 5- 15 years making their way through the school system in Sydney, there is growing concern about a proportion of Turkish speaking youth and their progress through high school. This is framed by the overall economic and social disadvantage facing some Turkish families, especially those where parents have now become unemployment as a result of industry restructuring. And the pressure of high expectations by parents of their children. One aspect specific to Turkish speaking young people are the difficulties they face in mastering the English language at school. Other aspects include student attitudes and motivation and the nature of support received at home in doing homework and reading. The impact for males is that increasing numbers of boys are facing discipline problems, being suspended or expelled from high school and end up dropping out of school early. There is also an indication that only a small proportion of boys are achieving good results at school, even if they do complete high school. While for girls although a higher proportion are completing high school, many are obtaining relatively poor results and making ill-informed subject choices at school. Information and career advice There is evidence that some Turkish young people are either not receiving appropriate advice or they are unable to make use of the career advice they are receiving at school. This is affecting their ability to make effective choices when they leave school. Also Turkish speaking young people, like other NESB youth, find it difficult to obtain information about the real state of the labour market when they enter it. They have little knowledge of the impact of structural change on the youth labour market and its effect on their own job prospects in their area. Most appear to lack an awareness of their current economic, social and political environment. It is also evident that these Turkish young people are missing out on information and informal links into other informal job networks outside their community that their parents could access, if they were working. Pathways Among the estimated 2.500 Turkish young people in Sydney aged 15-24 years, there is evidence that they are following various pathways once they leave school, but that their choices are limited. While some move into further study or work, there is another group that move among a number of activities. They go through 39 short periods of work, unemployment, and study (usually short courses in TAFE or special programs like JPET). All the time they are looking to find a way into a better job, a career, something more permanent. While some are able to access either a Youth Allowance while they are studying or a Newstart allowance when they are unemployed, most end up relying on their family for income support. There is little evidence that Turkish youth have moved significantly into illegal activities, although a number of older Turkish males are being incarcerated for engaging in criminal activities. Further education Turkish speaking young people demonstrate a strong commitment and desire to move into further education and training when they leave school. Their main aspiration remains to complete a university education. But a larger proportion is now choosing to study at a TAFE college, rather than attend a university. The latest figures show that among 15-24 year olds in NSW, 832 enrolled in TAFE course and only 285 in a university in Sydney in 1998. Again there is evidence that males are finding it harder than females to continue their education after they leave school, even though the males say they would like to do further study. There is still little interest shown by the young people to take on an apprenticeship or traineeship. Although one of the males interviewed did express an interest after he had tried a number of other options and found himself unemployed. Finding work A proportion of Turkish young people is finding part-time work while they are still at school. Although continuing to work becomes more difficult, once they leave school and turn 18 years old. The most common ways Turkish young people do find work is through their family and friends. Some are also relying on their own efforts. Young females seem to try harder and use a number of strategies including going to Centrelink, job network agencies, private employment agencies, looking in the newspapers, as well as making direct approaches to employers. Only a few young people, more females than males, are seeking out assistance from Turkish community workers. Unemployment The work force data shows that in 1996, Turkish young people in Sydney had higher than average unemployment rates among youth aged 15-24. While the current figures are not available, the view from the community is that there are groups of Turkish young people who are continuing to face high relative rates of unemployment. They are located in the areas where most Turkish people live – especially in western and south-western Sydney. The experiences of both young males and females, especially 15-19 year olds, suggest many encounter unemployment for periods of time, as they make the transition from school. Among males the groups most at risk of unemployment include early school leavers aged 15-19, youth with disabilities and a growing number of drug users. While among females they include high school leavers with low HSC marks, and women with children forced to move out of home as a result of domestic violence. Family support There is growing evidence that the effect of government policies has been to remove some young people from the employment and income support system, and push them back onto their own or their family's resources. 40 Only a small proportion of Turkish youth end up using income support from the government and most are relying on support provided by their families. Some take on whatever part-time work they can find and this may involve informal cash in hand work. Although there are a proportion of families in crisis, for most Turkish young people there is a strong connection to their immediate family. They also place great value on their extended family and friends in the Turkish community. It is common for both males and females to be living at home into their youth and to continue to receive support even if they marry and move out of home. Turkish culture and religion The strength of Turkish culture and religion within families is acknowledged by most of the young people. Most seemed to be managing to deal with the pressure of parental expectations and the standards of behaviour required of males and females. Although a proportion are in crisis and are being seen by Turkish family counsellors. The notion of gendered worlds and differing standards of behaviour and control applied to males and females, while being modified over time, still remain major factors in the lives of younger Turkish youth, especially 15-19 year olds. Significantly the Turkish culture has not prevented many young women from completing school and moving into further study and work. Instead it appears to have nurtured them more effectively. But the effect of parental pressure emerges as a factor in some of the generational conflicts and struggle being experienced by young males. For some Turkish youth religion plays a major role in their lives and their commitment to Islam impacts on their options for work. For devout young women who wear head scarves, it can be difficult to find work, and can require them to work in Muslim run businesses, catering to Muslim customers. Turkish community organisations While Turkish community organisations are not funded to employ dedicated youth workers, a number are trying to assist individual young unemployed people who approach their associations. Valuable assistance is being provided by some community workers, who help with resumes, references and referrals for work. Others have been able to provide work experience and Work for Dole placements to help a number of young people gain valuable work experience. Where an association establishes formal links with a Job Network agency, a small number of young people are able to connect with targeted support programs, make links to further training, and sometimes move into employment. However the increase in numbers of alienated school aged youth, early school leavers and the emergence of a drug problem is placing increased strains on already stretched Turkish community organisations. 41 10. RECOMMENDATIONS The recommendations in this report include a proposal that seeks to address the structural economic and political dimensions facing young people, as well as specific proposals that arise from particular aspects highlighted from the research. As indicated earlier in this report, many of the factors impacting on Turkish young people are similar to those facing young people living in Sydney's west and south western suburbs. There are also common issues shared with other young people of non-English speaking backgrounds. However the estimated 3,000 school students aged 5-15 and the 2,500 aged 15-24 Turkish speaking young people in Sydney taken together make up a significant cultural group. The continuing strength and relevance of the Turkish family and their culture to many of these Turkish speaking youth, combined with evident higher relative rates of unemployment they face, provide sufficient reasons for proposing strategies to assist and support Turkish young people as a particular group within the community. The recommendations focus on a range of actions that can be taken to involve Turkish young people and Turkish community workers with the wider community. It can assist them to link up with schools, TAFE, universities, employment services, and other relevant community organisations. With the aim of working with Turkish young people to make their transition from school into work or further study more effective. Educational resources for youth workers and school teachers Develop a set of educational resources that give voice to the broad range of experiences of Turkish speaking youth in Sydney, place their experiences within a broader economic and political context, and draw together information on the labour market, training and further study options. The educational resources would enable youth workers and teachers to work more effectively with young people and support experiential teaching and learning with Turkish young people. These resources would be developed with a group of Turkish young people, working with an educator and relevant community workers from both the Turkish community and the local community sector. School students Organise a series of career workshops aimed at Turkish speaking students still in high school to provide information about the current state of the job market in their areas. The initiative could be arranged with the assistance of Youth Contact officers at Centrelink and either the Turkish Teachers Association or the Turkish Australian Social Workers Interagency. Organise a school visits program by young Turkish graduates from TAFE colleges and university to visit schools with high enrolments of Turkish speaking young people. The aim is to share real work and study experiences with high school students to help shape future career and educational choices. The program could be hosted by the Turkish Teachers Association and funded through the Department of Education and Training. Employment Turkish welfare and community organisations approach the federal Department of Education Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) to fund a dedicated Turkish speaking youth employment officer in areas of high youth unemployment in Sydney to assist Turkish youth to better access employment and training services. Turkish welfare agencies establish a formal link with at least one community based job network agency in their area that can work with unemployed youth to access a range of courses, training providers and appropriate work placements. 42 The federal government's Department of Employment Workplace Relations and Small Business (DEWRSB) require Job Network providers to provide targeted support to NESB young people, including Turkish speaking youth in areas of high youth unemployment. Turkish welfare organisations seek funding through the Drug Summit to employ a street based youth worker to reach drug taking Turkish youth in Auburn, Mt Druitt and Liverpool/Miller areas. This would require the recruitment of a worker with demonstrated knowledge/experience of working with young drug users. Turkish welfare organisations establish links with relevant disability services in their area to assist disabled Turkish young people gain access to services. Information campaign The Turkish program on SBS radio arrange a number of Open youth forums on Turkish radio to raise awareness and provide information about issues related to youth unemployment within the Turkish community. Funding and input could be sought from relevant federal and state government agencies like Centrelink and DEWRSB, as well as Job Network providers, Group Training Companies, and TAFE NSW. Turkish community newspapers in Sydney assist with publicity for the Open youth forums, and run stories and information collected through the youth forums as featured items in their publications. Turkish welfare organisations seek funding to run a series of information sessions that bring together young people, parents, drug counsellors and health professionals to address issues around drug abuse. This would include outlining strategies to parents on how to help their drug dependent children. Information - Web site project Turkish Teachers association seek funding for the development of a specific Turkish youth web site, that provides on-line access to a range of information on employment and further study. The site could include information on local Job Network providers, TAFE and university course & campus contacts, and how to access traineeships and apprenticeships. The project could be developed and supported in collaboration with a western Sydney community based organisation such as Westir. 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INTERVIEWS David Alpak, Adolescent & Family Counsellor, The Valley Centre, Green Valley, 13/7/99 Sahin Arslan, Turkish Teachers Committee, 14/8/99 Kim Bastian, Youth Contact officer, Centrelink, Auburn, 12/8/99 Sevgi Cakir, Auburn Community Health Centre, 20/5/99 Rosemary Chick, Employment Consultant, Job Futures Burwood, 12/8 /99 Jeff Egan, Training and Placement Officer, Mission Employment, Granville, 3/6/99 Nolan Emeli, Case Manager, IPC, Auburn, 3/12/98 Hakan Ergun, Secretary, Turkish Youth Association, 12/11/98 Rocky Furlong, Youth Worker, Auburn Youth Centre, 13/8/99 Sherban Gunesh, Teacher, Auburn Girls High School, 15/6/99 Alev Guven, Social worker, Australian Turkish Social & Cultural Trust, 27/11/98 and 15/7/99 Dursen Guzel, Social worker, Australian Alievi Cultural Centre, 3/5/99 Rita Harb, Community Project Officer, Auburn Council, 13/11/98 Stan Hurley, Manager, Mission Employment, Auburn, 13/8/99 Angela Lancuba, Youth Services Co-ordinator, Job Futures Burwood, 9/11/98 Susan Norman, Youth Service, Centrelink, Auburn, 2/11/98 Sermin Oncu, Family support worker, Australian Turkish & Kurdish Community Services Co-operative, 19/8/99 Dr Yasar Oner, General Practitioner, Auburn, 20/8/99 Yildiz Ozan, Social worker, Turkish Welfare Association, 9/9/98 and 3/4/99 Raefat Soryal, HELP Co-ordinator, Granville Multicultural Centre, 31/5/99 Sandra Trevathan, Minda, Juvenile Justice Centre, 20/5/99 Irfan Yigit, Counsellor, Granville Boys High School, 3/6/99 46 47 48